garden pond moulds

we have a liner in our pond but i don't know what happens but it always losses water,even in the winter. we had a leak once before and my son gave us his old swimming pool liner but that is loosing water now too. My husband says we may be loosing water where it trickles down the steps to the pond so he is going to look at that, we also have another part where the water trickles down into a stream to the pond so that might be leaking from the back too, but we have thought of purchase a garden pool mould instead, my son's neighbour has one to sell and it looks alright, has anyone else had a problem with leaks with a liner, and what do you think of moulds?

 

try this

 

Hi WG. I think it`s true to say that most leaks come from water courses. I had a `stream` leading into my pond and had nothing but trouble with it. Probably a good place to look for your leak. Cheers...freddy.

 

thanks wiseold owl water-garden freddy, i got the mould quicker then i thought, the guy we bought it off is okay my son knows him, it looks a good one, and only 3 three years old. all being well it will go in at the weekend, but i said to my husband lets try it out without the stream and the waterfull fall first to see what happens, so i will let you know.
thanks again for replying.

 

I will not use moulds for a variety of reasons but hope yours works.

 

ok pro gard thanks for that, just hope it's alright will have to wait and see.
another thing that bugs me. Because we have the full sun on the pond, it was a real pea souper last year, we have put some plants to hang over the edge and some plants inside the pool for shade and tried that stuff what you put into the water to clear it, (can't remember the name) and also put barley straw in all to no avail, would love the water to look clear. have fish in and i know they contribute to the mess.
i think sometimes it's a lot of trouble to have a pond, but i do like it.

 

Hi, weekend gardener, putting in various plants is called balancing the pond. The idea is that the plants will remove the nutriants that the algae live on, they are also supposed to absorb nutriants from the "fish waste"

It does work, however it doesn't often work in small ponds. Most that tell you to do this will say have several water liliies etc (i dont know much about plant names)The idea is the lilies leaves cover the water surface reducing the available surface area to the sun.

However who wants a pond covered in lilies and other plants? ( i do mean covered, not just a few)

The only 100% g'teed way round it is to have a pump, biological filter and a UV.

Anyone that says otherwise is bending the truth.

More information about pond filters is here

 

I have two ponds,both moulded. I have used liners, but had leaks every time,so gave up!
I did discover why they leaked after this..
The bloke two doors away built one with a liner,including a stream, and cemented slabs and natural stone around it...then along came a Heron and punctured it while stabbing the Gold fish in there...
He was so upset having to dig it all out that he lined the hole with builders plastic sheeting,about six layers :D then dropped in a mould...and then added a liner too :D And having seen the weld mesh I had to put over mine to keep kids safe,he did the same. I hadn't the heart to explain that the mesh keeps Herons off anyway and the extra materials were unecessary! :rolleyes:
And a tip I was given when I asked at the Aquatic Centre how to keep my pond clear was...Tile it,and call it a 'Swimming Pool'! :D

 

I have a pond which I dug in 1989, its got a butyl liner.
The liner is trapped under paving half way round and the rest is bounded by a low ragstone wall with a small stream/waterfall feature.
It loses water in the summer, evaporation being part of it, also starlings, the amount of water they can shift when bathing in the upper pool is unbelievable.
There is also some loss due to seepage in the water feature.
Last summer I noticed a small crack in the liner around the top edge, so its breaking down a bit, but its lasted 19yrs, replacing it will be a big upheaval though, so I'm putting it off.

As to the clear water thing, its always had green water in spring, something I take for granted, it usually goes around mid summer and becomes pretty clear.
I have done away with waterlillies as they are too big for the pond really, so I just leave it to the wildlife and the fish these days.

 

Hi, thanks to pete, paladin and water garden for the usful information. Well we had to put the mould in today as it was in the way, and my husband is back to work tomorrow, but oh what a cold day to do it in.

We found out that the mould is not so wide as our other pond, the mould is 8ft by 4ft wide so we will have to fill the side in when we can. My husband said he will use sand and soil to fill in. We've had nothing but trouble all day, and then it rained but we had to stick with it because the fish were in a plastic dustbin so we couldnt'leave them another day or they would have died.

The mound is higher than the pool too, that means that the stream is lower so that now that has to be built up and then we will have to have a fresh liner in the stream so is hangs down the mould inside the pond where it joins it. But i must say it does look nice although it's not finished yet. The mould has a shelve all the way round to put plants on. Regarding the water lillies, water gardener. I have wanted these but have always begrudged paying �£20 for them, until i saw them at Aldi's for �£4.99 and they come with their own basket and gravel too! what a bargain, so i got two.

We have ultra violet lights but because my husband said we had a leak on the steps where the water runs down he hadn't put that pump on for a while, which had the ultra violet lights in the filter box. Paladin, i never thought that a heron would puncture a hole in a liner, but I'm sure it will be ok for the stream?
I think you have done very well with your liner Pete you have been lucky for it to last that long.
WG

 

What a busy weekend you've had! I built up the sides of my short stream using 6"x2" timber under the lining and capped the top with flat stones then filled the stream with sand which filters the water. The flow is quite gentle so the filtration works well.

 

Picture?

 

The Header waterfall..

the stream running to the pond,under the step bridge mid picture,and through the sand /shingle bed

The planting covers the raised sides and the water too.I don't want the Kiddies to see it incase they get curious!

 

hmm, a camoflage waterfall, novel idea