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Pond liner problem

geoffbookergeoffbooker Posts: 3
in Problem solving
I have a butyl pond liner. It is about 20 years old. I am replacing it now as it is leaking. There are quite a lot of small holes in the side walls and it looks like something is eating into the liner. There is a green alge where thr holes are. Looks like worms. 
Any ideas what has caused this? 

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Can't help you with what might be causing it @geoffbooker, but my reply will push your query further up and someone might be able to assist. 
    It seems quite unusual though. Do you have any photos? That may help with an ID and with further advice. Perhaps sharper stones/gravel have penetrated it from the outside? An algae wouldn't cause holes by itself.

    While butyl is generally long lasting, like anything else there are different qualities, and it might be that it's a cheaper type, and has simply come to the end of it's life.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I have a pond with a butyl liner I put in around 1990 and some years later had exactly the same problem as you have.
    Lots of ragged holes about where the water line is.
    It turned out to be mice (or possibly their larger cousins) had been nibbling it.
    I re-lined the pond and a few years later the same thing happened again!

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I was wondering if the problem was around the water line ... could it just be that with the fluctuation of water levels that area gets more sunlight and therefore begins to degrade more quickly?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WonkyWombleWonkyWomble Posts: 4,541
    I had the same issue at the waters edge line in the shallow end.  Bathing birds had been nibbling at it,  probably trying to eat my tadpoles! Being my father's cowboy builder daughter,  I patched it up with waterproof silicone which had worked so far,  I don't want to discourage the birds as its there for them too.
  • geoffbookergeoffbooker Posts: 3
    Thanks Wonky, the holes are well below the water line. I have counted at least thirty.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    That is a lot of holes.  My guess would be roots piercing the liner.  I certainly had that problem but not to anything like the extent shown here.
  • geoffbookergeoffbooker Posts: 3
    KT53 said:
    That is a lot of holes.  My guess would be roots piercing the liner.  I certainly had that problem but not to anything like the extent shown here.
    I don't think it's roots there are holes where there are no big plants. The liner has the felt typ protection behind it as well. Ive used that to line pond planters and roots hardly penetrate that. There is a tree root under the bottom of the pond but that hasn't done anything, just shows as a long bump across the bottom.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Herons' beaks?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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