1. My pond is leaking
So, your pond is losing water somewhere. This is annoying but it's not the end of the world. You need to look at the situation logically. It's unlikely that the pond sprung a leak just like that - there must have been something that caused it. Identifying that cause is the first step to fixing it.
A common point at which people notice their pond is leaking, believe it or not, is just after they've built it. Perhaps this is your situation. It's quite possible that you've dug your pond in a soil that you've mistakenly believed will naturally hold the water, for example in a heavy, clay-based soil. In fact, unless it's a particularly deep pond or you're naturally near the water table, it's unlikely that your pond will hold the water naturally. Even if it does, it's not a great idea as the water level will most likely rise and fall as the water table does. In times of severe drought, this could obviously lead to your pond's water level dropping dangerously low or, in a worst case scenario, completely drying out. However much you fill it, if the water table's below the water level of your pond, the water will drain from it. You're better off with a liner.
Perhaps the above doesn't describe your situation at all. Maybe you've dug your pond, lined it, filled it with water and you find it's leaking. Well, consider yourself lucky. Yes, it's annoying, but things could be a lot worse.Your pond has not yet developed its ecosystem. By draining it you're not going to be causing any major disruption to plant or animal life. You may be tempted to leave the pond slowly leaking and top it up with water accordingly, but you're far better off fixing the problem now while you can. Yes, it's going to take a bit of time and effort, but in the long run you're going to save yourself a lot of hassle. Drain your pond completely and replace the liner. Or if that's not going to be possible, carefully examine the liner to identify the leak and apply a patch to it.
You might be in the unfortunate position where you've got a well-established pond that starts to lose water. In this situation you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. Firstly, is it something that you can live with? If it's only leaking slowly it may not be worth your while trying to undertake repairs. It may be simpler just to keep topping the pond up as and when necessary. If this isn't a possibility ask youself another question - what do you think the cause of the leak is? The water's not going to suddenly start disappearing of its own accord. If your pond is lined, then your lining has presumably developed a hole. Thin plastic linings can be easily ripped by pets - has your dog got into the pond? Has something fallen into the pond that might have torn the lining? Why do you need to ask yourself these questions? Because if you can identify the cause you've got a better chance of finding where exactly the hole is without having to empty the pond.
One trick to finding the source of the leak is to allow the pond to drain as low as it will go. Once the water level stops dropping, this means it's dropped below the location of the hole. So carefully inspect your pond liner just above the water level for a hole. Look in all the liner creases and scrub away any algae or scum to help you locate it better. Once you've found the hole, you can then buy a product to fix it, for example lining filler or waterproof pond liner tape. A quick-drying gel is sometimes a good choice.
The worst case scenario is if you've got a well-established pond and you don't know what's caused the loss of water or where the hole in the lining is. Unfortunately there's not much you can do in this situation except drain the whole lot or live with it. If you're temporarily removing fish and other creatures, make sure you keep them in the same water that you take them out of to avoid any sudden changed of temperature or contamination from other water sources. Keep the plants moist and try to carry out any repairs as quickly as possible. Once the pond is drained you may be able to patch the liner but your best bet is to replace the whole thing if possible. After all, you've gone to all the effort of draining the pond so you might as well safeguard yourself as best as possible against any future leaks by installing a good strong new lining.
Remember, before returning fish or any creatures to the newly filled pond, allow the pond water to sit for a day or two to adjust to ambient temperatures. If possible, try to reuse the water that you emptied from the pond to ensure that the wildlife is returning to as similar an environment as possible to the one they left.
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