Liner leak stopped for winter

[BrendaK]

Our pool developed a pretty significant water loss at the end of last season. It drained down enough that we couldn’t maintain the upkeep so it eventually filled with algae. We couldn’t determine just where it stopped because it filled back up to the normal level from rain. It maintained that level over winter. Now that we have opened the pool back up and vacuumed everything out I can see it is slowly losing water again. There are large “ripples” on the sloped side leading to the deep end that have extended from previous years (the initial section like this was present when we moved to this house three years ago and feels like solid ground underneath the liner in these “rippled” spots). I’m guessing this is the best place to investigate for a possible leak. My questions are a) could algae have plugged the hole where it is leaking from? b) can I drain enough of the water down to make it easier to search for a hole and not have to keep diving and holding my breath as long as I leave 18-24” of water in the shallow end? C) are these “ripples” evidence of a leak in this area?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!!

 

[Texas Splash]

So if I understand correctly, you had water loss at the end of last season but left it alone and closed. Winter rains filled the pool back up and it never lost water all winter? So now that you've opened the pool (system running) it's leaking again? If it didn't lose any water all winter, I doubt it's the liner or it would've kept leaking. Have you tried just leaving the pump off (again) for 24 hrs? I have a suspicious feeling it may have to do with your pool plumbing if it only happens when the water is moving. If not a leak on the pressure side (after the filter back towards the pool, what about water leaking out of your filter waste line?

 

[BrendaK]

I actually found a pin size hole in the liner tonight on the slanted side of the pool. Planning on getting it sealed tomorrow. Could one tiny hole like that drain out quite a bit of water? I’m hoping we aren’t dealing with several but I’ll soon find out once we patch it if it continues to lose water

 

[1Sammy]

I'm with Texas Splash on this one, problem is not in the liner alone.

 

[BrendaK]

I'm with Texas Splash on this one, problem is not in the liner alone.

Actually I’m happy to report that it was! We ended up finding the actual slit in the liner that was causing our pool to leak! It was in an area that we didn’t even suspect. Once we patched that up we haven’t had any water loss issues!! Thank you so much for your time replying to my post!

 

[Texas Splash]

That's a decent-sized tear you found. Odd that you only seemed to notice the leak when the sysetm was running, but glad you found it. Now you can focus on more important things........