Adding water in spring?

Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
13,157
Reaction score
13,511
Location
Northern IL
Showcase(s):
1
Things definitely can settle over the winter, but you're also right about the "free pond fill ups" that happen when you get lots of snow or rain. When it goes dry you're suddenly aware of how much water you can lose without that help from nature!
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
79
Reaction score
70
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
5B
Country
United States
My community has all small municipal services for water and power and we live on the very outside edge of the water system. So even though they do put a really low level of sodium hypochlorite in the system at the well by the time it gets out to us it's almost imperceptible. I have some friends that live in the center of town near the wells and was shocked at how much you can tell the difference between their water and ours. So while it's probably not true to say "no chlorine" it's certainly reduced from what you'd get in most larger city or regional water systems and hasn't caused any issues for my tanks, pond, or fermentation projects we do.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
79
Reaction score
70
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
5B
Country
United States
GBBUD good call on being more scientific with the observations! It does seem at this point the bulk of the water loss is solved and I'm thrilled for that. The main issue in my pond design is that if the water falls below the intake bay edge my pump goes dry and every couple of days we were getting really close. It would lose a lot at first then slowly the rest to a "stable level" that was too low for my liking. Makes sense now that I've seen the wicking stuff.

Phew what a ride!
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,515
Reaction score
29,362
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Phew what a ride!
I have had low edge issues like just search and search and find the issue. I need to turn my stream on but first I need to walk the stream to fix deer damage, junk accumulation in the stream bed etc. A bit behind on getting it running but all is ok.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2021
Messages
88
Reaction score
24
Country
United States
How do you top off your ponds in cold weather and ensure you're not changing the water temp drastically? I have a small pond which I plan to run a deicer, breather, bubble and pond breather as well as covering with clear plastic. All to ensure my shallow 125 gal. pond doesn't freeze but it may alter the temperature of the pond water from that of what comes out of the hose?
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
79
Reaction score
70
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
5B
Country
United States
You might want to start a new thread about this, but I solve the temperature adjustment problem by not adding water in really cold weather. Since the pond you're talking about is small I'd suggest using a bucket and running water from the bathtub or getting attachments to run a hose from your sink inside so you can get the temperature mix right if you're concerned.

Alternatively only ad a little bit of water at a time. Are you finding you have to top off this fall? I haven't had to add any water since spring ended (and I fixed my leeching issue).
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2021
Messages
88
Reaction score
24
Country
United States
We over flow the pond for one min. every other hour due to evaporation and leeching from the waterfall. This is also how we deal with our water changes. Husband says it wont evaporate this winter but I'm concerned it will. I think there's a liner leak.
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
4,684
Reaction score
3,762
Hardiness Zone
5b
Country
United States
We over flow the pond for one min. every other hour due to evaporation and leeching from the waterfall. This is also how we deal with our water changes. Husband says it wont evaporate this winter but I'm concerned it will. I think there's a liner leak.
you'll find with a winter tent, if you make it more or less air tight, you'll not lose water. There's no dry, windy air to help evaporation out. As a matter of fact, when the sun does shine, you'll probably see droplets on the inside as the humidity is caught and held. And the idea of the tent is to also keep water temps up from what the winter temp typically is.

Now, if you have a leak, that should be found and fixed before winter hits.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
79
Reaction score
70
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
5B
Country
United States
You should do what I did in this thread and painstakingly check all your liner edges. The amount of seep leakage that was happening in our pond was kind of hard to believe and very noticeable once I corrected the liner issues.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
31,101
Messages
512,377
Members
13,343
Latest member
Jessied1478

Latest Threads

Top