Alrighty team I have an inquiry for yall.
I live in Houston Tx and have a reasonably large pond, 5 years old. It has a planted bog (5'x5') a split waterfall, pond is 15'x9' and 3' deep, and I also have a rock fountain for the birds. The pond is also heavily planted with various water loving plants. I have provided some images below for a visual.
The question... In yall's experience over the years what level of water drop should I expect to see on a daily basis. in 80F 80% humidity weather. This has been the average weather for the past month in Houston Texas. During the winter the pond looses maybe 1/2" a week and I can go months without having to top it off with the garden hose. Once we get too March however if we don't get any reasonable rain in a given week I am outside every 5-6 days giving a top off. I estimate that I loose approximately 1/4" of water daily.
I built the entire project myself and have had issues with the waterfall before. Simply due to some ammeter design errors. I have always assumed that this lead to part of the water loss, which I have been dealing with for the past 2-3 years. Well during my spare quarantine time I have disassembled the edges of the waterfall and rebuilt and sealed to provide conformation that there is now absolutely no leaking around the waterfall. The dry ground around these edges the past week has the proof of this.
This leads me to believe that it is in fact a combination of increased evaporation and plants drinking up the water for growth sustainability. So, could the plants really be causing such a large body of water to drop 1/4" per day in the warmer weather?
I have shut off the fountain to see if that helps, which its impact was negligible. I have inspected the entire parameter of the pond for wet areas at the liner and fixed some lower spots but have seen now issues. I have inspected the bog area with no visual leaks. The only remaining factor is the pluming which has 3 coupling connections outside of the pond burred in the ground that could be suspect to leaks. But again no overly wet areas of ground are observed here.
So that is my question. Those of you with strongly planted ponds, do you see this amount of water loss?
Thanks,
I live in Houston Tx and have a reasonably large pond, 5 years old. It has a planted bog (5'x5') a split waterfall, pond is 15'x9' and 3' deep, and I also have a rock fountain for the birds. The pond is also heavily planted with various water loving plants. I have provided some images below for a visual.
The question... In yall's experience over the years what level of water drop should I expect to see on a daily basis. in 80F 80% humidity weather. This has been the average weather for the past month in Houston Texas. During the winter the pond looses maybe 1/2" a week and I can go months without having to top it off with the garden hose. Once we get too March however if we don't get any reasonable rain in a given week I am outside every 5-6 days giving a top off. I estimate that I loose approximately 1/4" of water daily.
I built the entire project myself and have had issues with the waterfall before. Simply due to some ammeter design errors. I have always assumed that this lead to part of the water loss, which I have been dealing with for the past 2-3 years. Well during my spare quarantine time I have disassembled the edges of the waterfall and rebuilt and sealed to provide conformation that there is now absolutely no leaking around the waterfall. The dry ground around these edges the past week has the proof of this.
This leads me to believe that it is in fact a combination of increased evaporation and plants drinking up the water for growth sustainability. So, could the plants really be causing such a large body of water to drop 1/4" per day in the warmer weather?
I have shut off the fountain to see if that helps, which its impact was negligible. I have inspected the entire parameter of the pond for wet areas at the liner and fixed some lower spots but have seen now issues. I have inspected the bog area with no visual leaks. The only remaining factor is the pluming which has 3 coupling connections outside of the pond burred in the ground that could be suspect to leaks. But again no overly wet areas of ground are observed here.
So that is my question. Those of you with strongly planted ponds, do you see this amount of water loss?
Thanks,