Adding water in spring?

[frogbath]

My 1200 gallon or so pond ran all winter, freezing and thawing several times. It has now been fully thawed for about a week and a half and I was a little surprised to see how much the water level has dropped.

During the winter and after the first major snow melt the water level in the pond was pretty high. After only a week of "warm" sunny days it seemed like the pond dropped 2 or maybe 3 inches.

I'm adding water to it today and will monitor the level closely but I'm curious if this is a normal spring chore others do when the first few warm dry days hit.

 

[addy1]

Once mine is melted, I loose a lot of water during this time. The warm pond water is sucked out by the cold dry air and winds we are having. It has dropped by up to 4 inches in a few days. Now that I turned the bog on, flowing water over a big surface it is dropping even more. I add water every few days. Adding some more today, run the hose for a hour plus to refill. I know it is not a leak, the level stayed decent until I turned the pump back on.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Yup! Warm, sunny & dry, especially if it's a bit windy, causes evaporation to increase no matter what time of year. We've been having a string of really nice Spring weather lately & I had to toss the hose in to add a bit of water a few days ago.

 

[addy1]

LOL I loss so much the first 24 hours the pump was on, I went down and checked for weeping, low liner, pipe break..........nothing
Except 17f during the night wind howling warmish pond water flowing (44f)

Pond is now 48 we have had a few real sunny warmer than normal days.

 

[frogbath]

Thanks yall! I was hoping that was all it was.

 

[brokensword]

My 1200 gallon or so pond ran all winter, freezing and thawing several times. It has now been fully thawed for about a week and a half and I was a little surprised to see how much the water level has dropped.

During the winter and after the first major snow melt the water level in the pond was pretty high. After only a week of "warm" sunny days it seemed like the pond dropped 2 or maybe 3 inches.

I'm adding water to it today and will monitor the level closely but I'm curious if this is a normal spring chore others do when the first few warm dry days hit.

when you add, do it very slowly so as not to change the current water temp too quickly (unless source temp = pond temp!) as this will only add stress to your fish.

 

[mrsclem]

Make sure to use a dechlorinator if necessary

 

[frogbath]

Fortunately no chlorine in my tap water, makes my indoor tank maintenance easy too. Good tips though!

 

[addy1]

I ran the hose for over 2 hours, slow flow from the deck ponds down to the big pond, a flushing of the deck ponds and stream, stream ponds. Added 2 inches of water to the hot tub pond.

Pulled out a ton of parrots feather, even though frozen in ice it is all growing. Needed to decrease the amount in two of the ponds.

 

[bagsmom]

Oh yes. We have had really sunny, breezy days with "high fire danger" warnings. Even though it hasn't been hot yet, the air is very dry. I've noticed the pond water evaporating a lot! I added two inches of water.

 

[frogbath]

I still can't believe how much I'm having to top this pond up. I'm hoping things stabilize more on the evap front when warmer weather comes otherwise I might have to look into continuous fill options. Fall wasn't like this, now I'm having to top it off at least once a week.

But like yall have said it has been sunny, dry, windy high fire danger kinda weather so I guess it's normal.

 

[addy1]

I might have to look into continuous fill options.

I set up a lawn watering system, a controller , pvc pipe to the pond , I set the water to come on for xx amount a time, less in the spring more in the summer. We are on a well so I did not want a float valve system that would trigger our pump a lot.

 

[frogbath]

That's a good idea... I have an old watering timer I could use and everything. Wish I thought of it before we graded all the land around the pond but if I have to trench it won't be that long a run and it won't have to go very deep since I won't need it in winter. Thanks for the ideas as always addy!

 

[Lisak1]

We purchased an autofill when we were building our pond, and when we were done there it was... still in the box. Forgot all about it! Ended up selling it as a retrofit just wasn't in the cards. I do regret not installing it as it would make the pond 100% self sustaining for weeks at a time.

 

[frogbath]

I'm getting so paranoid! The last few days I've lost almost 3 inches of water overall. I can't wait for the humidity to rise so I can stop thinking about this. If it weren't for my chicken water bucket evaporating like crazy too I'd be beside myself. As it is, I'm just preoccupied with it.