Adding water in spring?

[BKHpondcritters]

My water level is pretty low right now, too. It's been an entire week long string of very warm, breezy, and DRY (humidity levels super low) weather. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, though, so I'm holding off on topping it up with the hose.

When I find myself wondering if water loss is just 'normal' evaporation or a leak, what I do is use the hose to fill it up completely very late in the day, then check it again first thing in the morning. If it loses significant water overnight, then I start investigating to find where it's leaking from. Usually, though, it's still all full & then I can relax.

 

[addy1]

The way I see it, the pond totally full all winter, still full with turn on. Then warm windy dry water drops don't even think about it. If no rain add water

 

[poconojoe]

This probably doesn't exactly pertain to this post.

I left my bog running all winter. Yesterday I pulled the pump out to clean it. It had a lot of debris and blanket algae covering the intake holes. My pump has a bunch of holes on both sides for the intake.

After cleaning it, the water volume returning from the bog to the pond increased dramatically and the water level of the bog itself also increased.

This increase of bog volume lowered the pond water by a couple inches. That additional bog water had to come from somewhere!

I just figured I'd mention this observation.

 

[frogbath]

That is an interesting observation poconojoe! I'm trying the fill it up later in the day move today. It does seem like it has lost almost a quarter of an inch even in the last couple hours of daylight but I'm holding out hope till morning. I did fill it way up tonight so it's possible there are some folds or something that cause it to "leak" when the water is way high but not at a slightly lower level.

It's now dark and I've taken note of where the water is at so we'll see what the morning brings!

 

[frogbath]

Ok so, definitely lost at least an inch or an inch and a half overall. It's windy this morning and I wasn't out there right at sunrise but it does seem like I might have some kind of leak given that volume of loss....

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Hmmm..... Losing an inch or more overnight would have me looking for where the water was escaping from. Check edges for wet spots & also look in 'splash' zones.

 

[frogbath]

The water was up to that circled area of the rock last night at 9pm and by 730am this is where it's at. It is windy so IDK maybe gotta test again on a calm day

 

[Lisak1]

Yeah, I'd start checking edges. Most "leaks" turn out to be folds where water is wicking or low edges where water is escaping. Check all around the pond first, looking for wet spots. Then check your waterfall edges - a shifting rock can push an edge too low. Next stop is your plumbing - check for leaks along the line at at any connections. If you suspect the plumbing or waterfall, turn everything off for 24 hours. If you have still lost water with the pump off, then you need to check the pond itself.

Just take some comfort from the fact that an actual "leak" (aka hole or tear in your liner) is far less common than most people would assume. If you used 45 mil EPDM that stuff is tough to tear or rip.

 

[frogbath]

Think I found it, this side of the bog is tiiiight on liner and instead of being curled up against a rock this spot was folded under.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Think I found it, this side of the bog is tiiiight on liner and instead of being curled up against a rock this spot was folded under.

Yup! That looks like it could be your problem spot. Hopefully once it's pulled up a bit your excessive water loss will stop & you won't have to keep worrying & looking further.

 

[frogbath]

I found one other fold that was wicking next to the intake bay. Funny enough it's right next to that rock I was using to gauge water loss :-D

I filled it back up and checked again and I'd say the water loss if it's happening at all is minimal. I'm going to keep an eye again after tonight! Fingers crossed.

 

[poconojoe]

Keeping our fingers crossed. Let us know how you make out.

 

[frogbath]

I think there's still a small leak happening some where but the water loss is noticeably less this morning. I'm going to do another evening test as it's humid and not very windy today.

The constant refilling has definitely helped track down the wicking edges! It's really interesting to me that this problem is "new". It's either due to lots of rain and snow in the fall/winter keeping the pond regularly refilled or maybe there's just some settling that has happened and made the wicking worse than it was at the end of last year. I know due to all the evap issues I've definitely been "overfilling it" to try and collect data which probably has contributed to. Still trying to get it dialed in for where my ideal water line is I guess.

Thank you all for your support and good ideas!

 

[GBBUDD]

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

I don't know of any tap water that does not have chlorine or cloramine that's added maybe very small private water depts might be able to get away without them

 

[GBBUDD]

Record date and time . Time should be the same time every day. Record temp and humidity. How windy or sunny etc start a history.. And how much the water dropped.in 12 or 24 hrs