Evaporation

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Good Evening,

The house my wife and I purchased last year has a rather large Koi pond with a long waterfall. I've had some issues but have been able to sort them out overall. The biggest issue I am finding now is how much of my water is evaporating in the heat/drought. A few weeks ago I had someone come out to top off the pond so I could run the new pump I bought.

I haven't been able to run the pump for about 2 weeks now because the water is so low. We're on a well system, and don't have enough water to be able to fill it from the hose. I have some lillys and cattails growing to try and stop some of the heat.

Any other suggestions for helping this issue? I know its been dry and there isn't much to be done in terms of rain but to prevent all my water from evaporating?
 

Mmathis

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Hello and welcome!

How big is your pond and where do you live?

I’m in Louisiana and the heat is pretty bad — evaporation is a big problem! Shade can help, as can shading plants, but keep in mind that plants drink up a lot of water

I’m concerned that you haven’t been able to run your pump for 2 weeks! Again, how big is your pond? You said it’s a koi pond, so I assume you also have fish. How are the fish doing?
 
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Yes, I have fish, they all seem to be doing well, the frogs are active too. It maybe hasn't been a full 2 weeks, but 10+ days for sure. It's about 10x10 round, with about an 8' stream/fall that is about 4' taller than the surface. I am not sure on the depth or gal count. It made it all last winter without freezing through but I went out and busted up ice 2x/day. The fish survived all winter and had babies!

Overall the fish seem to be doing well. The problem (because of the low water) is that our pump sits inside a plastic housing. The lip on the housing is about an inch higher than the water currently.

We bought the house, so I did not design the pond. I would have for sure changed the pump housing and it's set up. I can upload pics if that will be helpful.

I am in NE Ohio, so it's now LA hot, we've been lacking rain.

I never thought about the plants using up the water, but obviously it makes sense.
 

j.w

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@raw157
Yes pictures might help. How fast does the water go down? I take it that it does not go down when it's not hot? Can you very slowly allow well water to run in your pond to fill it up? I know you said you can't do it all at once but I thought if you allowed it to trickle in all the time maybe that would not run your well dry and would keep it full.
 
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Welcome @raw157 ! The amount of water that you can lose in the heat of summer can be surprising - most people automatically assume they have a leak. But heat, wind, splashing waterfalls, plants... all can contribute to the amount of water your pond loses daily. Not being able to fill from your hose would be frustrating - I like @j.w 's idea if that would work for you.
 

addy1

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I am still adding a hour of water a day to keep the pond full we are still sitting in the 90's. I also have gutter water run in so if we get rain I get free water fill for the pond.
 
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I will go take some pictures shortly. We had a solid inch of rain today which helped fill up the pond. I need about another 1/2-1" to get it filled all the way. I have considered running a downspout to it but its going to take some work, as everything runs into the back yard and there are pavers between the house and gutters, there are also many big stones around too.

I like the idea of running water for an hour or so on maybe 1/2 pressure. Just to keep it topped of once it's full .

I don't remember it running low like this last fall, but I'll have to watch it this fall when it's cool.

Going outside now to snap some pics. It's getting dark, but it should give you a general idea.
 

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