Pond in Canadian Winter.

[Carpe_Diem]

Good day everyone.

My pond is aprox. 9 feet by 6 feet by 3 feet deep. I live in Kingston Ontario which is right on Lake Ontario. Temperatures are have been pretty cold, sitting around -3 degrees centigrade right now but it has been as cold as -14 degrees centigrade.

I am using a Laguna pond de-icer to keep a hole in the pond but right now my entire pond is open. I decided not to run my waterfall and fountain so all I have working right now is the de-icer with a very small pump for water agitation.

I am experiencing a lot of water loss as it is down aprox. 1.5 feet right now. It has nothing to do with the pipes or waterfall as I said they are not running.

My question is, what do other ponders do in the winter. Do they leave there systems i.e. Waterfall, pumps fountains etc.. going in the winter? Or do they just keep a hole in the pond until the spring thaw? I am currently adding water to my pond to bring it back up which I did not have to do to my previous pond I had in North Bay, Ontario Canada.

Any help would be appreciated.

Paul

 

[Carpe_Diem]

Anyone else live in the Ontario region that is experiencing water loss and having to add water during the winter?

 

[DrDave]

Did it ever freeze enough to cause a split in the liner?

 

[Carpe_Diem]

Hi Dave,

Yes, it was frozen at one point except for the area the de-icer was floating.

I guess it's possible it split, it just bugs me if it had as the liner is the thickest liner on the market and I only put the pond in this spring??

Thanks for the reply.

Paul

 

[DrCase]

What about any pipes still in the water could you of had some sort of siphon ?
1 1/2 ft of water loss is a lot

 

[addy1]

Has it gotten to a stopping point? Right now mine is frozen pretty solid and not showing any water loss.

 

[Carpe_Diem]

What about any pipes still in the water could you of had some sort of siphon ?
1 1/2 ft of water loss is a lot

Hi Dr Case,

I don't believe it is from any pipes/hoses in my setup. I use a laguna submersible powerflo max filter with submersible pump with all the hosing in the pond. The only hose I have that is somewhat out of the water is the one leading to the back of the waterfall weir and my weir is inset over the water so any spillage would go back into the pond. The link below roughly shows my setup.

http://www.azponds.com/laguna_set_up.htm

 

[DrCase]

A siphon would of been easy to deal with .
With your water back to liquid , give it some time and see if it drops back down , when it stops dropping mark the liner and check for a tear

 

[jrladd]

I am in Wisconsin and my pond is currently experiencing very similar losses. I am currently down about 12-15 inches, last filled it up about 5 days ago. I also have no pipes running outside of the pond. I have been filling it up every 3-5 days but the water keeps disappearing. I have no pipes that could be leaking outside of the pond, as they are all disconnected. Only possibilities are a liner leak or evaporation. I have been trying to wait it out to see if it will stop at a point so I could tell that it is leaking, but it does not seem to be stopping. My liner is new this year, so it would be weird for it to have a leak. I just started loosing water when the temp and wind dropped below 20F...

Any other cold weather ponders ever experience strange winter water losses?

 

[DrDave]

Freeze dried???:fish:

 

[shakaho]

Cold winter air is really dry. Put in some wind and liquid water can disappear fast.

 

[jrladd]

I talked to my local meteorologist ( I was doing some work at his house) and I told him my situation. He said I could definitely be losing that amount of water to evaporation if the water was being heated. He compared it to lake effect snow. Basically cold dry air passes over relatively warm water, and sucks it up like a sponge.

 

[jrladd]

Carpe, what size de-icer are you using? I was using a 1500 watt one, which kept my whole pond ice free, but I think that was also the cause of my possible water evaporation.

I have since turned off the heater, but am still experiencing water loss. I think it is either a leak near the very bottom of the liner, or evaporation.

If it is evaporating, here is my explanation. While I was running my heater, the water was being heated to about 42F, at that time air temps were 0F - 10F with constant winds. This is when the water loss started. About 2 weeks later I turned off the heater, but at this point I had to fill the pond because it was too low. The water from the tap added to the already 42F water in the pond probably took a while to balance out temperature wise, and in the process, I have still been losing water to evaporation. Basically I am waiting for things to balance themselves out again. Tonight we are getting snow, and temps are supposed to be between 28F- 32F all week. I am using this time to fill the pond again and let nature take its course.

Or its a damn leak....

 

[Carpe_Diem]

jrladd,

Thank you very much for the info. I just finished speaking with my Father on Skype. He has a large pond in Colorado Springs, CO and has confirmed what your meteorologist told you about evaporation.

Your explanation in your last post seems bang on. Your figures nearly match my conditions to a tee.

Thank you to everyone for helping me out.

Paul

 

[addy1]

We watched steam rise from the ocean, on our cruise, that sounds like it is your issue.
Cold air, warm water = steam = evaporation = water loss...............

Mine has a nice ice blanket.