Pond evaporation| How much is normal?
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Quick video explaining how much evaporation is normal in the average sized backyard garden pond.
To learn more about building and maintaining a successful backyard fish pond visit ozponds.com/
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only person to think my pond has a leak! Thank you for sharing!
😂 every year when the weather warms up I have one. Then the weather cools down and my leak disappears 😉
Thanks so much for the video. I built a pond recently by 90% watching your videos and this has got to be the biggest factor that I underestimated, evaporation! Porous rocks creating surface area for water to wick away, relatively small pond, pond plants and waterfall. Glad I'm not going crazy thinking its a small leak
Every new pond owner has a leak, especially in warm weather 😉
Thank you for the great videos about ponds! I also noticed that the driftwood in my pond also contributes to water evaporation, it constantly absorbs water but at the same time the sun dries it up leading to greater loss of water.
This is true 👍
Great videos! Thank you! In south Florida I see much more evaporation in the winter. Even though it’s much cooler, we have maybe 1 rain day a month. In the summer, it rains every other day at least an hour or so. Water levels are great in the summer over here. But then again, south Florida plays by a different set of rules from the rest of the US 😂👍
Very good point. Tropical climates usually have a wet and dry season. 👍
Just rewatched this to check whether my losses over last few weeks were reasonable. All good I think - combination of high levels of plants needing water plus normal evaporation. My pond is very densely planted now, but the bog hasn’t got there yet. Thanks for info again Kevin.
Yeap don’t worry Dave I’m topping all mine up every other day at the moment 👍
Thank you, very beneficial
This was really good info - thanks
Thanks John. 👍
I now know how much wind can make a difference. My pond doubled its evaporation during the last storm.
Yes, wind makes a big difference.
good sound advice many thanks.
Thanks 😊
very helpful thank you 🙏🏼
Hi Kev, six weeks ago I have built a pond with geotextile underneath and liner on top. the other day i added a built- in bog filter that is incorporated into a river, i used a pond liner for the bog filter instead of a barrel but this time i sandwiched the pond liner in between geotextile fabric to protect the liner when the filter is filled with rocks. i noticed that i am losing a small amount of water each day (Probably drops 10 to 15mm in this 250 liter bog filter). not sure if i have a leak but the geotextile liner that is on top of the pod liner does extend out of the river and is tucked under the rocks that is sitting on the bank of the river. the geotextile liner is always wet and i am wondering if i am losing water because the liner is always wet from soaking up the water in the river then the air just evaporates it as the geotextile extends up onto the bank of the river and the cycle just continues. I'm wondering if this could be the problem because the pond i built six weeks ago that does not have geotextile on top of the liner is fine, sorry for the long story but i would like to get your thoughts on this before i pull this bog filter out and change it to a barrel for water tightness or possibly i could cut the geotextile back so it doesn't extend out of the water for the air to evaporate it. cheers in advance
Sounds like it’s the geo wicking the water out.
Thank you! It’s been really hot for the last few days and I was a starting to get paranoid like I always do at the start of summer that there’s a leak somewhere
No worries Nicola. I always do the exact same thing 😂
@@Ozponds also, it’s great to hear such useful information in an Australian accent! Although it’s just as beautiful and functional, my 100% DIY pond and waterfall is nothing like those American ponds full of stupidly expensive filters, traps, skimmers, uv lights, and what not, and when you consider our completely different weather, flora and fauna here in Australia, more than a few of the pond videos on UA-cam are of little relevance to my own experience of - oh dear, I don’t know what you call it, “pond building”? “Pondscaping”? “Pondering”., no I think I like “ponding” the best😉, my own experience of ponding. But your videos are both super helpful AND relevant, so thanks for taking the time to make them.
Thank you for the kind words 😊
how much water does your dream pond loses in one day ? Maybe spring day . I noticed mine loses more in spring....that's when i freak out more and start looking for evaporation rates. I stopped my 2 pumps and aeration for 24 hours and i've lost about 1.2 cm of a 40-44 square meters and 40 cubic liters of water. I'm yet to measure that lost water when i refill it a bit later but it has to be arround 400-500 liters. I have about 30% plants of that area and gravel all arround and geotextile on top of the liner and i assume that wicks out like crazy
I also haven’t actually measured it. My issue is summer, this year we went almost a month without any rain. I was topping up every 2-3 days. It would probably drop an inch or more (2.5cm) over that time. Now it’s raining again and my worry about leaks is over 😂.
Thk u for sharing
Hello sir. Again a very important video. Sir how we should plant water lily and lotus and other plants in a pond. I like all your tips and learn and follow them for my pond. Sir please make a video on planting in a pond. Thank you.
Will do 👍
every morning my pond has dropped.. is the morning few hours of winter sun enough to make my liner pond evaporate so much? I top it up and it stays the same level all day, but in the morning has dropped.. maybe 2 to 4cm every morning.. maybe a 600gallon pond..
No that sounds like too much. Something else is going on.
thanks for explaining that i will stop panicing now🤣
Been loosing an inch or more a day it's sooooooo hot out 🥵 we cnt go out until it's almost dark and the pond has warmed up to over 90° F. And at its deepest is 7ft. It's been in the hundreds for weeks plus humidity. Tomorrow is going to be over 104°f plus humidity. Nice to take a dip in morning and evenings. And nice if I have to get something done outside and it's just too hot take a dip or cool your feet. Working on getting a movable canopy tarp to put over part of it so we can get outside maybe a few hrs sooner and have some extra shade. If it is under 100° no problem going out for a swim mid day. But over 100 is toooooooo hot
I’m jealous. I miss swimming.
@@Ozponds our you in your cold season now?
Oh yeah. Its cold!
@@Ozponds today will be our hottest day this week. I'm glad we built the pond because with our weather and heat wave in the Midwest U.S. I have a feeling we will have multiple days of 115°f ..... I grew up in a different climate and has taken me a decade getting use to the heat. But where I grew up 2,000 miles away we Waited all year just for summer and was always between 80-90 in gorgeous forests, lakes, rivers and beaches. Here you can't hardly go outside in summer, so I wanted to build something that brought part of my home and childhood here. All our lakes and rivers are clay here in Oklahoma so water isn't clear its muddy and you can't see in it and that's nothing like water in Pacific Northwest of Oregon where I grew up. So why not build it... thankfully we have homeschooled for a few years and take breaks when weather is mild and try to get outside when we can. But the pond will help with that. I want to be outdoors... plus an affordable way to cool off and have fun without all the running around to waterparks and expenses just to survive Oklahoma summers.
Sounds like you’ve built a wonderful lifestyle in a less than ideal climate 👍
Hello, best information on this subject so far, thank you.
Now (of course) a question, I just finished my pond a week or so ago and I'm trying to figure how much evaporation is normal so to have a benchmark for the future.
On warm, sunny days my pond lost consistently about 50 liters per day (pond is about 3500 liters, with a bog filter, a small stream and a negative edge intake bay, moved by a 4500l/h pump). Today it was very windy, temperature in the 20°-25° range. I checked the level and had to check three times because I couldn't believe it, it lost well over 120 liters!!
Can the wind alone make such a huge difference in your experience?
Thanks again, keep up with your great videos!
Wind certainly makes a huge impact on evaporation, especially in rock and gravel ponds where the water is pushed up onto the warm rocks it drys and more is pushed up ect.. 120 litres on that pond at those temps even with wind seems a bit excessive. You mentioned the pond is new. I always think it’s a good idea to leave the liner exposed on the edges for 1 month. This is just to make sure that there isn’t a low edge and you are losing water there. I’ve made this mistake so many times! I just want it to look finished and nice. Let us know how you go 👍
Hello, thank you for your reply. Though I was hoping for something more reassuring :-).
I guess I will have to go around it and remove part of the rockworks then.
I will let you know how it goes.
Cheers
Just started the day by measuring the total area of pond+bog+intake bay+stream, which is slightly more than 8 m².
I start to think that those figures could actually be normal, 50 liters per day would be around 0.6 cm of water drop from the whole surface.
Not that I don't like the idea of uncovering the whole edge of the liner (lier me), but then with the windy day those 120 liters loss (which I measured better and am pretty sure are slightly less, around 108 liters) would be an evaporation of 1.35 cm, just a bit higher than your 0.5/1.0 cm range.
I am not trying to convince you or myself, just obviously trying to avoid undoing all the work on the edges... pretty frustrating.
Do you still think it's an excessive loss with these more accurate data I provided? The fact is that all the pebbles, rocks and gravel I used in the pond, edges, filter are tuff rock, very very porous.
I am not even sure of what answer I'd prefer 🤣, cause if you still think is excessive I will have to start the big undoing, otherwise I will have to accept an average daily refill of well over 100 liters during the summer...
I'm glad I have a water harvesting system in place.
Apologies for the long read. Have a great day and thank you again for your very informative videos and comments.
By the way, I live in central Italy, not far from Rome. Just in case you visit, let me know, you are invited for lunch or dinner. In the post-pandemic world of course
That’s very kind Mauro. I’m a little concerned even with the adjusted numbers. Highly porous rock could certainly be a factor. You could just accept it for this season and wait until the weather cools and see if it stabilises. Another option is try a leak test. I have a video on finding a pond leak. You can run that test without removing the rock and gravel on the edges. If the water loss slows right down once the pond level drops, you can almost guarantee it’s a low edge. Or a problem in the stream/ waterfall area.
@@Ozponds no worries, I'd be delighted to actually meet in person.
I am definitely going to take both your advices, I will run the test in the next days when the weather improves, now it's raining again. AND I am going to postpone the liner edge inspection unless something major comes out as a result of the leak test.
Ciao
Your channel is a great inspiration thank you! I have a question about salinity and evaporation. So by the continuous loss of water isn't, the salinity building up in the pond ?
I guess that would be worth considering in hot dry climates. It hasn’t been an issue for me personally. We get 1m of rain a year.
@@Ozponds Thanks! I will keep it in mind we get 400-450mm so maybe it will be a problem,I believe there are solutions (change some water periodically,save rainwater etc).
My pond is still losing water around 3-4 inches a week here, and the average temperature is in a range of 50-70 Fahrenheit.
Is that evaporation or a leak?
I'm not sure. I was worried about the bog liner, but I used a thick 40mm Firestone liner and pad for the bog filter, but it is losing more water since I put in the bog filter. Maybe my seam might be leaking where it is going into the pond.
😞 it sounds that way.
The liner is thick with some soft dirt and padded on the bottom so I find it difficult to believe the liner has a leak. I will need to pull things up and check the seam where it flows into the pond. Does that seem excessive for being evaporation with these temperatures?
The liner very rarely gets a puncture (provided it’s good quality) it would 99% of the time be the seam. Where I live I wouldn’t expect to lose that much water during winter.