equalizing water in pond and stream

[sknichols]

HI everyone, I have a question regarding my stream bed. I have a 14.5 ft stream coming from my waterfall into my pond. My pond is about 320 gallons. My question is What is normal when first starting the water in your stream I mean when I turned on the waterfall my pond level dropped by 5 inches. I know that there will be some settling of the water within the rocks of the stream but do you think this is normal for this length of stream? I added more water this morning to see if it continues to drop. I cannot see anywhere that there might be a leak. After that much water loss I would assume I would see water somewhere.

Thanks

Suzie

 

[buckry]

You mean you filled your pond with the waterfall turned off, then at some point after it was full you turned it on?

If so that's how much water is in your waterfall. 320 gallons is hardly any water at all, you're going to see huge swings in temperature and level with that. It's not a leak, but a 14 foot stream definitely has a ton of water in it. Filliing it back up was the right thing to do, you should be good to go now.

 

[sknichols]

320 isn't right sorry, just recalculated it and its about 465 gallons. Yes after I turned on the waterfall I added water, then the next morning I added more. So I should just keep adding water until it levels out? Of course with the heat in the upper 90's and low 100's I figure I'll have to add water every other day or so. Nice thing about adding water is my water is well water and not city water. So I don't have to worry too much about added chemicals.

 

[Waterbug]

It is a surprising effect. First time I saw it I was very surprised.

As Bucky says, a stream does hold water. However, there is more to it. It's not just the "settling of water within the rocks". Even if your stream was a smooth chute into the pond, and the water shot fast straight into the pond there would still be some amount of water in the chute, and the amount would stay the same.

This effect also depends on the pump size. When you first turn on the pump you don't instantly see water flowing back into the pond. After a second or so you see water slowly start over the falls, the stream slowly fills and then you see water flow out of the stream and into the pond. That whole time your pump was running full bore pumping water out of the pond. That amount of water stays in the falls/stream. One drop in, one drop out. So the larger the pump the more water will be in the stream because water flows slower thru the stream and volume increases.

Topping up the pond is the fix...but...get ready for your next surprise...after you top the pond off what happens when the pump is turned off? All that water in the stream now comes back into the pond and can overflow the pond. Start up the pump again and you have to top off again. Of course this depends on how close to the actual top you "top off".

One more surprise...evaporation. You will lose water by evaporation in the pond but also in the stream and falls. But the stream and falls will always be topped off by the pump. All evaporation loss will appear in the pond. If your neighbor's pond loses 1" per day your pond might lose 2-3" per day. That leads many people to worry they have a leak.

 

[Dzway]

(I LOVE how your waterfall spills out of the back end of the old car!)

 

[addy1]

Ditto^^^^^ that is fantastic, My pond drops about an inch every time the stream runs, if we are really hot it drops more to fill the small ponds, water collection areas in the stream that they have lost due to evaporation. When the stream turns off the big pond will rise by xx amount, as the stream and stream ponds empty back into the big pond.

 

[sknichols]

Thanks everyone, It really is quite the surprise to see it drop that far, and yes the first thing we do think of is a leak, but after everyones explanations, it makes alot of sense of how much water is in the pipe going up to the car, and how much is settling in the pools in the stream. Thanks for the reassuring.

I will post more pictures of the car later, I am going to paint so scripture and an old type logo on the doors so that they look distressed as well. I will also be adding more trailing plants to come out and over. Saw this done with an old truck on pinterest and we had this in the pasture so we decided why not!

 

[j.w]

Ha Ha that's pretty cool seeing that car as a waterfall! Very pretty stream coming to your pond too.

 

[Dzway]

I think I seen the same photo on pinterest and had to share it on facebook, I loved it! Can't wait to see more pictures!

 

[thor04]

that is pretty cool with the car. thumbs up for that one. And my buddys pondless water fall loses 8 or more inches when he fires up his pump, hes got a 3500gph pump going we call it rocket pond cause his water is moving

 

[brandonsdad02]

Love the old car set up. If you have to keep adding water after you have topped off your pond after you fired up the waterfall and stream you might look for a leak. You will lose a normal amout due to evaporation like WB said. I have to top mine off about once a week. Right now with this heat blast, I keep it as full as I can to help control the temp and to make sure the pond is at max cap. so its as deep as possible.