Insane water loss from bogs?

[addy1]

@Miami Al A few questions: What is the surface area of your pond? Did you measure how many inches of water drop? Or does your pond auto-fill and you are reading a meter or gauge?

@addy1 So yeah, you have at least 600 square feet of surface area, including the bog. When you said you refilled two inches of drop with 90 gallons, you were just talking about one of those ponds, right?

The main pond, the stream ponds, the deck ponds all drop on real hot days. The other 4 are on a constant feed from the big pond so they maintain their level. Which draws water from the big pond. When the deck and stream ponds pump fires up then their level is brought back to full. At times that will drop the big ponds level. Depending on how low they got. The water just goes into the main pond. At times no drop other times a big drop, low humidity high winds the level drops, hot hot hot and the plants suck out the water and evaporation etc. I am guessing as to how much water, we get 3 gallons a minute with our well pump. I put the auto water system on a timer, I change the amount of time over the summer, more in mid summer less spring and fall.

I have never worried about the amount of refill. If we get a edge leak, a critter stepped on the edge the leak it is obvious. I just dropped over a foot due to a critter, crushed down the edge of the liner on one of the small ponds. The flow is slow into them, but it sure did drop the big pond level overnight.

 

[Marck]

Thank you addy1 and Miami Al. it is good to learn about others' water loss. I'm sure mine is especially high, due to low humidity and many plants. Of course the plants do transpire, but they may also reduce direct evaporation by shading the water and soil.

 

[Miami Al]

Yes. I pulled the bucket out. No obvious leak. Going to slather some marine sealant and hope for best.

 

[Miami Al]

So bottom drain and urn are running. Virtually no water loss. There is some splash and evaporation, but in the evaporation and rain balancing out levels.

I am pretty certain that the problem is NOT in the brand new skimmer + gasket, there is no water leaking behind there.

Going to slather sealant anywhere I can reach on urns.

In the event that is is simply the plants sucking the water out because they are small and rapidly growing, I have no problem topping off from the sprinkler well a few times a day, that's a good use of water to me.

 

[addy1]

My bog is stuffed with plants I don't see that sort of water loss. Can't even walk through it right now. it is 27 feet x 4.5 feet wide. I can't see your plants sucking out that much water, but you never know.

 

[Miami Al]

My bog is stuffed with plants I don't see that sort of water loss. Can't even walk through it right now. it is 27 feet x 4.5 feet wide. I can't see your plants sucking out that much water, but you never know.

I needed to fill 2x / day with a host in my old pond. There is zero shade in our sub-tropical environment. It's freaking hot.

Florida's climate is unique.

 

[addy1]

lol we have a house down there, Hubbies parents house, now ours, down in delray beach area. I have a weather station down there, when we compare the heat humidity etc down there to here, we are a lot of times worse up here..................But other times worse down there.
My ponds are full south sun, never have shade. But micro climates can make a big difference.

Right now per my weather stations, heat index florida 108 heat index MD 104 sucks I want cool!

 

[Miami Al]

Lol - I believe you on wanting cool. But microclimates matter - I’m near the hard rock and the Indian reservation - that’s particularly swampy

It’s a shallow sunny pond right off the road - all these things can make a big difference.

thank you so much for your help. Not ruling anything out, including my drained swampland is sucking out moisture

 

[Miami Al]

Slathered the pre-filter bucket with marine sealant, I am certain when I reconnect things tomorrow nights there will be no leaks there. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll turn the bogs off, run a straight return, and verify that water loss is under control, then enable each bog one at a time.

Either shockingly thirsty plants, or a leak will be identified and plugged, and that will be the end of this.

Thank you for your help.

 

[brokensword]

Slathered the pre-filter bucket with marine sealant, I am certain when I reconnect things tomorrow nights there will be no leaks there. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll turn the bogs off, run a straight return, and verify that water loss is under control, then enable each bog one at a time.

Either shockingly thirsty plants, or a leak will be identified and plugged, and that will be the end of this.

Thank you for your help.

water is less likely to evaporate in a humid environment compared to a non-humid one. And windy dry days are the worst in that regard, so I'm with addy and don't think your plants are doing a number on your water loss. If you've turned your pump off and get no loss, then it's either plumbing or bog. If you stop feeding the bogs and let the water pour into your pond ala a hose and you still get no loss, it's not the plumbing. That leaves only the fittings at/on your bog setup. It might be interesting to put a camera on the area and see if anything unusual happens.

From the pic, is all you have is a pump in the pond with 3 hoses out, one to each urn bog? No other plumbing like drains or skimmers or whatnot? No other filters that are outside the pond? And, what is the approx gallonage of the pond? I have several pots, large ones with waterlilies and pennywort sitting on my patio and we had very hot humid days this summer; I'm only now filling (maybe 1" max) them up like every 5 days maybe more. That much waterloss sure sounds like something is leaking

 

[Miami Al]

There are two filtration system.
System 1:
1 Bottom Drain -> Prefilter 1 -> Urn - that is currently running with near zero water loss.

Therefore, I conclude the the Bottom Drain, Prefilter 1, and Urn are NOT problems.

System 2:
Skimmer -> Prefilter 2 -> 3 Bogs
When System 2 is running, there is a LOT of water loss.

A quick test of filling the bucket showed no leakage outside the water. It is now coated with marine sealant at each opening.
There is no visible leakage in the skimmer, bucket, or around the bogs. I did have leaks early on with one of them. I emptied it out, coated it with roof sealant and covered with flashing. It now does not leak.

I am going to test each piece separately.

However, in my old pond, that just had pumps into front fed spitters, I had substantial water loss. Wind, sun, etc., is real. And it's really hot hear.

I also had several times this summer I had to top off my pool a few days a week. This has been a weird summer here.

This is my first time with bogs, the plants, the rock filtration, etc., and it's brand new with plants establishing. That's why I wanted to know from people what is possible with "non leaking" side of the equation.

I know that I can lose an inch or two from evaporation. My concern was it starting to look like 6-10 inches a day. We will see as I address. Tomorrow I will reinsert this system and see if I can narrow it down.

 

[addy1]

I also had several times this summer I had to top off my pool a few days a week. This has been a weird summer here.

I top off every day. The top off only goes into the big pond. Since all the smaller ponds stay full via the pump from the big pond.

This time of year I usually decrease the amount used, well usually, so far we are still staying in the 90's, with index over 100

 

[Miami Al]

I top off every day. The top off only goes into the big pond. Since all the smaller ponds stay full via the pump from the big pond.

This time of year I usually decrease the amount used, well usually, so far we are still staying in the 90's, with index over 100

Do you use a sensor for the top off?

I am adding 2 zones to by drip driven sprinkler system (and upgrading to a Rachio 3 controller that is Homekit enabled). I ran a pipe under the driveway to fill the pond, so it's now going to go right into the filter.

If I have slow water loss of pond water into the ground by the pond, I don't really mind, it'll fertilize the plants nicely once the fish are going.

But I think I needed to add 2 inches/day in my old pond from evaporation/splash, so if the bogs increase that to 4 inches/day, that doesn't bother me at all, I just want to be adding well water.

 

[addy1]

Do you use a sensor for the top off?

lol Me I am the sensor. I keep a mild eyeball on the pond level. Early summer fill it up maybe 15 minutes a day, as the summer progresses the time is increased. I use a irrigation sensor, just set the time and it fills the pond. We are on well water also.

As fall comes I notice the pond is staying fuller, I decrease the amount of water, ie it is over full.

Winter all shut off, down time from running water.

 

[Miami Al]

lol Me I am the sensor. I keep a mild eyeball on the pond level. Early summer fill it up maybe 15 minutes a day, as the summer progresses the time is increased. I use a irrigation sensor, just set the time and it fills the pond. We are on well water also.

As fall comes I notice the pond is staying fuller, I decrease the amount of water, ie it is over full.

Winter all shut off, down time from running water.

Well I'm thrilled to be replacing my Orbit timer that required me to fight off mosquitos to deal with with a new Wifi one. I got Homekit enabled because I'm a Homekit house, but the real focus is on getting things under control.