where is the water going?

[chrisusvi]

Hello,

Something bizarre is happening to the water level in my small pond. I have a rough 300 gallon pond/fish tank that within the last 3 or 4 months will drop from about an 1" to 7" of water overnight or daytime. The strange thing is when it happened the first time, it dropped overnight about 5". I thought I had a crack somewhere in the tank. I filled it up, checked it the next morning and the water level didn't drop at all. It would stay that way for weeks. The amount of water loss would be random each time it dropped. Then one day the level drops drastically again. I fill it up and it stays full. Then one randomly selected day it will do it again. Very strange.

Any theories or suggestions for these bizarre water level drops?

 

[DrCase]

On a small pond a frog in the right spot can divert a lot of water the wrong way

 

[Shdwdrgn]

My first pond was comprised of two pre-fab liners, one with a small waterfall spout that fed into the second pond. If any little thing blocked the waterfall, I could lose 50 gallons of water without so much as a wet spot on the ground. I finally figured out that when there was an overflow, all of the water was running into the ground underneath the liners.

Another consideration is waterfalls and wind. I can easily lose several inches of water overnight when we get a bad wind blow through, as gusts will literally blow the water from the falls back up and over the top.

I guess my thinking on this would be that if you have a constant water loss, there is probably a leak somewhere. But in your case, with the periodic and sudden losses, it is more likely due to the flow of water being blocked somewhere by some object. This can be as simple as leaves falling in the filter and blocking the exit spouts, or it can be more subtle like plants hanging over the edge into the water and leeching the water out of the pond.

Fill out your use info so we have some idea where you are located, throw up some pictures of your setup and we may be able to spot some likely trouble spots, and try to think of any patterns to those times when you lose water - such as perhaps having an overnight freeze.

 

[adavisus]

Could be as basic as some rodent nibbled through and occasionally the leak blocks with a bit of algae or debris blocking it

Regards, andy

 

[chrisusvi]

I guess I didn't say what the pond is from. The pond is made from 4" concrete block with a layer of plaster, painted with 2 coats of waterproof paint. There is no liner inside the pond.
The wind theory could be feasable because it has been windy periodically, however, the isn't in the direct flow of the wind. Wild deer was another theory I thought of, but there weren't any prints or dropping around the pond either.

I live on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. If it ever got freezing cold in the tropics, the world would come to an end.

I hope that helped.

 

[HARO]

A thirsty camel or elephant????? :cheerful: John

 

[fishin4cars]

How much water is 7" of loss, a pond 6' across would be quite different from a pond that is 4' across but much deeper. Wind is the first thing that comes to mind as the wind would blow a spitter or small fountain water pretty easily. the second thing that comes to mind is a animal of some typr drinking, I know my dogs can drop one of my water tub planters down quite quickly.

 

[sissy]

welcome to the pond forum and i even had an elephant ear leaf divert water ,every time the wind would blow it it would go down to the waters edge and let water out .Haro lol there are no camels there and think elephants are limited to the elephant ear plant . :razz: