Water loss in Inches Instead of Gallons
When someone calls saying that their system is losing water, I always start with the same thing. I ask them to turn off their pump, let the water settle back in from the waterfall/stream, and fill the pond to the normal level. Keep the pump off and remeasure the water level 24 hours later. I ask them to let me know how many inches of water it went down in that 24 hours.
Many callers tell me how many gallons of water they lost. Now don’t get me wrong, I care about gallons however, in a pond water loss situation, it is more accurate to look at INCHES!
How many inches of water did the system lose in 24 hours?
A Simple Example
A great example or using inches versus gallons of water loss – compare a pond that is 40 x 30 feet that has lost 778 gallons of water in 1 week. Compare that to an 8 x 10 pond that has lost 778 gallons of water in one week. The smaller pond would have lost every drop of water, where as the large pond really only lost water to evaporation.
When given information in gallons
When given gallons lost, I have no idea if that is evaporation or not without figuring out the size of the pond and returning to INCHES! I have to work the math backwards to find out if it was evaporation or not. But with inches lost in a week I can quickly figure out if water loss is evaporation or an actual leak. That is why if you call us we ask about inches lost. It doesn’t matter if a pond is large or small (unless you are the one paying the water bill!) because all ponds lose the same amount of water per square inch of surface area.
A 8 x 10 feet pond loses 3 inches of water in one week.
40 x 30 feet pond loses 3 inches of water in one week. While the gallons of water loss are vastly different, we know immediately that this is just evaporation in both ponds!
Ready to go through the process to find the leak in your pond? Find out How To Measure Water Loss in your Pond! Want to know how many gallons you have in your pond and how many fish your pond can sustain? Check out our Gallons Calculator.
Kristi's Tips
If you have to add more than 3 inches of water to your pond, watch the water level closely to make sure it isn’t more than evaporation.
Remember that a sudden influx of LOTS of string algae is a sign of water loss. Turn off the autofill if you have one and figure out if the pond is losing more water than it should be. If you have a waterfall with lots of splash or a really long stream, the system will lose a bit more water. Maybe 5 to 6 inches a week just from evaporation.
* This blog was NOT written by AI. This was written by me. I am not a professional writer, I am a pond person. Therefore, if you see a typo, please forgive me!
*No koi were harmed in the making of this content.