Evaporation rate guesses

Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
Thanks.

I can't give you an exact number of gallons but I'll share my experience just
to give you a rough idea. I am in Louisville, KY where the summer temps are
high 80's and above with high humidity. My pond is 10' X 16' and 26 inches
deep. There is a waterfall and creekbed. The creekbed measures about 5' wide by
30' long and the whole thing is in full sun.
On those weeks when we have no rain, I will lose maybe 1 inch on water in the
pond. By my caculations, that's about 100 gallons.
Donna

I have a 1400 gallon pond with about 140sf of surface area and a 5 foot
water fall. With the heat and humidity we have had the past two weeks I am
replacing about 60 gallons a day with the fall running.



"bob carwell" wrote in message
m...
Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
Thanks.

In a 150 square foot pond, a mere 1" water loss is 12.5 cubic feet of water,
or almost 95 gallons. I have a small 900 gallon pond with about 120 sq. ft
of surface area and a too-splashy waterfall cascading about 3 feet over
rocks which get wetted off to the sides. In the hot summers here in Memphis
I can lose almost 2" a week if I run the falls a lot (about 150 gallons, or
over 20 gallons/day). If I don't run the falls at all, I lose less than 1"
a week. When our power was out for almost 10 days from July 22-31 after the
bad storm here, I lost only about an inch, so that's a rate of about 7-8
gallons/day. The goldfish seemed to be totally unaffected by the stagnant
water, but the algae gained a bit on me...

70 gallon pondlet, north texas, only about 3-4 hrs of sun a day, loses
about 4 gallons a day.




On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 15:17:29 GMT, "graham"
wrote:

I have a 1400 gallon pond with about 140sf of surface area and a 5 foot
water fall. With the heat and humidity we have had the past two weeks I am
replacing about 60 gallons a day with the fall running.



"bob carwell" wrote in message
om...
Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
Thanks.

(bob carwell) wrote in message om...
Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
Thanks.

Yikes !!! Thank you all for replying with very valuable
information. Exactly what I was looking for to get me in the
ballpark, and I think I will have to consider scaling back some-
perhaps foregoing the pond with covered reservoir and collection tanks
since surface area appears to be the key or maybe if I stay with a
non-organic pond, some sort of cover on it like a swimming pool cover
during the hot days, placing it all in shade, or being satisfied with
the running water effects of the stream and waterfalls. We're coming
up on a week of 100+ degrees here in Austin. Again, very valuable
data points. Thanks !

I'm in New Braunfels, with a 700 gal pond - adding about 30 gallons a day.
Hope that is helpful.


"graham" wrote in message
. ..
I have a 1400 gallon pond with about 140sf of surface area and a 5 foot
water fall. With the heat and humidity we have had the past two weeks I am
replacing about 60 gallons a day with the fall running.



"bob carwell" wrote in message
m...
Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
Thanks.

Bob:

I'm in Austin as well and I just built my pond (4x4x2, 150 g) on top
with a smaller (8x4x3, ~400 gallons)on the bottom with about 20' of
stream/waterfalls using a 3900 gph pump. It's kind of scary how much
water evaporates, makes you think you have a leak or something,
hopefully I don't. I lose about 1/2 in. overnight and about another 1"
during the day. I do have a lot of splash though.

Is this too much? I'm still paranoid so I keep checking the overlaps
of the liner.

Nik
--
Niko
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk

If it's splash just turn off the water fall and see if that corrects the
problem. On average I'd say, without splash out, 1/4" is normal in 24
hours, ime. ~ jan

On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 15:25:10 GMT, Niko
wrote:

Bob:

I'm in Austin as well and I just built my pond (4x4x2, 150 g) on top
with a smaller (8x4x3, ~400 gallons)on the bottom with about 20' of
stream/waterfalls using a 3900 gph pump. It's kind of scary how much
water evaporates, makes you think you have a leak or something,
hopefully I don't. I lose about 1/2 in. overnight and about another 1"
during the day. I do have a lot of splash though.

Is this too much? I'm still paranoid so I keep checking the overlaps
of the liner.

Nik


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

LYNN FORRES wrote:

I thought that I'd chip in here on this. We just built a 7000 gallon pond
with two waterfalls, one that splashes a lot (but not much leaves the pond)
with an upper pond of 8x10 ft (more or less) and then a ledge waterfall to
a lower pond that is 13.5' x 14.5'. It appears that I'm losing about an
inch every 3-4 days which is about 172 gallons. If I have any leaks, I'll
never know because the main drain is a three inch pipe that is under the
four foot deep concrete main pond - I'll never see that space!

Does this rate seem reasonable? I'm in Colorado where the average relative
humidity is less than 20% and I have very little cover for the water (it is
new) and the wind is unblocked by trees.

What is the consensus for my losses?

thanks,
DLC

: I'm in New Braunfels, with a 700 gal pond - adding about 30 gallons a day.
: Hope that is helpful.


: "graham" wrote in message
: . ..
: I have a 1400 gallon pond with about 140sf of surface area and a 5 foot
: water fall. With the heat and humidity we have had the past two weeks I am
: replacing about 60 gallons a day with the fall running.
:
:
:
: "bob carwell" wrote in message
: m...
: Could somebody at least give me some very, VERY rough guesses as to on
: average how much water I might have to replace due to evaporation for
: a pond. I have seen threads and understand it is very complex with
: all sorts of equations, variables of relative humidity, amount of
: splashing, surface area, etc., etc. but I just need to get a rough
: handle on how ambitious to get. Some anecdotal real examples would be
: helpful. I'm currently looking at maybe a 10x15x2 ft. pond with
: perhaps a run of 75 ft. of water effects (mostly a small stream with a
: few little waterfalls) and a recirculating tank below. I'm in Austin,
: TX, and the water would get maybe 60 % sun during the day. I am
: clueless whether I'm looking at 10 gallons/month or 1000 or whatever..
: Thanks.
:
:



--
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* Dennis Clark www.techtoystoday.com *
* "Programming and Customizing the OOPic Microcontroller" Mcgraw-Hill 2003 *
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