Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Pond Water Disappearing

My son had an ornamental pond with a waterfall built for me for Mothers Day. I love it & have added 10 goldfish that are all thriving & a have a baby bullfrog that just showed up. Also got a test kit to check the PH and added live plants. I clean the main pump filters every few days.

The problem is that since I added a separate pump for the waterfall (Pond Boss Waterfall Pump 2300 GPH & it kicks butt) because the pump outfit we had was only producing a wimpy waterfall, the water level drops really fast. I'm having to add water every day & the stuff to dechlorinate & remove chloramine which isn't cheap.

As you can see in the video, the waterfall is splashing quite a bit but it doesn't seem like it's enough to account for half the water in the pond disappearing every day. It's in the 90s here so I'm sure there's some evaporation but surely not that much. I can't find any signs of a leak in the liner either. Any ideas where the water could be going? Maybe you can't see the video. I've tried but must not be doing it right.

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You will want to keep an eye on that. Maybe put them in a cooler with a bubbler during the test. Or, at least check on them every few hours to make sure they don't start piping at the surface due to low DO levels. If the non-waterfall pump does not make any splashing, but just moves water around...leaving that one on would not make much difference.

How big are the fish and how many gallons of water are in the pond?

Consider putting a rain barrel out to catch water from the gutter downspouts. You would not have to de-chlorinate that!

You will have no problems with oxygen with the pumps off.

I would guess the waterfalls have a leak behind them, when the water volume is high, water will back up the stones. Any small leak will amount to quite a lot of water. I highly doubt 1/2 that volume of water is evaporation per day unless the water temp was well over 90F.

This is one of the reasons I don't have a waterfall in my garden pond, I am on a well and cannot keep topping things off due to leaks. Leaks are inevitable with running water features.

Your garden pond is very nice...Makes me want one.

The splashing of the water fall will contribute a lot to evaporation. The surrounding rocks are getting wet and are warm. Most of the water that hits the rocks may be evaporating. This speeds up the water loss.

This is what I'd do...turn off the fountain pump and the other pump for a day (maybe two). Put a five gallon bucket of water next to the pond (no lid) and mark the levels of the water in both the pond and the bucket. Loss due to evaporation should be very close to the same in both. If the bucket loses a 1/2" of water, so should the garden pond...for example. If the pond loses a lot more without the pumps going, then it's probably leaking. A rain event would nullify the test and depending on temperature and humidity, it may take a couple days to see measurable amounts of water loss.