New 3/4 acre pond built and finished in Jan. Only means of water is from watershed. It filled up completely in February. Now one month later it is only about 25% full. We've had very little rain maybe 1/2 inch since it was full. Could the loss of water be from evaporation, a leak, or it just being a new pond? Bottom is 90% red clay.

Sounds like a leak. Was the clay compacted with a roller, or just piled up with a bulldozer? In all clay, I would give it a year to settle, and go from there. If there are no sand or gravel veins to leak through, it might eventually settle and stop leaking, but don't count on it too much.

A roller was not used. The only compaction it got was from the excavator that was used to dig the pond.

Oops. What is the rest of the pond dirt like? When you say bottom, how far up the sides do you consider the "bottom"?

It's pretty much all red clay 80% or so atleast.

Give teehjaeh57 a private message. He has a solution for you.

Ok I just sent the message

Ok just sent message thanks

If you are down to 25% from full in Jan you have a major leak, you will get some seapage a lot of times in a new pond till the clay seals itself if not compacted enough, but you have much more then a compaction problem, you should be able to see a decent stream of water surfacing somewhere.
How big is your BOW? it would take a pretty decent stream to lower a pond that much. evaporation shouldn't be a huge factor this time of yr.

No stream of water that I could see anywhere, I honestly think most of it was seepage being a new pond and the fact that we have only had about 1/2 in of rain over the last month at my place. I do think another factor is it wasn't compacted very good when built. Pretty discouraging to go from full to only 25% water. I'm hoping I get answers soon. What is BOW?

Body of water.

If you haven't done so already, I would put in a measuring stake so you can see how much you drop everyday and see if it starts getting better.

If I lost that much tht fast I would say leak for sure. Maybe since you havnt had water in it very long it's not to late. My thoughts is drain it. Let it dry out completely if possible and maybe get a sheepsfoot roller to pack it. Not much worse than a dry pond to look at. If you cant het all the way to the bottom then try other means. Now I'm no expert at all just my ideas so if TJ or anyone else disagrees ya better listen to them lol. If its really mudding or already silted some it might not even be possible with just a roller.

Yeah even the little bit of water that's left is going down a few inches each day. It's pretty muddy right now so not sure it can be packed at the moment.

If you pump it out it might dry out faster than you think it being a new pond.

Or get in touch with TJ, maybe throw Soil Floc in the water now and up about 3' from the water. Compact everything else with the sheepsfoot.

I'm messaging TJ today, thanks for your input anyone has any other ideas please let me know

I may have misunderstood the original post,, was this pond full in Feb of 2021 or was it a yr ago, 2020? that would make a huge difference in gpm of water exiting the pond.
Secondly if you are way down to 25% capacity and still losing inches per day you may have come close to a gravel seam below your pond that may be draining your pond out and surfacing some distance behind the pond if surfacing at all, which is an even bigger problem then lack of compaction, that would show lack of coring under the dam. Good Luck! keep us posted.

I'm on it!

Was finished building Jan 2021, Full Feb 2021, and currently down to 25% full.