So heres my dilema. My pond has been loosing water over the last month or so, and up until now I just shrugged it off to be the hot sun evaporating it and would just top it off every once in a while. Well the sun hasn't been so hot lately and I'm loosing more water than I care to. Theres two things it can be, either a hole in the liner, or one of the water lines to the pump, filter or waterfall are leaking. So after looking at everything, I find one of the fittings going into my filter box is leaking. Not a lot, but enough to make the ground underneath it wet and stay wet all day. So heres my question...how much water do you think I'm loosing if it drips one drop of water every 2 seconds? I've calculated the water I lost over the last 2 and a half weeks and its approx. 50 gallons. So how many "drops" are in a gallon? Then I can see if thats my leak or if I have bigger fish to fry (no pun intended, I would never fry my Koi)


BREW

 

well there is something like 2900 drops in a cup....go from there i dont feel like doin the calculations

it goes cup---pint---quart---gallon......

 

about 46080 drops per gallon, according to foodreference.com. In two and a half weeks (18d) you would have about 777,600 drops which is about 16.88 gallons. Your water loss due to evaporation is less than 1/2 gallon assuming your pool is 4'x4'. Hope this helps. BTW dont ask how I know this.

 

Well its actually 4x8x3'deep average, since it has some shape to it. Its also possible that the hose thats leaking could be expanding and contracting now since its been cold at night and hot during the day, this could cause the leak to be a little more than 2 drops a second, at different times thoroughout the day and night. Therefore, I guess it is quit possible that in a three weeks time, I could have lost 30 to 40 gallons. My calculation of the 50 gal loss was a little on the high side.

I hope this is so, I really dont want to put a new liner in this thing. Thats gonna be one hell of a job.


BREW

P.S. Squeakers, how DO you know this??

 

Is a drop, a drop? Is it assumed that all drops are the same? I should research this, as it could come in handy in my line of work. Seriously.

Hope you don't have to do the liner!

 

With a little research and my Bach Degrees in Chemistry and Biology plus my current PhD in Biochemistry. The teach us to think, along with that comes a BUNCH of useless knowledge. Wittom is somewhat right, you should be able to average the drop size throughout the day. So a drop is a drop. The important thing to keep in mind that water is evaporating at all times. Unless the water/air barrier is less than 32 deg F. Anytime the water is greater than the melting temp (32) it will be evaporating until it reaches the boiling point (212). When it will turn to steam. Any other science related question? Using your current pool size the evaporation rate is about .12 gallons in 18d.

 

And that my friends...Is why I love this place


Wittom:

Although I have no means of measuring the size of each "drop" my eyes tell me they all seem to be the same size.


BREW

 

Catch several on a plate of glass, Probably need 500-750 drops to get a base sample, then measure each ones diameter with a micrometer, average the drops out, then calculate the volume of the average droplet.
Then average your daily temperature averages for those 17 days. Find out what the displacment of a gallon of water is at that temperature.

Then devide that by 50. Then multiply your average water droplet displacment by 734400. See how close those two numbers are and that will tell you the likely hood of that being the problem.








Or tighten the hose clamp, wait 17 more days and see if you continue to loose water at the same rate.

 

Alright Squeakers here's one for you. Does a pressurized ( unopened) can of beer cool faster in the freezer than an open one. It always seems to me that if I open a can of beer and take a sip and put it back in the freezer for fast cooling the opened can always seems to cool faster tha the unopened one. Does the pressure inside the can make a difference in cooling time or is it just my imagination. R81

 

Hmmm, maybe your fish have been drinking the water. They get thirsty
too you know.

 

Brew - I bet you the water loss is because of all those 40 lb raccoons that come around at night to your pond.... they get pretty thirsty.... especially after a little koi sushi...

 

First of all the fastest way to cool beer is to place it into a bucket of ice water, then spin the can/bottle. Yes the pressure inside the can makes a difference. When things are compressed they increase the ability of the molocules to bump into one another, creating heat. Keep in mind that whn you place this beer into the freezer, only the top layer will be cooler (remember the water/air barrier), the rest of the beer will be at the same temp it was before you placed it in the freezer.

 

brewdude

after reading all the posts

they have determined that yes there is a leak

and we have some real sharp people here



but there is still a leak to deal with so get-er-done

drops equal volume shmoulume

fix the leak

...zap!

 

If you figure cycles of concentration (evaporation rate), what is left is the amount of the leak.

 

Im actually affraid of that this year. In the last 3 years, I havent had a problem, but lately my fish have been schittish and swim under cover when they see me at the edge and this morning I found one of the rocks around the edge of the pond was tipped, and almost fell into the pond..



ZAP.....My intent here was to try to prove that the small leak I have in the fitting, is indead my problem. Im sure in another few weeks, Ill have all the pumps shut down for the winter anyway. I can then deal with getting new hoses and fittings in the spring. If its a hole in the liner, well....that needs to be fixed before winter hits and Im out there messing with dormant fish, which im sure will kill them.

**fingers crossed** I really think with all the calculations done here, and now knowing that only the top layer of my beer will get cold in the freezer..its safe to say my liners not leaking and I'll just keep putting my beer in the fridge since I like the WHOLE thing to be cold, not just the top.


BREW