water evaporation

[sonelin]

I have an odd question about water evaporation. Yesterday was over 100° F. I think that would be 37.78 C.

When I got up today my sump box was ½ full the pump was only ½ way submerged in water most of the time it was a good 4’ below level . I think it was 7.5 gal of water per 1’ square x 1’ deep so 4’ x 8’ x .5’ x 7.5 =120 gal from sump box is gone and about 120 gal is left in it.

I am wondering if I could have had that much water evaporate in 24 hours. I have looked all over and can’t find a leak so unless a kid pulled the pump hose out of the box for 30 min or so and then put it back in. ( I doubt that) then evaporation is what I am left with.

I have been reading that you can lose ½’’ to 1½’’ inch of water per day from a pool do to evaporation and that is based on your surface area. So I could have with all parts below added up to 104’ surface area of water.

1 IBC container that is about 4’ x 5’ or so painted black with a wood lid on top.
2 rock grow beds that are about 4’ by 2 ½’ x 10’’ deep (3rd box to make it a full 4 x 8 x 10 is not in use else it would also have added evaporation surface area.)
1 raft system that is 4’ x 8’ x 10’’ deep with white Styrofoam on top.
1 sump box that is a little out of level to one corner so that the pump would be in the deepest part. Again 4’ x8’ x 10’’ deep

So my questions are

Could I have had that much evaporation in one day (120 gal)? The grow beds up top where near dumping did not have enough flow to start it so the plants had water in box so most don’t look any worse for wear. So that would be some of the 120 gal back off but < 10 gal because of all the rock taking up space in the system.

I am worried about this happening again so I was wondering about using a filter to take out the Chlorine it says it is safe for human use so I think it would be ok for fish.

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/gardenhosefilters.htm

If i do this I may also make an Automatic top off that I can hook the garden hose to.

Any thoughts? Or suggestions?

[Mean and Green]

haha yes you sure can! i lost about 4gals yesterday. But today i bumped into a pipe and broke the bulk head..soo now i gotta go buy another bulkhead Try to see if u have a leak, check everywhere.

[cedarswamp]

Plants also uptake water as they grow. I have a bin of water I use to offgas the chlorine, so I always have suitable water for top offs.

[ande]

Put a bucket of water next to your system, you can measure the exact evap.loss by observing it. KISS no gues woork

[Pugo]

sonelin
There are many people that use a top off, remember the old swamp cooler they always had a top off. I thought that would be great to use. I would think that you would experience more evaporation as the water moves through you grow-beds but it comes down to heat and humidity, If it is hot and low humidity you are going to lose a lot of water, then the plants will be taking more water in because of the heat too. If you don't use a top off then you should do it like cedarswamp have gasoff barrel to add water from to add a lot of fresh water to the system could be dangerous on many different levels.