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I would start by calculating a reasonable range of evaporation amounts for your set-up and compare to the amount actually being lost.
I found this calculator - it's in imperial, but should be easy enough to work through.
http://willowridgegardencenter.com/how-much-water-does-a-pond-lose-....
If it's close, then it's evaporation, if not, then there's a leak. If evaporation, the calculator would be a usefull tool to take the customer through to convince them of that case.
I'm not an expert, but I notice that the waterfalls and header pond have an area that exceeds the surface area of the lower pond by around 5/1. So lets say the whole surface area is around 22 sq.m and lost 10mm a day through evapouration - about normal at this time of year. As your measurement is taken from an area of only 3.6sq m., a 50mm water loss measured from this small area would seem a normal evapouration rate.
when the pump is switched off dos one pond drop more than the others
is water getting splashed out on the waterfalls
could it be when the pump is switched off the water runs into the bottom pond and overflows
water leakage on ponds is a difficult one to solve
Hi Andrew - water features! To establish whether you have a leak in the 3 ponds, choose a cloudy day, fill them up and turn the pump off for 24 hours. There should be no evaporation, so any reduction in water levels will suggest a leak. It's difficult to work out if the streams are losing. Evaporation can be quite high this time of year, so your customer needs to allow for the cost of this. Good luck and keep us informed.
Best wishes
Steve
Another factor to take into account here is loss due to wind - there are a couple of good size waterfalls here which means on a windy day, or even just a breezy day with gusts, quite a bit of the water could be thrown out of the system. Depends on how sheltered the area is of course, and I'm not sure how you would calculate this, but its definitely something to mention to the client, it will make a difference.
I have used UV dye - you can get it for detecting leaks. Good way to track where water is going.
It's a good idea, where possible, to fit an autofill that keeps the pond topped up.