As I used my water chi I noticed it became a little bigger, granted I didn't notice until I had been using it for almost a year. Whenever I use my chi I noticed I had to run it through my whole body before I could take it outside my body and affect my surroundings. Curtain stances also affect my chi more than others and I could use one stance fist movement and take another stance leg placement and It could affect my chi more easily or make it impossible to move without considerable force. As for how much I am affecting the water/ice around me I have no idea, As most of my time has been figuring out how my chi works so I can do what toph does but with water instead.
--2 years--
It has been two years before I was able to make my own seismic sense. When I first activated it I could only see about an arm's length away and it took a massive drain on my chi pool. After that, I practiced and finally perfected it to the best of my chi pool will allow me without draining me in seconds. What I do is I control the water in the air and it tells me where everything is in a general sense, as it only shows me where they are not what they look like. I could make it more precise but that takes too much on my chi pool to be practical everyday use.
While I was figuring out my Water sight I didn't forget to try and sense any earth with my earth chi. I was very lucky as my father tracks back small amounts of dirt home every hunting trip and I have been saving it under my clothes as a small armband. As I haven't had that much dirt or earth near me pretty much all my life my earth chi is much more precise as I've had to find smaller clumps of dirt around me and those are like a speck or two every now and then. I also have been practicing with my armband as a weapon from dagger's, throwing knives, and a small shield. The only reason that I am able to do this is because I have been infusing my earth chi into the dirt I find, and it's a very slow process, but it makes it easier to control and use.
When I discover my chi can grow that gave me the idea that I could be like a cultivator and become immortal and grow my chi pool faster and purer. It took me an entire year just to get the basic's done and to work as I can see a noticeable increase in my chi pools and they have become more vibrant in color. I had to first figure out each chi pool by themselves first before I could combine both with my mana pool as well to have that slowly grow as well. I named each of my different techniques and I also started refining some water as well with my earth band, one on each arm.