Are aquablox needed for a Natural Swimming Pond?

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Hi all

Looking at creating a 20x40x6 Natural swimming pond and was wondering if aquablox are needed in the bog/wetlands that will spill into the pond from above through a waterfall?
 
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If so how good would milk crates work?
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Jhn

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They aren’t necessary, but I wouldnt build a pond swimming or otherwise without a bog/wetlands filter. I would use the milk crates you have access to, as they will work fine as a replacement for aquablox, can always find culvert pipe on the cheap for a centipede and snorkel, as well.
 
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They aren’t necessary, but I wouldnt build a pond swimming or otherwise without a bog/wetlands filter. I would use the milk crates you have access to, as they will work fine as a replacement for aquablox, can always find culvert pipe on the cheap for a centipede and snorkel, as well.
Thanks yet again.
 
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Check out my build, @Frevis. I spent a whole day power washing pig turds off of 400 milk crates that I bought from a hog farmer. They are all now stacked under 1000s of lbs of boulders in my negative edge reservoir and lining the bottom of my 5' deep wetland filter. So far they seem to have worked great,.

It's what the Aquascape guys used before they got ambitious and started using commercial stormwater components that they could film themselves driving excavators on.
 
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My cistern is right outside a residential garage back door milk crates were never an option in my mind as a car or pickup and trailer eventually would be driving over that area. AQUABLOCKS FOR ME
 
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I was just looking at putting them in the bog/wetlands so there would be no driving over them.
 
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many dyi as mentioned have used the milk crates, i myself would try to zip tie them together to keep them from shifting.
 
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many dyi as mentioned have used the milk crates, i myself would try to zip tie them together to keep them from shifting.
Good idea
I was also looking at the size of the small aquablox which are only 9 inches tall. The milk crates are 13 inches tall. I was also thinking of using a layer of plastic skids first then putting the milk crates on top of those. That should get me some where close to 18 inches which would be to layers of aquablox. The skids would also help to bridge the milk crates across the pipe in the trench below them.
 
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many dyi as mentioned have used the milk crates, i myself would try to zip tie them together to keep them from shifting.

How will they shift once they are backfilled? If you're stacking them, milk crates will naturally lock together better than aquablox as the bottoms have a 1/8" lip designed for nesting.
 
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Oh we have stacked items ,/ deliveries on them and have seen the sides buckle and fold a quick zip tie can give it that little stability like aquablocks pins
 
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For smaller builds the 9 inch should be fine for the wetland filter.
 
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I was looking at using them in the wetlands as well as in the bottom of a small pool at the end of a stream.

The idea is to have a wetland 3 or more feet higher on the right side of the swimming pond that would have a water fall that dumps into the main pond. Then have a small stream on the left side of the pond that leads down to a small pool. That way leaves and so on would make their way down the small stream and into the pool to be scooped out, keeping the main pond (swimming area) clean.
 
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So the water would be sucked down through the rocks and then the milk creates into a pipe that would then feed back to the Bog/wetlands. Where the water would then feed up through the milk creates and rocks up to the top where the plants are. Down a small stream/water (to add oxygen) fall and dump back into the main pond.

Well this is the idea any way
 
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There's a video modern design aquascaping has called water in motion . I strongly suggest you watch it . Let's say you loose power water has to be stored in the pump vault area . Then it rains you have know where to capture that rain because the power being out took all the available space. The bottom pump vault should be as big as you can afford in space and dollars.. I think I spent 3k on the cistern for 3000 gallons. Thinking my god that will last all summer when in actuality it doesn't last a month.
 

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