Bog building, also called upflow filter, eco filter, wetland filter

[CountryEscape]

I have become more and more like you, Addy, in that regard. I figure who really cares about the inside of my house, when the outside is so beautiful and wonderful to walk around! Haha ... well I guess come winter, I will want the inside to be nice and clean and so forth. Hey, I replaced my kitchen faucet ... after worrying about it for 6 months! Everyone said it was easy and guess what ... it WAS EASY! I wait for rainy days to do inside work (laundry, vacuuming, dusting, etc.), but seems like on rainy days there are other things going on that I'm doing, as my house tends to get a really fast clean when it gets it. LOL

 

[tbendl]

If I'm still in that house in a hundred years I have a feeling it will be because I've gone "missing" and am buried somewhere on the property... Lol
I've figured out the trick to a relatively clean house. I invite friends over every so often so I have to at least do a cursory clean. In fact I've got a dinner party tonight so I'm vacuuming later.

 

[addy1]

laughing my sis and a friend came over wednesday, we did a dump and clean, house looked clean for a whole day.

 

[IronAnneKidd]

IronAnneKidd, if you would like to see a pic of the plumbing, post a response on here, and I can post pics of how I did the PVC for my bog. I learned how from Addy, and I think it's very similar to hers, if not exact, and I have the pics handy.

CountryEscape, I would love to see a pic, if you have it. Sorry it took me so long to get back. I was out of commission for a bit.

Oops. I see you posted pictures. They look great! I can't wait to get started!

 

[IronAnneKidd]

I have a question about the liner for the bog. Is the pond and bog liner all one big liner, or are they 2 separate liners?

 

[Lisak1]

I have a question about the liner for the bog. Is the pond and bog liner all one big liner, or are they 2 separate liners?

I can't speak for everyone, but the way our bog is constructed it has it's own liner. Our bog has a single exit point (about two feet wide) to the waterfall. Our falls also have their own liner. You just need to make sure everything overlaps properly and won't slip. For us a single liner would have been huge -
Too big to handle and lots of waste.

 

[tbendl]

And mine is 1 piece with the pond but I had plenty to do that with.

 

[addy1]

I have a question about the liner for the bog. Is the pond and bog liner all one big liner, or are they 2 separate liners?

Mine is one big liner, bog and pond, worked great for me.

 

[pugle1]

Well addy, I think I've figured out what I need to do with my set-up. As I explained before, my bog is below my main pond and my pump is at the back of the bog. That pump is plumbed all the way up to my filter system which feeds the water fall, which feeds the pond, then of course down the stream to the bog. My set-up is unconventional based on everyone else's set-up (I built the bog after I knew about this forum). Here's what I figure I need to do.

I'm going to add a smaller pump to run in parallel with my main pump, but it'll be dedicated to the water flow through the pipes in the bog. I've not added my pea gravel yet, and the end of the bog will be stone-free (installing a skimmer at that end in which both pumps will be housed) so that part of the bog will more or less just be a shallow pond with bare liner. Here's a pic of what I'm proposing to do. Do you think this would work?

 

[addy1]

I don't see why not. The shallow area without gravel could just be a water and plant area. Lots of neat plants that would do well in just water.

 

[Dirty Dawg]

Wow, what a thread!

Just sat and read the whole thing all at once, after just glimpsing highlights of the first and last few pages over the past week or so.

Three yards of peastone got delivered today along with five yards of fill sand for use in sculpting the contours under the liner for the bog and waterfall I've started.

Question, just to confirm........ the buried slotted water feed pipes in the bottom of the gravel do not freeze and bust? My bog is currently designed to hold water up to the spillover height a couple inches below the gravel level, and not drain free if the pump is off. it will be full of water all winter, and we freeze hard here in mid-Michigan.

My bog could just as easily be built as free-draining, as it's on the hill flowing down to the pond, but I've got it in my head that it'll take too much water out of the pond to prime the bog, as well as the water not being forced to rise the full foot or more though the gravel to then drain over the spillway.

Great suggestion on an air valve to prevent suction of the bog water back into the pond if the power goes off or the pump quits. My bog is going to be about five feet above pond water level. Think I'm gonna install one of those one-way plumbing vents a lil higher than the water level of the bog from a tee in the input pipe manifold.

Bog will be 8' x 8' and 18" deep. That will roughly be 10% of my pond volume, so I hope it does a good job of filtering, as I'd like to remove the small filter from my Savio skimmer. Looking hard at increasing the bogs length to give another 5% of pond volume to the bog and hold another yard and a half of gravel. What's another $50 in liner right? lol.

 

[addy1]

We, most likely, do not freeze up as hard as you do. For the past 5 winters my bog has been full of water that becomes ice. This last winter we hit -15. The first winter of the pond and bog it froze hard enough for a herd of deer to walk on it. (the pond) . I have had one broken pipe, the deer walked on an external pipe smashed it (this last winter) they were invading the yard for any food they could find. We were not around to "chase" them away. Had a hoof print and poop as evidence.

 

[tbendl]

Random question, and not sure since I don't have fish but here goes anyway. I have seen some DIY pictures of putting your pump into a milk crate and lining it with batting, scrubber pads, etc, to help keep large debris from being pumped up into the bog. Is this a good step or bad, will it starve my bog or gunk it up? My pump is slightly off the bottom to keep fallen debris out of the pump but since I'm going to have some bottom growers, (can't wait Addy1) I'd hate for them to get sucked into my pump. I pulled my pump up last weekend and had to clean out the algae that had accumulated in the intake ports. I assume that that will subside somewhat when I get the bog and plants in but just wanted some feedback on the crating of the pump. FYI I have no filter other than plants.

 

[addy1]

I don't use a submersible pump, but do have my 3 inch intake for my external pump, wrapped with gutter guard (plastic with holes) It keeps big fish debris, plants, snails etc from being sucked into the pump. I also have a leaf basket between the intake and the pump. No large amount of solid debris gets to the bog. Mainly just dirty water. The intake is also about a foot off the bottom of the pond.

 

[tbendl]

So I went with a smaller diameter PVC and hose for my bog due to it's size. I hope it will still work and have great flow over the edge now. I am posting a few pictures. I was also able to add a splitter so I can use pond water to water my plants. I am so excited to get this thing going. I also added a picture of the box I build to put over the top of my submersible pump so I don't get large debris sucked in.