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

[Lisak1]

"Gear heads" is a good name for certain pond keepers - which is fine. Some people like fooling around with mechanical things, tinkering with plumbing and whatnot. I'm a gardener first and foremost. My bog is an extension of my garden.

As for lava rock in a bog - no thanks. Planting in gravel is 1000 times easier than it would be in lava rock. As for the gravel that clings to the roots - I pile up any plants that I pull out and let them sit for a few days and dry out. After two or three days it's an easy matter to just shake the gravel out. And that's if I'm just being lazy - it's really not all that hard to separate roots from gravel even fresh from the bog.

If you're hanging out with koi people, you're guaranteed to be prejudiced against rocks and gravel in a pond ANYWHERE. I've been boo'd off several other forums for even SUGGESTING that a gravel wetland filter can work, or for promoting a gravel bottom pond as a way to increase bacteria colonization in a pond. And honestly, if my main purpose in pond keeping was the fish, and I wanted to keep as many as I possibly could in the volume of water that I had, and those fish cost me big bucks, I would probably fall back on mechanical filtration. A bog filter mimics nature; overstocking a pond with big ole fish is not natural.

 

[Rashad]

So I saw on some septic leech field builds they recommend putting a porous weed barrier type material over the distribution pipes and then gravel on top. Seems like that could prevent slots from getting clogged and create sort of a mini void under the gravel? Anyone done it? Potential drawbacks?

 

[GBBUDD]

Put the cuts facing down , not up. cuts, not holes. Cut 1/3 of the way through the pipe with a circular saw. .. fabric of any kind will clog in time. Where the leach field fabric is recommended is after the settling tank all solids drop out there and over flows into the leach field. But even then I would go with rock to large to fall in the vent ports and then reduce to the size needed to finish the job.

 

[mrsclem]

So I saw on some septic leech field builds they recommend putting a porous weed barrier type material over the distribution pipes and then gravel on top. Seems like that could prevent slots from getting clogged and create sort of a mini void under the gravel? Anyone done it? Potential drawbacks?

Any type of fabric will clog. As for the use of lava rock, I used it in my upflow skippy filters years ago. Figured with all that surface area it was great. After less than a year, it had picked up so much muck that lifting a small mesh bag out was almost impossible due to the weight! And I would much rather shovel pea gravel than lava rock. That stuff doesn't shovel!

 

[nomadh]

It has been running 10 years, no sign of channeling. I have a bottom drain for the bog, turned it on once, nothing but clean water came out, never did it again.
I do draw the water from about a foot from the bottom of the pond, external pump, have a 5 gallon bucket over the water intake to keep the draw in any one place down. Before I did that I sucked in a lot of fry.
Turn it off every fall, back on in the spring, never a issue.

Not sure having the water run clean on a backflow proves it isn't caking. I worked with a filter, not gravel but similar sized media, and as it went bad it also looked clean as it was flushed. Eventually we opened it up and only 20% was free flowing water and the rest was like a clump of cement. I still want to figure out an easy way to break it up and maybe get some use out of it again sometime.

 

[addy1]

Not sure having the water run clean on a backflow proves it isn't caking.

True. but over the surface of my bog I have zero areas that have a strong flow of water, ie channeling. It perks up over the entire surface.

I did, one time, dig down to the bottom, x years ago, in a few spots. Everybody was saying the gravel water would stink unreal. So wanted to see if true, nope nice clean gravel no smell, no debris no caking.

 

[GBBUDD]

I don't think you understand the basic principle of the bog. It is not to allow water to flow trough the bog much like your shower or even matala pads in a small or even a 55 gallon drum. The entire principle is to SLOW the flow wayyyyy down. Not to pump 10000 gallons through but to limit the amount dispersing the flow slowing its progression almost as much as you can. In my blog you can find a picture of papyrus that was grown on top of an aquablock. It looks like a brilow pad very dense not much will get through that very quickly at all. And that is what we are looking for and why the bog needs to be 30 percent if not more in surface area to the pond.
Now for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, we all know this theory. And as one area does clog the water will find the next path of least resistance. In the mean time this muck is home to countless aquatic creatures. Mother nature purifies water in three basic ways .
1. Evaporation
2. Ground penitration through sand,lime stone etc.
3 Through the wetlands. No not so much by forcing water up through the bog like we do but it has the size advantage tgat we do not.
That is where the matrix blocks come into play its to alow the water a place to sit loose the flow and have time to let heavy solids drop out of the water and in that area is also a colony of organics that call that decaying plant and fish Waste five star dinning. It's not what we as humans see as anything but mud to our selves but spend enough time with environmentalists and youll get tge picture if they don't drive you batty first.

 

[Rashad]

So any thoughts on best bog pipe layout for a half circle shaped bog? The flat side of the half circle faces the pond. Water comes in at one end. I was thinking two runs, one parallel to the diameter of the half circle and then another sort of diagonally across but worried about dead spots. Maybe a grid layout with a central run and then capped branches and then only one cleanout? Just seems like more work...

 

[brokensword]

So any thoughts on best bog pipe layout for a half circle shaped bog? The flat side of the half circle faces the pond. Water comes in at one end. I was thinking two runs, one parallel to the diameter of the half circle and then another sort of diagonally across but worried about dead spots. Maybe a grid layout with a central run and then capped branches and then only one cleanout? Just seems like more work...

as long as you keep the pipes more or less down the center, it shouldn't matter as the water will always find the path of least resistance, flowing up. If you worry re more water escaping near the inlet hose and not as much at the far end(s), you can put less slots at the entrance and more at the end, to help balance. But it isn't that particular. Were it mine, I'd send one large pipe down the center (I used 4" drain tile piping = corrugated, flexible polystyrene without holes) and cut my slots about every 4", laying the pipe with slots up. In my case, I used no centipede and snorkel but something that works similarly; layers of graduated size round stone. 6-8" first layer, then 2", then pea gravel. About 12" of each. This method is a lot cheaper than using the Aquablox system but a bit more labor to set it up initially.

 

[addy1]

Mine is two runs, bog 4.5 feet wide, 27 feet long. Slots down, no clean out, just pea gravel. Been running for 10 years now.

 

[Lisak1]

I"ve seen people do one run down the center with "arms" coming out of each side, spaced down the whole run. And I've seen one run down the center, period. Both seem to work. So how much do you like working with plumbing? haha!

 

[GBBUDD]

I myself for the peastone bogs prefer that the pipes be no more then a foot apart this way there's no dead spots the entire bog gets fresh supply.it can be main trunks with branches coming off or it can be just a couple or even one main pipe. But more importantly is to keep the pipes away from the sides as the. Water will just run up the sides instead of filtering through the gravel. I believe you can't have to many pipes in the baffle or to an extent to many cuts in the pipe basically 6 inches apart. And only cut less then a third into

 

[poconojoe]

My manifold has two 10 foot long 2" pvc pipes running parallel.

Don't worry about even distribution of the water.
Believe me.
I was amazed.
I see water percolating up everywhere in my bog. Even where there's no manifold below. Literally every corner has bubbling at the surface.

 

[LuapYllier]

I noticed I did not say much about the clean out pipe, You can stick a hose in it to flush out the under the pea gravel pipes if they ever get clogged.

I realize this is a very old post but I was recently pointed here and this statement is something that precisely addresses a question I have. If one end of your bog piping is connected to your pump and the other end has a cleanout that you are sticking a hose down into...where exactly are you flushing a blockage TO? Where does it go?

 

[addy1]

where exactly are you flushing a blockage TO? Where does it go?

I did not add one, but most likely you have a ball valve on a pipe that goes out of the bog , open that and the fluid goes out into the yard.