Bog question.

[cr8tivguy]

The smallish pond I'm building will have a 32 gallon bio filter; mechanical filter and UV clarifier. There is a waterfall feature with a 20 inch drop for aeration. The flow is: 1) pump to bio filter; 2) hose to holding area (bog); 3) flow to basin and over the waterfall into to the pond.

My question. How big should the bog be? I have space for a 3X6 foot bog and can go about 12 inches deep. With the bio filter and mechanical filter, the purpose of the bog is really for water plants, etc and oxygenation.

Do you think that would be enough bog space?

I am planning on having the bog filled 2/3 full of pea gravel and the 1/3 clear water (just in front of the waterfall spillway. That would give me 9 cubic feet of pea gravel for filtration and plants.
Thoughts?
Tim

 

[HTH]

Not at all an easy question.

Filter size including a bog has more to do with fish stocking level then pond size. The more filter you have the more fish you can stock, until the power goes out and the water stops moving.

Flow should be

mechanical>bio

This keeps the bio filter from clogging.

The UV can go most anywhere but I would put it after the mechanical.

I know I did not directly answer your question but I hope it was of some help.

 

[addy1]

Mine is about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of my pond (the big pond) if you add the water amounts in the ancillary ponds, the size would be towards 1/4 to less in size.
It keeps the ponds perfect in water tests etc. The big pond never turns green or gets algae. The little ponds, preforms, have a lot less flow, more like a trickle flow, they do get some algae, the water is slow moving, warmer and shallow.

I have leaf baskets in front of the pump to keep large debris from entering the bog.

 

[cr8tivguy]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:3058]

Here' how the bog turned out. It's pretty darn small but it's a foot deep. The water feed will come through a bio filter. I plan on routing some of the pump water to the bog (for nutrients). If the bog plants seem to not get enough nutrients from a portion of water routed (pre bio filter), I'll have to do some adjusting. Space-wise, I couldn't get the bog as large as I wanted to. But I really like how it turned out.

 

[addy1]

Very nice job, that looks great.

 

[dieselplower]

I see I am a little late on this but I like to stock my ponds at about 50 gallons per fish and I like to have my filtration be equal to about 10% of my pond size. So 1000 gallon pond would have 20 goldfish and 100 gallons of filtration. Just my two cents.

 

[cr8tivguy]

Thanks Dieselplower. I don't think I'll have that many fish in my pond-- probably 2 koi and 10 comets/shubunkins.

But your rule of thumb makes sense. My bio filter is going to be set up in a way I can expand with 1) a larger tank; or 2) an additional container.

Tim