Do I need a wetland filter for an 15' by 11' pond with 20 ft stream

[Derek Drezek]

I built it in stages but even then I was traveling for a living and was only home 2 days a month so over the last 5 years this spring being the start of 6. And I have been busy since spring. Built a stone wall along side the bog as it's 8 feet high at least . But the walls only 4 foot high then the upper wall I faced with rock drilling through the rock and tapcons fastening it to the wall.
Walkways up to the stream new plantings . Dead tree sculpture. All kinds of crazy stuff.

Nice work. I watched a video last night of the pond guy going to a homeowners home by himself. The guy was the Aquascape DIY customer of the year. He had an elaborate water feature going himself too. But, it was kinda funny. No sooner did u mention Greg whittstock doing videos without CAC contractors and I came across one. I'd love to see your feature in person one day. I did not post any pictures yet. I went to do some foaming on Sunday, and my foam gun was clogged. Ended up racing out to Lowe's for another one. Started getting dark etc etc. I'm a touch nervous about putting my rock pile up for the world to see. Haha. Especially if they all have water features done by themselves that look like yours. Looking at mine the other day, the rocks look so small in comparison to the ones I see on YouTube. But, they sure didn't feel small, trying to put 'em in place. I definitely see the aesthetic reasons for using big rock.

 

[GBBUDD]

Nice work. I watched a video last night of the pond guy going to a homeowners home by hi

There's plus and minus to both. The big boulders are a one and done . If you have a leak under or around it your looking at another rental. And it is so much easier to tear a liner with 2000 pounds over 200 pounds.

TRICK TO FOAM GUNS NEVER REMOVE A CAN EVEN IF ITS EMPTY LEAVE IT ON THE GUN. WHEN YOU GO TO USE IT AGAIN TAKE OFF THE EMPTY AND PUT THE NEW ONE ON . DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON GUN CLEANERS.

I have seen some ponds all done with Mellon sized cobbles and throw a larger one in here and there. looking like the stream had washed the cobbles down stream.

 

[Derek Drezek]

There's plus and minus to both. The big boulders are a one and done . If you have a leak under or around it your looking at another rental. And it is so much easier to tear a liner with 2000 pounds over 200 pounds.

TRICK TO FOAM GUNS NEVER REMOVE A CAN EVEN IF ITS EMPTY LEAVE IT ON THE GUN. WHEN YOU GO TO USE IT AGAIN TAKE OFF THE EMPTY AND PUT THE NEW ONE ON . DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON GUN CLEANERS.

I have seen some ponds all done with Mellon sized cobbles and throw a larger one in here and there. looking like the stream had washed the cobbles down stream.

Had a CAC at my house yesterday. Just to take a look at what I got going on. Was considering having him hook the liner up to the skimmer. That's all. Just liner to the skimmer. Just shootin the breeze basically. Told him, my hand will be shaking when I put a utility blade up to my liner. Knowing I got maybe 2 shots at getting it right or else, I'm gonna need to learn how to seam!! Hahah. Anyway, he said to have him do it, would be a $435 bill. So,...... despite all the reading, emailing, video watching, and drops of blood, I got flowing into this project, it's still saving a lot of cash doing it ourselves!!! Had Thursday and Friday off from work, along with the next 3 days too. I'll be out there again today sweating it out.

 

[Jhn]

Had a CAC at my house yesterday. Just to take a look at what I got going on. Was considering having him hook the liner up to the skimmer. That's all. Just liner to the skimmer. Just shootin the breeze basically. Told him, my hand will be shaking when I put a utility blade up to my liner. Knowing I got maybe 2 shots at getting it right or else, I'm gonna need to learn how to seam!! Hahah. Anyway, he said to have him do it, would be a $435 bill. So,...... despite all the reading, emailing, video watching, and drops of blood, I got flowing into this project, it's still saving a lot of cash doing it ourselves!!! Had Thursday and Friday off from work, along with the next 3 days too. I'll be out there again today sweating it out.

Not as difficult as you are thinking it is, really just in your head, leave liner slack in front of the skimmer box, so it can’t pull tight over time. Have put 15-20 of these in over the years and have yet to have any of them leak, they are pretty simple.

 

[GBBUDD]

I agree with @Jhn very simple the biggest mistakes are not cleaning the liner good enough.
Not using a good caulking
And over tightening the screws . Who were you talking too.

I'll do it for 350 and make out like a bandit. It takes less than 30 minutes.

Who is a cac contractor in our area.

Ps You don't cut the liner untill the face trim is installed.

 

[GBBUDD]

Sorry folks the squirrel is YouTube screw up

 

[Lisak1]

I find it hard to believe that any CAC worth their salt has a minute to spare to do a small job like that for any amount of money right in prime building season... or to come and just "shoot the breeze". And if $450 seems like a big savings, you don't want to go anywhere near a CAC!

 

[GBBUDD]

Knowing whats involved in installing a skimmer, if i had made the trip there i would have just installed it while on the property.

Unfortunately with the current state of everything, retail sales and services are way down . even a trip to the depot Saturday morning found no lines.

Everyone i know who was thinking retiring has put those plans on hold .

 

[Derek Drezek]

Not as difficult as you are thinking it is, really just in your head, leave liner slack in front of the skimmer box, so it can’t pull tight over time. Have put 15-20 of these in over the years and have yet to have any of them leak, they are pretty simple.

Yes. I did do it myself, the other day. Just saw your response. Thankyou for the encouragement. It was fairly easy, but I'm glad I didn't have to do 2 skimmers. Happy my pond only needed 1. Haha.

 

[Derek Drezek]

I find it hard to believe that any CAC worth their salt has a minute to spare to do a small job like that for any amount of money right in prime building season... or to come and just "shoot the breeze". And if $450 seems like a big savings, you don't want to go anywhere near a CAC!

Yeah. CAC's do charge a lot of bread. But, I definitely see why u would have them do the job. I don't have the kind of equipment necessary for moving the 300+ pounders. The projects do come out nicer with larger boulders. It's heavy heavy work.

 

[GBBUDD]

And even pros have opps and one leak and you can be looking for leaks for a long time

 

[Derek Drezek]

No one "needs" a bog filter - but everyone should have one! (Heck - you didn't really "need" a pond, did you? )

Honestly of all the things I learned from Aquascape the bog filter concept has been the most valuable. When we were purchasing all our equipment, an employee there just off-handedly mentioned "have you considered adding a bog?" And I was hooked. We had heard a few pond owners mention "oh that's our bog filter - we had that added later" on a few pond tours but I was still soaking in all the other info and didn't really pay attention. But once it was explained to me what it was I was hooked.

One big benefit for us of the bog was the ability to increase water volume without expanding the pond size. Our bog and waterfall occupy a raised bed garden that's about 3 feet above the pond, so we're able to have an additional 4 or 5 hundred gallons of water in the bog, as well as another 1000 gallons underground in the rain exchange. All that extra water volume helps stabilize a pond, keeps the water warmer in winter and cooler in the summer. All that in addition to adding biological filtration AND another place to grow plants. Win Win WIN.

Aquascape was really just at the start of building bog filters on new ponds when we were starting our build, but had been retrofitting them on ponds for a few years. Now you rarely see them build a pond without one It's a game changer really.

Maybe later we can discuss that auto-doser and IonGen...

Lisak, u mentioned discussing the ion-gen and autodoser with me. What advice do u have? I am

No one "needs" a bog filter - but everyone should have one! (Heck - you didn't really "need" a pond, did you? )

Honestly of all the things I learned from Aquascape the bog filter concept has been the most valuable. When we were purchasing all our equipment, an employee there just off-handedly mentioned "have you considered adding a bog?" And I was hooked. We had heard a few pond owners mention "oh that's our bog filter - we had that added later" on a few pond tours but I was still soaking in all the other info and didn't really pay attention. But once it was explained to me what it was I was hooked.

One big benefit for us of the bog was the ability to increase water volume without expanding the pond size. Our bog and waterfall occupy a raised bed garden that's about 3 feet above the pond, so we're able to have an additional 4 or 5 hundred gallons of water in the bog, as well as another 1000 gallons underground in the rain exchange. All that extra water volume helps stabilize a pond, keeps the water warmer in winter and cooler in the summer. All that in addition to adding biological filtration AND another place to grow plants. Win Win WIN.

Aquascape was really just at the start of building bog filters on new ponds when we were starting our build, but had been retrofitting them on ponds for a few years. Now you rarely see them build a pond without one It's a game changer really.

Maybe later we can discuss that auto-doser and IonGen...

lisak, u mentioned the autodoser and the ion-gen. I am just about at the " add water " stage here. They both seem fairly easy to set up and use. I'm wondering if u perhaps know better.

 

[Derek Drezek]

And even pros have opps and one leak and you can be looking for leaks for a long time

Hopefully I don't have any punctured or torn liner leaks anywhere. I did have 3 on the stream liner from my original pondless waterfall, but they were caused by me tearing the rocks off it, and having to break them free from foam for the most part.

 

[Jhn]

lisak, u mentioned the autodoser and the ion-gen.

What are you planning on needing to dose for? It’s not a reef tank, it doesn’t need daily or weekly dosing of additives. The one (autodoser) is unnecessary for most ponds and the other (iongen) is actually harmful to the inhabitants(it adds copper to the water)it will kill off algae, but these create a great environment for dinoflagellates. It also is chronically toxic to fish, and acutely toxic to invertebrate life. Basically the latter causes more problems than the one it solves (nuisance algae), which will be solved by the wetlands filter.