First Pond Excitement!

[Spanky]

If you drill a hole in the pipe at the top of the gravel just above the stone when you shut down the power or if you were to loose power it can create a siphon break , and prevent the water from draining back to the pond.

Not quite visualizing this. Can you get a bit more specific for my physics challenged self? Thanks

 

[addy1]

the pipe goes under the pea gravel, a small hole (red) is drilled in the pipe to break the water flow when the pump is not running. Air gets in the pipe and the water flowing out of the bog is stopped. No siphon happens.

 

[Spanky]

Interesting. I would think that you would have a fountain from that hole while the pump is running. Hmmm

 

[addy1]

Interesting. I would think that you would have a fountain from that hole while the pump is running. Hmmm

I did it once, long time ago, had a dribble come out.

I was thinking this out, I do have a Y that feeds a garden hose that feeds three ponds. So when I turn off my bog for the winter or a power out, the hose is basically a open air line. So that would be my siphon fix.

I pump around 6500 gph into the bog, minus the bit to the small ponds and a bit to the stock tank.

 

[Spanky]

OK, so a small hole like 1/8" placed such that the (minimal) dribble during pump operation falls into the bog? Would removing the cap of my vertical cleanout pipe break siphon? Of course, that wouldn't take care of the power outage scenario.

 

[Lisak1]

We have a ball valve on the bog so we can stop back flow. Most of the water stays in the bog even with the pump off, but it was a "just in case" plumbing decision during our build. We also have that thing that doesn't allow water to flow backwards to the pump (the name is escaping me right now... very common piece... not a hard word... ) CHECK VALVE! haha! We have a check valve just ahead of the pump so the water from the bog can't flow back to the pump. But if we have to disconnect the pump for any reason the bog will empty back to the pump vault unless we shut the valve at the bog.

 

[Spanky]

I think that I will cut the pipe at the top of the wall and retrofit with this:

 

[Ronfire]

I placed a tee in my plumbing at the high point, placed aproxamatly 8" of pipe and the airvent valve on top of that. I used the plumbing vent shown.

 

[Spanky]

Thanks @Ronfire that's an interesting solution. I have yet another question for y'all. Thanks for being patient with this newbie.
My pond is only 600 gallons and the bog is 200 gal. The pump inside my skimmer is 2000 gph. I would like the pond water to spend more contact time with the bog gravel and plant roots before returning to the pond. There is too much surface turbulence and the water lily does not look happy. If I install a ball valve and close it just until I am satisfied with the flow rate will that cause damage to the pump?
Also, I have a fibrous filter pad that came with the skimmer. Should I use it to filter out the fine debris after the net catches the leaves? Would that be starving the bog?

 

[Ronfire]

I only use the basket and the leaf trap before the pump to prefilter before sending the water to the bog. If the pad is a course pad and would allow the fish waist to pass would be good but you bo not want to filter out the finer waste to the bog and starve it. You can valve down the pump but a better option might be to put in a Tee with a valve on each line and send the extra water to another water feature or a return line to the pond like a "tangent pond return" or similar. Another option that I did was to add a sand and gravel filter and use it to collect some of the fine particles in the water, mine runs maybe 20% of the water flow, dont think that will starve the bog with my high fish load. My bog is larger than my pond but seams to be doing ok for the 4 months it has been running.

 

[addy1]

I only use the basket and the leaf trap before the pump to prefilter before sending the water to the bog.

I only use a leaf trap, which seldom needs cleaning. I do not draw water from the bottom of the pond, my pump intake is around a 1.5 feet off the bottom.