Green pond water

[Lisak1]

We're 8 years in with our bog and we've never had to clean it. Since the water that is passed through the bog is "clean" (i.e., free of any solid debris) there's nothing TO clean. The bog acts as a biological filter, not a mechanical filter. If you were to push water from the bottom of the pond straight into the bog, then you would run into issues with clogging and the need to clean it I would imagine. But most people either have some sort of prefilter (if they have an in-pond pump) or skimmer or filter on the line to catch any actual debris.

We do have to clean the plants out of the bog - they grow like crazy and have to be thinned out from time to time - but it's pretty easy to yank them out of the gravel. Not like planting them in dirt. Although I've had some epic battles with irises that have gotten ahead of me, but hopefully I've learned my lesson on that one!

 

[Alice_Bee]

I run water from the bottom of my ponds up, so I have a bog filter on my back yard pond, it's 8 ft long, water comes in at the top, drops debris on the way across, and exits the top, I get oh maybe a couple of inches of processed waste at the bottom of it every year, it's easy to vacuum out, I keep my lilies mostly in pots up there without much dirt, so they feed on the droppings. I have an aquablock with bogs (Texas star hibiscus, lavender aquatic iris, pickerel rush) on top of flagstone, on top of it.

As much as I'm gone, I don't want skimmers on my ponds. I'm in Texas, it's hot, autofills fail, and skimmers kill pumps. Interesting that people are using the bogs, I don't see too many locally.

 

[Jhn]

Never had an issue in 10 years with my up flow bog, other than plants growing like crazy like Lisak1 mentioned. However I do pump from a skimmer.

could also do a bog like Gbbudd’s with a centipede and aqua blocks under the gravel then any fines that settle could be pumped out.

 

[Alice_Bee]

My pond is 18 years old, it needed new liner in the bottom courtesy of my foster, a giant german shepherd trying to dig for china in it in July 2017. When I get home from work, I do not want to clean a skimmer, or work on the pond. I want a big easy. And it's a little pond for that reason. So it is easy. But i do not see me switching filtration to anything involving pea gravel.

If anything I'd put some bags of lava rock on top of the aquablox, making it like a giant biofalls. but I'm not gonna, I keep goldfish up there, they can hide in the milk crates in the corner if a heron comes, the lilies cover it, more in prior years, since I took it down in fall of 2017 I think, and I left it down about a year, had a death in the family and I wasn't feeling up to it,
set back up Feb 2019.
Pic is the top basin from a couple of summers ago, July 2008.

 

[addy1]

Will it ever need cleaned

I have done nothing to it since I built it, except pull excess plants. Going on 10 years now. Didn't even clean the pea gravel I used, put it in dirty. We were in a drought and 38000 lbs takes a lot of cleaning.

 

[Alice_Bee]

I have done nothing to it since I built it, except pull excess plants. Going on 10 years now. Didn't even clean the pea gravel I used, put it in dirty. We were in a drought and 38000 lbs takes a lot of cleaning.

That it does. 38,000 pounds, 19 tons...

 

[addy1]

That it does. 38,000 pounds, 19 tons...

lol someone...................just kept digging with the tractor. Had to fill it with something!