Here we go -- FINALLY! A pond for wildlife...

[bagsmom]

I am now trying to firm up my bog plumbing decision. On the one hand, I am very tempted to go with the simple PVC only method - with a standpipe to shoot out gunky water.
On the other hand, I am looking at ALL the tree doodles on the ground right now. There are tons of oak trees all around and Spring is very, very messy with stuff falling off the trees. First there is pollen, then tons and tons of tassels that hold the pollen. Then come the little starburst shaped things that hold the tassels. I am thinking there is a good chance that the tassel debris could end up down under the bog, via the water from the intake bay. It might make sense, therefore, to go with a culvert pipe snorkel and centipede. That would allow me pump out any real crud at the end of Messy Oak Tree Season.
I am still pondering. (Get it? "Pond"ering? )
Do any of you want to weigh in on the bog decision?

 

[Rabungalow]

I am now trying to firm up my bog plumbing decision. On the one hand, I am very tempted to go with the simple PVC only method - with a standpipe to shoot out gunky water.
On the other hand, I am looking at ALL the tree doodles on the ground right now. There are tons of oak trees all around and Spring is very, very messy with stuff falling off the trees. First there is pollen, then tons and tons of tassels that hold the pollen. Then come the little starburst shaped things that hold the tassels. I am thinking there is a good chance that the tassel debris could end up down under the bog, via the water from the intake bay. It might make sense, therefore, to go with a culvert pipe snorkel and centipede. That would allow me pump out any real crud at the end of Messy Oak Tree Season.
I am still pondering. (Get it? "Pond"ering? )
Do any of you want to weigh in on the bog decision?

My pond is right underneath a massive white oak and I’m going through the tassel drop off right now so I feel your pain. The tassels do float and I’ve found they’re getting caught in my skimmer net.

 

[addy1]

Go gals go!

I am happy to just have no leaks, did rebuild two waterfalls.

Had a constant low level leak last year, kept looking for it, which became major this year 9 inches over night. . Found a Bent down 1000 gallon stock tank edge, under a big waterfall rock. Since fixing it no water loss. Yeah!

 

[GBBUDD]

Since those are heavier rocks than I can lift, I'm putting underlayment down and rolling them end over end to get

Before you place the fabric under the waterfall rocks give the area a quick spray with waterfall foam it will help to seal the water to where you want it to go and not seep under the rocks

 

[GBBUDD]

If we were neighbors, we could take coffee breaks and talk about how tired we are!

You are neighbors on the web do video chat.

Your both doing an incredible job

 

[GBBUDD]

I am now trying to firm up my bog plumbing decision. On the one hand, I am very tempted to go with the simple PVC only method - with a standpipe to shoot out gunky water.
On the other hand, I am looking at ALL the tree doodles on the ground right now. There are tons of oak trees all around and Spring is very, very messy with stuff falling off the trees. First there is pollen, then tons and tons of tassels that hold the pollen. Then come the little starburst shaped things that hold the tassels. I am thinking there is a good chance that the tassel debris could end up down under the bog, via the water from the intake bay. It might make sense, therefore, to go with a culvert pipe snorkel and centipede. That would allow me pump out any real crud at the end of Messy Oak Tree Season.
I am still pondering. (Get it? "Pond"ering? )
Do any of you want to weigh in on the bog decision?

The pvc version will take the tons of pollen and throw it right into the gravel locking it up.

The snorkel with aquablock will help to let the water settle and the pollen drop to the floor of the aquablocks and not be free floating in the water or locked in the gravel.
But honestly I had the pvc bog running only for the spring here and it's way undersized for the amount of fish and water that I have and it did ok for a time.
I'm experiencing a little new pond syndrome seeing as there is 30,000 pounds of rock that was just added to the remade bog.
There's some plants 20 in all but it's a far cry from where the bog was at before construction started . I'm trying not to reintroduce any of the old plants as mint found its way in there.. I never bought any but its a pain.

 

[addy1]

We have tons of pollen, cars are all yellow green, surface of water coated with yellow green. My skimmer pulls it in and it goes to the bog. It has not clogged up the pea gravel.

 

[combatwombat]

If I could do it over again, I might do a hybrid approach on the bog. I'd use the snorkel/centipede and water matrix blocks, then lay down some fine plastic mesh, then cover with 12-18" of pea gravel. You'd get the settling space of the centipede and matrix blocks, the distribution space of the matrix blocks, and the pea gravel which, in my opinion, is doing all the heavy lifting in a bog.

The mesh screen between the blocks and the gravel would keep the pea gravel from falling into the blocks as well as blocking larger solids from clogging the gravel. The mesh screen would probably get clogged in time, and you could backwash with a powerful pump and drain with the snorkel.

I've seen a few members on koiphen build their bogs this way, and they have been running for some time and they seem happy with them. My only hesitation would be with plant roots clogging the mesh if the gravel is too shallow, so you might have to carefully choose your bog plants.

 

[YShahar]

If we were neighbors, we could take coffee breaks and talk about how tired we are!
Thank you for the encouragement. Yours is looking fantastic and I am so impressed with the size of rocks you are maneuvering!
I'm a little intimidated by the rock on a roll. If I decide to use it somewhere, it has to go down first so it is behind rocks. Pond building is definitely a mental exercise - lots of thinking ahead and strategic planning!

I would love to sit down with a glass of something interesting and chat! We could share many glorious lies of battle while comparing our bruises.

Today I finally started on the steam, despite not being completely done with the pond. With so few really choice rocks, I wanted to make sure I had enough good ones for the waterfall and stream first. Theoretically I could just add gravel and rinse down now and finish up the last bit of pond rocking later on, since the deep zone is rocked in already. Still need to find a way to get 3 tonnes of gravel down three flights of stairs, though!

Going offline for Shabbat now. Looking forward to seeing all kinds of good progress on your pond when I sign on again tomorrow night. See you at Star-shine tomorrow!

 

[bagsmom]

I am considering this approach for the bog. I won't have matrix blocks. But I was thinking having the 3" PVC pipe going through the culvert pipe might work if I oriented the slots in each as pictured. It wouldn't be as effective, but it might be better than just the PVC alone?
Honestly, I guess I wouldn't have to cut the culvert pipe. I could just put it in there whole and let the PVC rest on the bottom of the culvert pipe side. That would give a few more inches for settling space.
Is that all just a waste of time?

 

[GBBUDD]

Still need to find a way to get 3 tonnes of gravel down three flights of stairs, though!

There's a device that i'm not surprised your unaware of seeing as you live in one of the hottest climates on the planet. it's called a four man Toboggan fill that puppy up at the top of the stairs with about a 1000 pounds OF STONE and give it the old push and whether you like it or not it will be at the bottom of your three flights of stairs . BUT trust me anything else at the bottom of those stairs will be um ALTERED

 

[GBBUDD]

SERIOUSLY concrete sauna tubes is an easy way to control the stone They sell them so that there is like 4 slightly different sizes in the same size. so it's like 8 inch 7 7/8 ... 7 3/4 and 8 1/8 that way they can ship them out with one inside the other. Pull them apart but still interlocked duct tape them Tape a 2x4 along the side of them to control the rigidity and make it long enough to get where you want it ... they are nothing more than card board in a tube shape ...... Hey for that matter i bet if you ask some carpet places you may be able to get carpet roll tubes or linoleum

 

[GBBUDD]

then lay down some fine plastic mesh

they have these mats but they are not all that fine there are like 3/16" x 2"

 

[bagsmom]

I have another idea - and yet another amazingly professional (not) engineering drawing.
I am going to have a lot of the black flexible PVC left. I had been thinking I might want some extra water movement down at the far end, to help push water in the direction of the intake bay.
I have a 3000 gph pump. If I were to put in a Y as shown in the yellow highlighted area, I could snake the black pipe behind the waterfall rocks and run it down to the end of the pond. I could install a valve to control the flow.
BUT -- is the 3,000 gph pump enough to do all that? I know I don't want a fast flow through the bog.
Is this a good idea? Is it even do-able, given the size of my pump?

 

[combatwombat]

they have these mats but they are not all that fine there are like 3/16" x 2"

Did you put that stuff in your bog? Did you skip the graduated rock? I was thinking along the lines of window screen material.