Here we go...

[addy1]

I don't recall how your water is leaving the bog, you can also put a laundry basket, crate anything, at the out flow full of quilt batting. Do this before you turn it on for the first time, a bunch of brown muck will come out with the first water flow.

 

[pondlover]

How much filter media are you supposed to put in the tank? So far I have lava rock in mesh bags, blue furnace filters and some quilt batting. I think tomorrow is going to be the really big day. :razz: Here are a few pics of current progress. It's very dirty water and I sure hope that will clear up. Of course our water level is going to be much higher up and we won't have that much volume coming out when the waterfall is going also. I'm loving every minute of this!

CE - I've never uploading anything to UTube, hmmmmm. LOL Maybe I'll just stick to pictures.

Addy - the water is terribly dirty. I have made a make shift filter with quilt batting and tomorrow when after we drain (again), we will put the crate under the outflow area of bog. I'm hoping that with the waterfall/filter going that eventually it will clear up.

 

[addy1]

awwwwwwwww memories lol it is dirty. the fine dirt will settle to the bottom of the pond also.

I need to do a little apology also, to you, sitting here trying to recall all we did, my husband reminded me.......... We did run the bog water out into the yard for a few hours instead of into the pond, for that first rush of dirt. Then we decided we would not worry about it and just filtered it out, we couldn't really drain the pond, easily, it took us a week to fill it due to our well. From your picture, i.e. size of pond, I would just say drain it a few times the amount of dirt will greatly decrease. Just run the amount of water your picture shows through the gravel then drain it.

Stir the gravel with a shovel, stick, piece of pvc, helps that dirt get out (careful of liner)

Love the amount of flow you have coming out, that looks so great, your rock work and all.

 

[j.w]

If you use lots of just the batting at first it might be easier for you to clean it. Just pull it out when it gets dirty and rinse it off and keep putting it back in which will be quite often at first but will gradually clear up.

 

[CountryEscape]

Woohoo!!! Love the bog! How in the world are you keeping all those rocks on the sides? Do you have them glued to the side with some type of goop? I really love the look but since I cleaned out my pond today, and ran the net over the sides, I still worry about keeping it clean! But, read the thread someone posted about string algae, and JW's reply about using kitty litter (the straight clay, no perfumed or anything else in it, the cheap stuff!) in a nylon or even just in the pond directly to keep the string algae away! I wish I knew about this before I got my string algae, but going to try the clay, as it says it will clear up a pond in just a few days!
Good luck with the dirty water, but it will settle to the bottom so don't worry too much about it. Your plants will use the dirt when you plant it, so once it starts clearing up, just fill that pond. I'm so excited for you! BTW, on my bog, which is much smaller than yours, I rinsed the gravel, and it took quite a lot of rinsing, and each bag got less rinsing. LOL You will forget about the dirt and dust once it clears up and settles to the bottom. Everytime you add a plant, you might stir it up some more, but no worries, it will clear again! And, I have to wonder, if benzonite clay (kitty litter) is good, maybe the dirt from the pea gravel is good as well!

 

[pondlover]

Addy thanks for all the help. We are not on a well and actually we have used a sump pump and use the water we've had to remove from pond and fill our cow water troughs up. When we have to take some water off our pool cover we do the same with it. We are getting double use of it. LOL Do you think I have enough filter media or do I need more?

 

[CountryEscape]

PL, I think Addy is talking about fine mesh filter stuff to catch the dirty water right out of the bog, BEFORE it goes to your filter! You have great filter media for the whole pond, maybe add some scrubbies or something to let the good bacteria attach to (like tubing or something with lots of edges), but what you have will get you going really well.
But, for the the dirty water from the bog because of the pea gravel, if you can set up the crate or basket like they said where the bog water is washing into, then that will catch most of the dirt and you can keep cleaning out the quilt batting or whatever you use in the temporary basket, and keep most of the dirt out of the pond. In fact, run your water into the bog, let it run over into the basket with the quilt batting, and you will be putting the cleanest water you can into your pond. Does that help? As far as your main filter, what you have described sounds like good stuff.

 

[pondlover]

Thanks ladies. My husband wanted the rock and rock he got. The sides are kind of slanted so the rock is actually leaning against the sides. I am really happy with how it looks and feel like all the hard work we've put in so far is going to be well worth it. I hope the waterfall will look as nice when it's finally going. I've been doing some reading on what plants to put in my bog and am going back to Addy's thread on all that's available. Since my pond will get sun all day I know I will need something to cover the water surface of pond to try and keep the temperature down. Oh this is so fun. :goldfish:

Since it's so cold does that mean it will take longer to get my water balanced?

 

[addy1]

Country, i made a 55 gallon filter to use just to get that fine dirt out of the pond. It is like glacier dirt, did not want to get gone. After xx days less than a week, the water was clear. The bog had been running for a few months when I finally made that filter.


You need some warm weather to get the bacteria growing, be very patient about putting fish into your pond.

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, I didn't know that, Addy! Sorry for misinforming you, PL. I need to be more patient myself and watch for the correct person to reply. LOL
Yes, patience is the key now, PL. The way our winter is shaping up, your February pond build may be just the key to a VERY early pond year.
What temperature does the water need to be for the bacteria to start to grow, Addy? I'm guessing maybe above that 50 degree mark, or maybe higher. I remember people telling me no need to save the filter media in the winter, as it would die once the water dropped below a certain level, but I don't remember what that was. Warmer than what my insulated garage got down to. Good news, though, is that once the bacteria starts, you will be on your way to cycling your pond. It will be fun to pick and choose your plants before they are even available in the stores. You will have all the plants memorized soon, as I'm sure you are very anxious to get things running.
Oh, wanted to ask you about the rocks on the inside. Do you have an area that the rocks are very stable, that you can walk into your pond? You will want that area to be solid for getting into the pond, as you WILL be getting into the pond sooner or later. (fetching stones that fall in, etc.)

 

[addy1]

Country, I have read and heard bacteria can start at 40ish temperatures. Read from some, that it does not really die until below 40. The bottles of bacteria usually say over 50-55 before adding it. This will be my first spring start up with a bunch of fish, so it will be interesting to see how well it goes. The water is still pretty clear, no filtration since dec 1. I think I will be turning it on march 1 or so. Need to do a bottom cleaning, see some leaves down there.

 

[Stephennj]

I have to look into this EDPM Roofing liner . Thanks for the tip Pondlover

 

[addy1]

Thanks ladies. My husband wanted the rock and rock he got. The sides are kind of slanted so the rock is actually leaning against the sides.

If you have trouble with the rocks shifting, moving, get some of the black pl roofing goop or the expandable foam to help anchor them. I am working on tearing apart our highest stream pond, just moving it a little since we decide to make a deck pond. The deck pond waterfalls into the top stream pond, the stream pond needed to be moved up and under the deck a little. Anyway, I had put in rock on the sides of the uppermost stream pond, did the expandable foam, it took some muscle to yank those rocks off the liner and break them apart. They were well anchored.

 

[CountryEscape]

I cleaned out a bunch of stuff from the bottom of my pond yesterday, and it was mostly algae and a few leaves. Thanks goodness for only having 2 maple trees in my yard, and one is pretty far away, and the 2 large birch trees have teeny tiny leaves. I stirred the bottom very little getting the stuff out. I will get on top of the bog or the bog wall today and get the other side of the waterfall end done today. It's coming out in matts, maybe because of the string algae, or maybe because of the Pond Perfect, which clumps the gunk together. Either way, I grab the edge with my net, and get a huge section coming up! It's really easy to do. Now if I can just get rid of the string algae on the upper edge of the pond .... pulled all I could reach without freezing my hand off yesterday. I figure it's all dead in the waterfall, since it's dry, but I wonder if it will "revive" once the water hits it. Going to try the clay kitty litter in the falls and hang a few knee high nylon bags of it along the side walls to see if that helps. Read that in another post yesterday!

 

[pondlover]

We have a pond!!!! Today was a huge day. Started off with church, then a great breakfast and came home and went straight to work.
Addy I took your advice and used batting and it has made a difference. I've already had to rinse it once. Slight difference, but I can see it. I am learning to recycle things and its working quit well. We had an old comforter that we were going to toss, I took the batting out of it and am using it to help filter right now. Talk about a cost saving. My husband loves that I've saved money. :>) I've calculated that we probably saved over $5,000 by installing ourselves. We had our local nursery come out last year and give us an estimate and it was nearly $8,000 for them to install and us to landscape.

Country - when I placed the rocks in, I made sure that all of the horizontal areas are very firm and we have walked in and out of the pond numerous times already. We do have rocks on the shelves, but no rocks on the bottom of pond. I've also used some of the foam to offer additional stability.
While we wait for the pond to cycle, I will begin working on the area around the pond, mulching and creating some stepping stones to walk on . I'm still trying to figure out what we can do to camoflage the flexible PVC to the waterfall. Husband painted all the exposed pieces black so it does blend well, but I still want to hide it somehow. Now if I could only convince him that the water will clear up, eventually and that he is NOT allowed to drain it. LOL