new pond digger from central calif

[CountryEscape]

Totally agree with Fishy above, build your bog bigger if you can, now that you are moving things around, then you won't have to do it later. And, also agree that IF you can run a pump to force the water through PVC piping to the BOTTOM of the bog (if you are changing it, now is the time to do that, while the pea gravel is out of the bog), then let it seep up through the gravel, to the overflow and back into the pond, that will optimize your filtration and it will work probably 200% better than water simply flowing over the bog area. The whole idea of a bog filter is for the water to filter THROUGH the gravel and roots and plants, not just over the top, although over the top is better than nothing. I learned from Addy and her bog, and when I built my first pond in 2011, I built it with a small bog, maybe 3'x5', then before the year was over, I added to it and made it about 3'x8'. I still have it overrun with plants, as I love plants! So, when I built the second pond, my goldfish pond, I made a 3' wide bog across the whole back side of the pond, so it's 15-17' long! It is my only filtration on the pond, and the water is crystal clear. Addy has a huge bog for her huge pond, and her water never has algae or green water or anything but crystal clear water! She will likely chime in about her thread on her bog. It's actually very easy to put the PVC pipes together and plumb it. At first I thought it was difficult, but now that I have plumbed two, with her help, I know it's very easy! Good luck!

 

[pond42sliders]

Hello
I went back to look and did not see what filtration you are running.
So I take it as the bog is going to be your main filtration ?

Ruben

I'm running 4000gph pump that goes up through the biofalls for BB to establish, so i don't think that's going to provide alot of nutrition for my bog. i don't really know how it all works in a pond. but I am familiar with how BB works and what it takes to aquire a good source.

Now addy, sissy and the more experienced bog users would be better at answering your questions on specs. I'm building one, but didn't quite get to finish mine, so ill be starting it up when it warms up. But I do know a bit, your bog will work better if you have it plumbed with PVC, to optimize every inch of your bog, especially if its the only filtration you'll have. I believe maybe addy or sissy has a thread on how to construct the PVC piping..

That thread is actually the reason I joined the forum...excellent thread. I had planned on a second reading.

 

[addy1]

Good explanations ce and fishylove! I love my bog, they can be made in any size, shape, configuration. Mine is deep, they don't need to be real deep. Some of my rushes send massive roots down into the gravel. Most of the bog plants tend to stay shallow rooted.

A fine layer of dirt ends up on the top of the gravel (but remember I didn't wash my gravel) When I work in the bog the dirt washes into the pond, totally mucks up the water. But within, less than a day, the water clears back to normal, which is crystal clear.

Love not having issues with algae or green water. In the spring (pump off for 3 months) the water was getting slightly murky, it was a warm winter. Within one day of turning the pump back on the water was back to crystal clear. Never had a starting up in the spring algae bloom, green water, even with the plants just beginning to grow for the summer.

My pump goes right into the bog, waterfalls back into the pond. Maybe you could split your flow between your waterfall and the future bog.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yes, Pond4Sliders, you already have your pump separated to go partly to the bog, the only change will be going that direction through PVC pipe,and not over the fall to the bog, then you can direct the water to the underside of the pea gravel, and let it seep back up through the gravel and roots which feeds the plants' roots, AND filters the water at the same time, also creating a great beneficial bacteria bed. I think Addy and anyone else that has a bog will say that they are fantastic filtration systems. Almost no maintenance. This fall, I will flush both of mine just a little, see what has collected in the lines, then cap them off again. And, I assume your waterfall has some type of skippy filter system behind it possibly? That is a great filtration for your sized pond, too. I have one of them on my koi pond. Again, almost no maintenance, tons of good bacteria grows in there. I was going to store the garbage container skippy filter in the garage, to keep the water from freezing, but read that the bacteria dies at far higher temp than my garage gets down to in the winter, so it just has to regenerate every spring.

 

[Fishylove]

Yes I did the same thing with my waterfall. 2400 gph pump split to have a small amount of water , controlled by a valve, going to the waterfall ( my waterfall is just mainly for looks, although, the top if the fall sits an urn full of lava rock where the water comes out, and will have in the spring a creeping Jenny planted in it ; I take it out in the winter because I turn the falls off) so the falls does have some BB coming out of it lol. The rest will pipe around the left side of the falls ( bog is behind the falls) into and thru the bog and back into the pond to the right of the falls over a spill. Can't wait till spring I'd start the bog up now but it's getting very close to turning filtration off, so sence BB will need to recolonize in the spring I'm just gonna wait. But everything will be ready to go!

 

[sissy]

addy has a bog and ce so it was not me LOL .Would not go as far as that with my small pond .I just use lots of plants in my filters .Eats up the nutrients

 

[Fishylove]

Ahh that's right

 

[pond42sliders]

What I have is a skimmer at one end of the pond, it holds the pump. It pumps 4000gph directly to the urn that grows the BB and flows out running over, both the main falls and to the side, into the bog. What goes into the bog is less than 1/4 of the water that goes over the main falls, and it spills back into the pond.
What I'm not following is how do I direct the water to go through pvc, and back into the pond? Do I need a seperate pump, or do I somehow just place the pipe where water naturally runs into it??... And, from what I'm understanding, I would have to reconstruct the wall that seperates and holds the bog up from the pond, in order to have the pvc flow from the pipe holes back into the pond. I love my trickle falls that go back to the pond, but then again, I'd love even more to have a perfectly balanced, crystal clear, algae free running pond system.

 

[CountryEscape]

P42S, picture this, if I can describe it. Otherwise I'll post some pics of my bog and pipes, and Addy has a wonderful tutorial in her thread about bogs. But, the water won't naturally go to the bottom of the pea gravel in your bog (assuming you have pea gravel in there). What you will need to do is where your pump (BTW, that's a HUGE pump to have in a skimmer, you must either have a very large skimmer, or it sucks everything into it really fast LOL) is plumbed from the skimmer to the top of the waterfall, or wherever it goes to, split it before it goes to your waterfall. Take the extra water pressure, pipe it with either flexible pipe or PVC, to the to of the bog. Then you will connect it to the PVC that you will have laid out on the bottom of the bog (after you remove all the pea gravel, which is going to be a pain ... trust me, I had to unload mine twice last summer!). Your PVC in the bottom of the bog can be one line, or 2 or three, depending on how wide your bog is. I have 2 lines in my 3' wide bog. "T" the multiple lines together at one end, and then run the "T" up out of the gravel to the line you split before the waterfall. Not sure if that makes sense, but it would go like this: Pump in skimmer to pipe/line to the waterfall. Then "T" the line, one side goes to the waterfall like you have now, the other to the new plumbing in the bog. You can still even have the waterfall run off into the top of the bog, that will still be fine. PLUS, you will have water coming into the bottom of the bog, shooting water downward (so it has to work harder, stays in the pea gravel/roots longer) and then it will seep it's way up to the top of the bog, and still run over your little fall area back into the pond. What you will then have created is a filtration THROUGH the bog, instead of just OVER the bog. Hope this makes sense. Let me know if you would like me to post some pics of the plumbing from my pond/bog build this past summer. If my computer will cooperate, I'll post them anyhow, so you won't have to keep going back and forth.

 

[Fishylove]

Yah you would defendantly have enough pressure from that pump, to keep the falls like you have it and plumb the bog too like ce has explained, you'll just need a valve to split the water flow and adjust it to how you want it.

 

[Fishylove]

Defendantly :wacko: hah! Silly auto spell correct!

 

[CountryEscape]

Computer running better this morning, so tried to load the pics again. I hate to take up your "space" on your thread, but I'm a picture person, way easier to describe with pics! As you can see from these first pics, I used the flexible sump pump tubing from my pumps to wherever I needed the line to get to, it's really easy to work with. Then I connected it to the PVC for under the bog pea gravel, which is far more stable under the weight.

This shows the pipes laid out before I glued and drilled them with 1/4" holes. I turned the holes to aim downward, using an extra piece of liner under the pipes to guard the main liner against the constant pressure, as a suggestion from Addy on her bog build. And the clean out ends are above the water line, and I can open them and put a piece of pipe on them to direct the dirty water out onto the grass. I've only cleaned them out once and will do it when I shut things down in the winter, if necessary.

Then I added the pea gravel, filled it with water, and it was still dirty, of course. In my case, I just dropped the outside edge and let the water drain OUT of the bog (not into the pond) until the water rain clear. It didn't take near as long as I would have thought, either, I stirred it up every now and then to help.

 

[pond42sliders]

Thank you sooooo much CountryE...I can totally do this! I'm definately making the bog bigger, not tearing the falls down and spending Thanksgiving creating my new Bog! Made a list already and headed out the door to get everything I need. Thanks again you guys, and if I'm not back later Then I just want to say Feast Well...Happy Thanksgiving!
I'll take pics along the way, too

Peace and Good Cheers,
Susan

 

[Fishylove]

Yay!! Bog builders unite!!

 

[addy1]

Good job CE! I was busy today putting window film on two cars, no time for forums. Bogs may not be modern filters, may not be the best, but so far mine takes very little effort from me to keep my pond very happy and the water beautiful.

p42s ask away any ??'s one of us will see and try to help.