You nbetter put in a min of two if not three . your drain only at the surface but pumped below. and one pipe is not a matter if it will get blocked and over flow but when
Rebuilding a pond, tips on bog filter?
- Thread starter dinm
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I think I will put it all together tomorrow. I am not sure about bog depth, I think I just want very shallow water so I have more plant choices. Some I think I will do is Acorus, Carex (what varieties not sure), Creeping jenny, Ferns, Irises. This is definitely a better spot for the bog filter, since it's just barely part sun and plants like Irises can bloom well. I want to experiment though with things like Astilbe in spring, I hear they may be able to handle being in a bog. Impatiens will be a nobrainer in spring.
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FWIW I too liked the idea of shallow water above the gravel in the bog but it ended up getting smothered in string algae and then the frogs had little frogs and I had to deal with that mess till fall. I have since added more gravel with a couple of little pools for the dogs to drink out of and so far the plants haven't noticed.
No frogs here, but algae's everywhere, though the bog will get about 3-4hr of sun in summer/spring, so that should not be as much problem, or at least I've never found it an issue in my pond for some reason.
Plumbing now done, all that is left for me to finish the hole. But I am wondering about freezing and effects on it? I know some people here run all year, which I'd want to as well but this is a barrel, though it is a strong one I worry about it possibly cracking? I am not sure whether that's realistic when the whole barrel will be filled with rock etc. The barrel will be buried pretty much fully, so I assume that will help.
I only had freezing of the marginal zone in February, but that was a mild winter though this yet seems like another mild winter.
I ordered a 3/8 gravel bag, received it today, I've been using a bigger granulation, a small change in size makes a world of difference. I can move this size of gravel with my hands and easily plant. Couldn't find this locally, only found those white ones which I think are not great to deal with and just don't look natural at all.
It is a bit odd, people use the red 3/8 stuff as well and that looks sort of striking but natural, however just white rock to me looks quite bad.
I would like the color to be a bit darker with these whiter ones but I assume with time it'll get "dirty" over time.
I should be receiving the waterfall spillway tomorrow, I figured it's not worth it to mess around with gluing or putting on a pipe first then spillway.
It is a bit odd, people use the red 3/8 stuff as well and that looks sort of striking but natural, however just white rock to me looks quite bad.
I would like the color to be a bit darker with these whiter ones but I assume with time it'll get "dirty" over time.
I should be receiving the waterfall spillway tomorrow, I figured it's not worth it to mess around with gluing or putting on a pipe first then spillway.
Bog filter done, and failure.
Spillway I put on the top, water gets out of the barrel on the sides faster than it does get to the spillway. Now I am working with someone else to get this done, no real experience with bog filters. I don't think the barrel was set entirely level as the level on one side of the water is different than the other side. Now apparently putting it on the top of the barrel was the problem.
I think the barrel is not level, it's clearly angled towards the pond even a bit which causes this whole problem. If it were to be level then I don't know why would water would not be level and instead be angled towards the spillway. No point in talking about that now though, no way that's ever gonna be moved my human hands, though it looks to be level it certainly isn't 100%.
It seems it'll have to be cut in so the spillway looks like its poking out of the barrel instead of being on the top, the water reaches the spillway and then it starts going out the barrel, so I assume that'll resolve it, but now I have two holes in the spillway, now I think I gotta use liner inside the spillway.
On the bright side it looks fantastic, even though it's in a barrel when I filled it up with gravel, I don't have images but it looks superior to the trash can commercial filter that is 15-20x smaller, and I guess fish will like proper filtration.
Spillway I put on the top, water gets out of the barrel on the sides faster than it does get to the spillway. Now I am working with someone else to get this done, no real experience with bog filters. I don't think the barrel was set entirely level as the level on one side of the water is different than the other side. Now apparently putting it on the top of the barrel was the problem.
I think the barrel is not level, it's clearly angled towards the pond even a bit which causes this whole problem. If it were to be level then I don't know why would water would not be level and instead be angled towards the spillway. No point in talking about that now though, no way that's ever gonna be moved my human hands, though it looks to be level it certainly isn't 100%.
It seems it'll have to be cut in so the spillway looks like its poking out of the barrel instead of being on the top, the water reaches the spillway and then it starts going out the barrel, so I assume that'll resolve it, but now I have two holes in the spillway, now I think I gotta use liner inside the spillway.
On the bright side it looks fantastic, even though it's in a barrel when I filled it up with gravel, I don't have images but it looks superior to the trash can commercial filter that is 15-20x smaller, and I guess fish will like proper filtration.
Unsure how to remedy this, the barrel is not level, and moving it I don't think is really possible anymore. Ideally I'd cut in the spillway, right now it's screwed to the ring of the barrel, but I don't know how well that would work or hold.
The spillway fits, but gaps and void spaces exist because of the barrel shape. Sun was setting so didn't want to keep working on it, cutting this was really hard with just these garden scissors and I used a drill, that was annoying and hard work.
I've been given a suggestion to use silicon to make sure there are not gaps etc. I have yet to try it out though, most time today I spent on cutting this thing, cause I have no power tools that can pull that off easily.
All in all I wouldn't say its bad progress but I've never used silicone in my life to glue anything so that'll be another question mark. I thought about liner too because but my luck with overlaps was never good although I'm sure it would look better.
that will work for a time but it is going to clog . the reason river rock/ pea stone is used is because it it round and does not lock up. chips will clog very quickly and retain the solids
I find the best way is to draw out the liner, start with 1' on each edge for overlap then draw out the shelves along with measurments vertically and horizontally. it does not need to be to scale, as long as you have the measurment listed. If both edges are shevled the same you can double the total runout, minus this total runout from your liner size, the remander is bottom run.
1' overlap
1.5' depth of first shelf
2' width of shelf
2.5' for 4' deep
total is 7' if both sides are the same then 14'
23' - 14' = 9'
so 9' + 2' shelf + 2' shelf = 13' total pond length @ 4' deep with 2' wide shelves on each side.
1.5 x 13 x 10 x 7.48 = gal at first level = 1459
2.5 x 9 x 6 x 7.48 = gal in second level = 1010
Total 2469 gallons
I don't think I even got to 1500, to be honest I think I went too far even with this because at the beginning it was just a smaller wildlife pond type thing I think the only thing I may regret is not rocking the bottom cause then it would really look fantastic but I thought it's better to leave it for now see how it is, algae's already started covering it and when spring comes I think it'll just be a wall of algae, other than that I think the edging is great right now, plants are not in pots rather in voids etc.
If I could go back in time I'd make it so shelves are wider and I have a "bog", and what I mean by that is just like a very shallow shelf that's wide, now I may yet build some sort of intake bay in the future if all goes to plan which could act like that I guess.
I feel that the pond is not overstocked anymore. Bog filter's still in progress, I applied the silicone today, I added some more about 3hrs after and I'm just gonna leave it til 24 hrs pass, I think it's gonna hold ok but I may have a leak or two in the gaps, just my guess since I've never used it and so I don't know whether I applied in all the right places.
About an hour ago I'd basically given up on the idea of this working, went in gave it another shot and dug area around the spillway and had enough liner for it. Working, and looks well though I am not putting in rocks and all til its all done. However, the pump is weak, 2500l/h is seemingly not enough to make even a nice splash that you can hear. While the water does go from the bog to the pond fine, I want it to be an actual waterfall be it a small one. Any suggestions for the pump so that the water from pump is actually making a waterfall properly? The bog is 100g.
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I should be receiving the pump tomorrow maybe, the one I went for is EcoMax 8000, so about 3.5x the flow than my current one. I wanted to go for the variable flow ones like Jebao DCP 8500, but I could not find it.
Silicone is holding well, at least for now there seem to be no leaks.
Silicone is holding well, at least for now there seem to be no leaks.
I received the pump today, 8000l = 2000g an hour. And yet there is no difference. My assumption is water's being lost somewhere, the silicone is not holding, or maybe this is normal, and I am expecting too much. I think I am getting close to the part where I hang up the idea of a spillway because if this is normal there is no aeration.