Taking water from bottom of the pond and sending it to a bog filter. Is this crazy?

[GBBUDD]

um... "linger" time

MAN ARE YOU SQUARE ITS
H A NG.
T I M E

 

[Lisak1]

MAN ARE YOU SQUARE ITS
H A NG.
T I M E

Good grief... now who's hitting the vino?

It's going to make me nutty until I think of it - WHAT IS THE WORD?

 

[combatwombat]

Good grief... now who's hitting the vino?

It's going to make me nutty until I think of it - WHAT IS THE WORD?

Dwell time?

 

[brokensword]

Dwell time?

yes, CW's got it; dwell time.

My thoughts, if anyone cares; I don't see a problem with the whole idea of pushing debris toward the pump and into the bog, BUT only if you intend on truly flushing/back flushing. It will clog; happened to me, and when it does, if you don't backflush, you dig it up and clean it by hand. Trust me, not fun. That said, I also was a bit undersized with bog v1 and was pushing from the pond bottom. Rectified both aspects and it's too soon to really see how bog v2 is working, but the theory for success is in place.

@Lisak1 ; what I did, ala Meyer's advice, was to create a prefilter for my bog v1. It definitely was eye opening with what I was washing off in my mech prefilter. If you google/search for 'sock filter', I believe it might be something worth considering. The basic idea is from the aquarium trade, but I made it 'pond size'. It means getting some fine nylon mesh and creating a sock filter, which can be inverted and washed out, then replaced to use again. It requires a 'container' (I used a 55 gal drum, top open) and pushed water into the top and into the sock where it filtered out the fines and returned to the pond via an out port down low. If you're really interested, let me know and I'll resurrect the diagram for building it. It's in one of my posts a few years back, if you want to search.

Anyway, what's nice is you can filter out whatever level of fines you wish; I got nylon mesh in 100, 200 (typically what I used), 300 and 400 micron. The 400 had to be rinsed daily whereas the 200 was more like every 3-4 days. It will do the job and once built, doesn't cost more than about 5 minutes with the hose.

I've tried both slow flow through the bog and fast and haven't really seen much difference, though believe the slow is ultimately better. Helps to have a very large bog now as I think it matters a bit less.

Just my thoughts.

 

[GBBUDD]

Suspension anyone ?

 

[Lisak1]

DWELL TIME! Oh my gosh. Now I can relax!

Thanks for the info @brokensword - a pre-filter definitely makes sense. I just don't have the space for a permanent set up, so I'm going to try the box filter and see how long it takes to clean up the current level of floating business. I figure once I get it cleared, I may run it a few times each year just to keep things under control. I'm honestly surprised it took us this long to get to the point we're at, since we literally have no mechanical filtration.

 

[combatwombat]

@brokensword: How often do you backflush your bog? Have you had to yet? Did it work?

@Lisak1: You mentioned you have 4 pumps running now? Would you share what each one is for (and where it's placed)? Curious to know how you got to where you are with that pumping set up.

Suspension anyone ?

In school, or at home? Mom was very mad when I got the latter...

 

[Lisak1]

We have a pump in our pondless waterfall, which is separate from the pond, one in the pond proper, one in the patio pond and one in the stacked slate sphere water feature in the front yard. All Aquascape, all working great.

 

[GBBUDD]

I never got suspended. Detentions well. Sat next to the principle a couple days maybe. But never suspended always talked my way out of it...... dwell time w.t.h must be a flat lander thing

 

[combatwombat]

I never got suspended. Detentions well. Sat next to the principle a couple days maybe. But never suspended always talked my way out of it...... dwell time w.t.h must be a flat lander thing

I was suspended for 1 day when I cussed out my science lab partner for burning me with a bunson burner. I was hopping all over the lab shouting every curse word I knew at him. Teacher sent us both to the principal's office, where our vice principal took great pleasure in repeating back to me everything I called the other kid as he explained why I had to go home for a day.

Tyler, it says here that you called Kyle "a ***ing careless piece of **** ***hole" and then said "**** you, you ****ing ****." Is that correct?

Yes, sir. That's pretty close to what I said.

Ah, memory lane. Now about those pond details...

 

[brokensword]

@brokensword: How often do you backflush your bog? Have you had to yet? Did it work?

I tried with bog v1 and found it a pita. Problem was, the original directions were sketchy on two items; 1. dig your bog walls to it's shaped like a V and 2. you need a pond pump's worth of flow and pressure to make it work. I tried doing it with a hose and my original bog walls were straight down. I actually talked to the pond professional (in Alabama) about it, after the fact. So, I can't say I've ever done it successfully. That time, I had to dig everything up and wash it by hand, and put it back. I was suffering from both overgrown roots/plants and some clogging. My bog v1 was approx 4'x4'x40 inches. Wouldn't have been bad except I used large rock on the bottom followed by intermediate sized rock, then the pea gravel. The pea gravel came up fine, it was the other rock that wouldn't come up without me actually working the shovel and hands around it.

Bog v2 has only been going since mid 2019 and I haven't had any real issues. I used to prefilter that one too (with two 55 gallon drum sock filters) but saw my plants weren't as green on the far bog end and I felt the 'gravity feed' outflow from the prefilters wasn't as effective as making the pump push it the full 20'. It's working better since and I haven't suffered (much) from no prefilter. I used to have to clean the sock filters (spray them off, 5 minutes max, put them back) every day or so and they did get out fines. I worried when I stopped using the prefilters that I might get less clarity but so far, it hasn't developed. Sometimes, esp when I mess with the underwater items or bog proper, I stir things up and that's when I wish the prefilter was still working, but most times, it's fine after a day of settling. I really think it helps to keep the pump off the bottom. I installed a 30 gallon Rubbermade trash can as my pump vault/cleanout in bog v2 and had only iris in it but since water will flow on the path of least resistance, it started to flow up my garbage can cleanout and over, despite a 6" higher lip. So, filled it in with pea gravel and now it can't get out that way, though I will have to dig it out when/if I ever decide I need to backflush or clean. Will be a piece of cake compared to my first experience.

 

[combatwombat]

@brokensword: Is water blowing out your snorkel not indication that you need to backflush because the filter has become clogged? Or maybe just plant roots have gotten too dense?

In that case, I'm starting to think I may want a cap I can seal pretty tight on the snorkel to prevent water using it as the easiest path.

 

[Rashad]

Hey cool people in this thread, help me decide about my similar question... https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/dual-inlet-pond-plumbing-questions.29049/

 

[combatwombat]

So, maybe I'll forget about jetting / pumping the bottom of the pond and build something like this instead to blast any gunk out once or twice a year. Kind of looks like fun:

 

[brokensword]

@brokensword: Is water blowing out your snorkel not indication that you need to backflush because the filter has become clogged? Or maybe just plant roots have gotten too dense?

In that case, I'm starting to think I may want a cap I can seal pretty tight on the snorkel to prevent water using it as the easiest path.

possibly but you have to figure the area with gravel and roots vs an opening without any resistance at all is going to look good to water being forced to rise. Once I filled it with pea gravel, the water then chose to funnel up alongside the garbage can, but not so much that the rest of the bog isn't also perking. I'm keeping an eye on it and if the far end slows down but the water continues to push alongside the can, I'll begin sorting it out. In the past, I may have been too lazy/unconcerned about plant roots and their clog-ability.

But yes, by all means, get some sort of cap (and I'd even put some sort of fliter pad just below in case you still have a push that way as it'll eventually clog and stop any miscellaneous flow that way). I did do something like this with bog v1's vault.