Wanting a bog for natural filtration

[pugle1]

Topsoil dig is done.... time to tackle the clay

 

[sissy]

neat hole maybe you should hire yourself out

 

[pugle1]

neat hole maybe you should hire yourself out

I would, but I'm far too expensive..... I mean, top quality deserves top dollar, am I not right? I mean look at that work of art! Does that not just yell out "quality" to you?.... lol

 

[HARO]

And you were playing tennis while digging!!! What an ARTISTE!
John
Yeah, I know.... but EVERYBODY zaps bugs in Ontario!

 

[pugle1]

lol John.... was also bbq'ing half a pig too but shhhh ... don't tell anyone.... one day when it's all done, I'll have you all over for bbq. Just placed the liner and did some adjustments to find the water level. The liner was a little smaller than required...... or errrr ... did I make the hole too big. No worries. I have a plan

 

[ZmanArt007]

Looks good, I have a question though. Are you going to be able to get your pump to pump water out of the bog at the correct speed? Neither too slow so that the bog overflows or too fast that it drains the bog quicker than it fills? How are you going to synchronize it?

 

[pugle1]

Looks good, I have a question though. Are you going to be able to get your pump to pump water out of the bog at the correct speed? Neither too slow so that the bog overflows or too fast that it drains the bog quicker than it fills? How are you going to synchronize it?

Sadly, I need to work with the pond I built 3 years ago. It's going to feed the bog via a small creek, and I'm just going to move my current pump from the main pond down to the bog. I know it's not the ideal situation as the water flow will be a little fast through the bog. I plan to counter this ( the effectiveness of the bog at filtering ) using biocenosis planting baskets along the outside edges of the bog. More plants will be planted directly into the gravel bed. What I think is going to happen is this... the bog is shallow, but wide. The flow should remain the same as it is now as it's just a pump recirculating, however the way the plants will be planted should disperse the flow so that it travels more slowly through the bog. I'd like to add a small sump or vacuum style pump to the deep part of the main pond and run that to my filter above the waterfall so as to take care of any settled waste that won't flow out the stream to the bog.

 

[herzausstahl]

Sadly, I need to work with the pond I built 3 years ago. It's going to feed the bog via a small creek, and I'm just going to move my current pump from the main pond down to the bog. I know it's not the ideal situation as the water flow will be a little fast through the bog. I plan to counter this ( the effectiveness of the bog at filtering ) using biocenosis planting baskets along the outside edges of the bog. More plants will be planted directly into the gravel bed. What I think is going to happen is this... the bog is shallow, but wide. The flow should remain the same as it is now as it's just a pump recirculating, however the way the plants will be planted should disperse the flow so that it travels more slowly through the bog. I'd like to add a small sump or vacuum style pump to the deep part of the main pond and run that to my filter above the waterfall so as to take care of any settled waste that won't flow out the stream to the bog.

I wouldn't worry as much about the flow into the bog. You know the pump being placed in there will "pull" the water through the gravel. The water won't drain into the bog overfilling it because only what your removing via the pump is coming back down. As for daring the bog too quick, my stream is set up this way with a 4280 gph pump in about a 1000-1200 gallon pond and no issues with that so far.

 

[pugle1]

I wouldn't worry as much about the flow into the bog. You know the pump being placed in there will "pull" the water through the gravel. The water won't drain into the bog overfilling it because only what your removing via the pump is coming back down. As for daring the bog too quick, my stream is set up this way with a 4280 gph pump in about a 1000-1200 gallon pond and no issues with that so far.

The bog overflowing wasn't my concern. I know that'll be alright as it's a closed system just recirculating. I'm more concerned with how effective the bog will be based on the speed of the flow though it, although I suppose being a closed system with a short recirculation time the amount of nutrients that are removed will be decided by how many plants are in there, and how much algae and bacterium growing surface I have.

We're going to work on the connecting stream this weekend, then hopefully the gravel and some plants within the next couple weeks. I already have some pea gravel and river stone, but not nearly enough yet.

 

[addy1]

My bog has a pretty high flow rate, almost all of 6800 gph goes through it, (it is big) but even with that flow it does a great job.

 

[pugle1]

My system is 5000 gph, so I'm guessing everything should be alright.

 

[pugle1]

The start of the stream...

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Did you happen to consider a plan for removing the pump for maintenance? Judging from what I read above, I get the impression that you're planning on just piling gravel on and around the pump box, which would be horrible to try and work with later on. If you don't already have a plan, what about opening up one side of the box, and leaving a small area at the bottom of the bog completely open? It would give you easy access to the pump, an open area to quickly see the water level after if comes through the gravel, and you would have a nice spot away from hungry fish to allow hyacinths and water lettuce to grow.

 

[pugle1]

Did you happen to consider a plan for removing the pump for maintenance? Judging from what I read above, I get the impression that you're planning on just piling gravel on and around the pump box, which would be horrible to try and work with later on. If you don't already have a plan, what about opening up one side of the box, and leaving a small area at the bottom of the bog completely open? It would give you easy access to the pump, an open area to quickly see the water level after if comes through the gravel, and you would have a nice spot away from hungry fish to allow hyacinths and water lettuce to grow.

Hi Shdwdrgn, Just temporarily I have a plastic tupperware type container in place at the farthest end of the "bog" ( it's not a bog yet, just a shallow pond with liner only). I've allowed enough material at that end to put in a proper skimmer later on. Thanks for your concern. the purpose of the tupperware container is to act as a skimmer of sorts to keep my pump separated from the stone, so it'll be sitting in its own little resevoire. There'll be no fish in that part of the system as I have them all in the top deeper pond. I have an over abundance of toad tadpoles... There are frogs here too, but I don't seem to attract very many at present. I'm hoping the bog will though.

Currently my pump is just sitting near the base of my waterfall among the mint plants. Daily maintainance requires me to clean off the pump's grill at the moment.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Ugh I know about that daily maintenance... I've been having a huge problem with string algae, despite all the other plants in the pond which should have been sucking up the nutrients. Chunks of the string algae break loose all the time, so I have to clean the pump screens once or twice a week, but when the moon is full and the fish start spawning (and knocking everything loose) it becomes a daily activity. I'm still pulling about a gallon of algae out of my pond every week, not including what I clean from the pumps.