Wanting a bog for natural filtration

[pugle1]

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.

Mine is 1200 gal or slightly less. I dump 2 litres of 3% hydrogen peroxide (drug store) on an as needed basis to control the string algae. Too many nutrients. This is why I want the bog... hopefully that will eat up some nutrients for me. The 3% hp doesn't kill the string per se, but it does keep it under control for me. You need a good amount of sunlight for it to work though. When I use it, I end up with baseball sized wads of algae in my filter sock. After a few days I can see the rocks and stone in the pond again, but the string always comes back after a week or 2. Right now, I'm dealing with filters full of sumac blossoms.... stupid me... I planted males instead of the fruit bearing females...lol. That will last another week or so until they're done. Oh well, they sure fill in nicely and make it look like the waterfall is coming out of a tropical forest. It's a nice look.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I have a small rake I use to twirl up the algae like cotton candy, then use some rose shears to cut it off the rake. I tried hitting the pond with peroxide after a heavy cleaning a few weeks ago, pouring it straight onto the waterfall and other heavy areas, then turning the pumps back on after a few minutes to start circulating the water again... It didn't make any difference. Maybe if I poured some peroxide into a bucket and dunked each of the rocks around the edges that have the worst algae growing off them, it might help, but its also growing off the plants and directly off the liner.

 

[addy1]

In arizona, I used to dump in 1 liter per 1000 gallons, once a year, it wiped out the string until the next summer. For that pond I would dump in 14 liters.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Maybe I'll try 2 liters next weekend...

 

[addy1]

Maybe I'll try 2 liters next weekend...

lots of water movement and air...................

 

[pugle1]

For my pond I find it works well, but not for the whole summer addy1. It seems to work well for a week or 2, then it slowly comes back. By week 3 or 4, I need to treat again with another 2 litres.
... water movement, air and sunlight.... if I treat on cloudy days, I find it's not nearly as effective.

 

[addy1]

Maybe it was just luck, the string would be gone for the summer after one treatment. It grew like trees in my arizona pond. Hot water, hot sun......algae......

 

[pugle1]

OK..... got the extra hose, clamps, connectors, and a good outdoor extension cord (100') that I can hide behind the tall grass and sumac trees. I should have the river to the bog going after work tomorrow ( hope I finish my shift early enough ). Will post some pics when it's running..... then the gravel... then the stone.. then the plants... then the.... etc, etc....lol

P.S. This is what I like hearing sitting next to my pond...
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/e2PUhbN99Jc?list=PL41378F5D72BB24B0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[pugle1]

The river is running ... errr, rather the babbling brook. We discovered some low spots on the bank of the main pond, so that means moving all the landscaping rocks, lifting the liner, and adding a little soil to make the bank higher. So far so good My grand daughter caught her first fish today! (a plastic one with a magnetic fishing rod). Here's a few pics of what we have so far.... such a long road ahead...lol. .... just when we got the main pond finished and looking good too! Sheesh!72785[/ATTACH=full]

 

[addy1]

Cute doggie and kid! Looking good, always forward and backward steps when building..................

 

[Lisak1]

We use sodium percarbonate to clean up the string algae in the spring. The first year we had to treat every few weeks pretty much through the summer. This year (year three of using it) we treated twice in the spring and have had no string algae since.

This is the same product that is packaged and sold as waterfall and rock cleaning products by pond supply companies. We buy it from a soap making supply company for a fraction of the cost. We just shut down the pump, sprinkle it on the algae, wait about 20 minutes and start the pump up again. Within 24 hours the algae is gone. The powder breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and soda ash when it comes in contact with the water.

If you have a lot of string algae you'll want to be ready with a net to scoop up the stuff that dies and floats loose right away. You do want to be careful not to leave a lot of dead and dying algae in the pond. When we first started using it, we would manually remove as much of the algae as we could before treating so there was less to scoop out after.

In early spring we sprinkle it liberally over the entire pond surface and it brings debris up from the pond floor to make it easy to scoop up and discard. We swear by the stuff - it's fish and plant safe, easy to use, and inexpensive when you buy it from non-pond related sources.

Our bog is our only filtration for our pond as well. Most of our water flows through the bog (we have a small side stream where we divert a small amount of water). We have a variable speed pump so we can change the water flow as desired.

Good work, by the way - looks great!

 

[pugle1]

First pic is a bit of a private joke (all references to Algonquin Park and last year's canoe trip) The second one is the start of landscaping the brook.

 

[RobAmy]

The brook is coming along nicely

 

[ZmanArt007]

Haha I'm pretty sure if I was building something like this and planning on it being a bog, I would have changed my mind and just left it as two ponds, which wouldn't have helped filtration at all...

It looks really good I'm excited to see it finished and planted.

 

[pugle1]

Haha I'm pretty sure if I was building something like this and planning on it being a bog, I would have changed my mind and just left it as two ponds, which wouldn't have helped filtration at all...

It looks really good I'm excited to see it finished and planted.

Thanks Zman. The bottom one is too shallow to be a good pond, however it will be filled with winter hardy (mostly native) marginals and shallow water plants. I have two hyacinths floating around in it right now and transplanted some of the mares tails and mint plants. I'm looking forward to splitting up my iris and mini-cats. Next year, lots of duckweed and a few more iris. Found a bunch on the web that are good to zone 3. I'm in 5b. I'll keep posting update photos as I progress. Oh yes.... saw cardinal flowers growing in Algonquin for the first time last September. Think I'll get some of those too