Bog addition?

[taherrmann4]

With all these people talking about building a bog it has gotten me thinking about doing one and I have always wanted one. The challenge for me has been where to locate it and today I was out walking around and thought of a place it might work. Here is my current set up. My external pump takes the water from the skimmer up a pipe to the top of my hill, it splits and one goes to my other two creeks and the other one goes to my filter falls. The place I was thinking about putting my bog is to the right of my filter falls and splitting the pipe again so basically cutting the volume going to the current filter in half the other half going to the bog. I don't think this should be a problem it will just allow the water to stay in my filter longer (it probably goes through it faster than it should anyway) and I should end up with the same amount of volume coming down my waterfall b/c the bog will exit right next to my filter falls now. In the pic the red outline is the bog, the blue lines are where the bog will enter the creek, and the yellow is the water line feeding the bog that is split from the filter.

Does this sound correct?

The other thing is you said your bog is only 27% of your surface area, is there a minimum amount?

In the article you wrote you said that most bogs are only 12" deep is it more effective if you go deeper?

Here is a pic of where I am thinking about putting it, some grasses / perennials will have to be transplanted.

Do you ever drain the bog? Is it ok if it freezes even with the plumbing lines?

Thanks. And don't laugh at the drawing...

 

[sissy]

well won't comment on your scribbles then .But that would be a interesting place for a bog on your stream ,I 'm guessing you will pump into the bog and it will flow back out to the stream .Is the stream deep enough and would the water have a chance to back up into the bog .I'm not sure how bogs work but was just wondering about that .It looks like the area is up a slight hill so not sure ,but bogs do sound interesting and thought of just building one myself that would just be connected to a pondless water fall .I like the plants you can put in a bog .

 

[taherrmann4]

Sissy I guess I should have stated that the bog is going to have to be above ground a bit to keep it above the stream.

 

[sissy]

So you are going to add to dirt to raise it up higher ,it looks like an upslope there where you have drawn at .I have been looking at bog building on you tube and seems there are a lot of bogs out there maybe you can find one on there built on a stream .I know addy is on a cruise now and has her snorkle gear with her just in case

 

[sissy]

forgot the crazy fish farmer has a video showing how a bog works and he also has a sight www.thecrazyfishfarmer.com and he built a bog in the back of a chevy truck .You have to see the one with the concrete elephant standing next to the pond how great .That was sublime water garden .

 

[addy1]

lol back now Sissy the boat stayed afloat, it is just like being in a car a plane, you never know when something might go wrong. We did notice people actually paid attention during the safety muster.

With all these people talking about building a bog it has gotten me thinking about doing one and I have always wanted one. The challenge for me has been where to locate it and today I was out walking around and thought of a place it might work. Here is my current set up. My external pump takes the water from the skimmer up a pipe to the top of my hill, it splits and one goes to my other two creeks and the other one goes to my filter falls. The place I was thinking about putting my bog is to the right of my filter falls and splitting the pipe again so basically cutting the volume going to the current filter in half the other half going to the bog. I don't think this should be a problem it will just allow the water to stay in my filter longer (it probably goes through it faster than it should anyway) and I should end up with the same amount of volume coming down my waterfall b/c the bog will exit right next to my filter falls now. In the pic the red outline is the bog, the blue lines are where the bog will enter the creek, and the yellow is the water line feeding the bog that is split from the filter.

>>>>> I have no other filtering except for the bog, splitting your flow between the bog and the filter you pond should do great. I have leaf baskets to keep large junk from going into the bog.

Does this sound correct?

The other thing is you said your bog is only 27% of your surface area, is there a minimum amount?

>>>> my bog is about 25 x 5 feet, the pond is about 25 by 10 to 20 foot wide. The surface area is pure guess, it can be any surface area. If you read about ponds, including koi ponds, that are only filtered by a bog they have the larger surface areas in the bog to increase the filtering.

In the article you wrote you said that most bogs are only 12" deep is it more effective if you go deeper?

>>>>>> per the net most are only 12 inches, the reason being the plant roots per the net don't go deeper. I have moved some of the bog plants, those roots go way down. It will work at 12 inches, I wanted more depth, i.e. more filtering, more area for plant roots. And the crazy tractor driver made the hole that deep, 2.5 feet lol so that is how deep the bog ended up being. 2800 lbs of pea gravel

Here is a pic of where I am thinking about putting it, some grasses / perennials will have to be transplanted.

Do you ever drain the bog? Is it ok if it freezes even with the plumbing lines?

>>>>> I have drained mine twice, to work on the piping, ow it never gets drained. Each timed I drained it no muck came out, so it, imho opinion is doing great, and the pond water stays great all summer. The piping is under enough pea gravel I doubt they freeze. The first winter (2010) it was cold the pond froze 8 inches deep, the piping was undamaged. The plants did very well, a few did not come back, but they were marginal to survive in our area. The bog was frozen, pretty solid for over 2 months.

Thanks. And don't laugh at the drawing...

love the drawing! My bog surface area is higher than the pond surface by about a six inches or so it waterfalls into the pond.

 

[sissy]

Have you looked at some of the fancy bogs on you tube addy they are interesting and a couple show you mock ups so you can see how a bog works and some of these ponds with bogs are something to look at especially the one with the elephant

 

[addy1]

haven't sissy but will, trying to get caught up from being gone. I love my bog, and like to look at other ones.

 

[fishin4cars]

Todd, I have been wondering about the depth of the pea gravel as well. I'm considering going 18 inches deep. I'm still tossing ideas around. I've got two ponds in the idea stages. One full blown koi, one a more natural look and primarily for plants but will have some fish for sure. The one that I plan on going natural I was thinking a bog of about 25%-35% of the surface area of the pond and staying with the filter falls like your planning, But running two skimmers one to the filter falls and one to the bog. Plus adding a bottom drain and have it feeding to the skimmer and going to a seperation mechanical type filter before the filter falls. the other skimmer just being filter through the matala pads straight back to the bog and small water fall. the planted pond I'm going to go 36" deep except for the area where the drain is and sloping down to about 42" at the drain, valve it so I can shut the drain down during really cold spells so the water is less disturbed.
On your set up You probably already know but don't reduce your pipe down, keep it the same size even after the split and I would put control valves in so you can regulate what and how much water goes where. My bet you'll have to pinch back the filter falls to get more pressure through the pea gravel. for this reason you may not want to go much deeper than 12'-18" of gravel so there won't be to much backpressure to deal with.

 

[addy1]

Here is a nice write up on bogs

http://www.oregonaquatics.com/pond_planner/basics.htm

 

[taherrmann4]

Todd, I have been wondering about the depth of the pea gravel as well. I'm considering going 18 inches deep. I'm still tossing ideas around. I've got two ponds in the idea stages. One full blown koi, one a more natural look and primarily for plants but will have some fish for sure. The one that I plan on going natural I was thinking a bog of about 25%-35% of the surface area of the pond and staying with the filter falls like your planning, But running two skimmers one to the filter falls and one to the bog. Plus adding a bottom drain and have it feeding to the skimmer and going to a seperation mechanical type filter before the filter falls. the other skimmer just being filter through the matala pads straight back to the bog and small water fall. the planted pond I'm going to go 36" deep except for the area where the drain is and sloping down to about 42" at the drain, valve it so I can shut the drain down during really cold spells so the water is less disturbed.
On your set up You probably already know but don't reduce your pipe down, keep it the same size even after the split and I would put control valves in so you can regulate what and how much water goes where. My bet you'll have to pinch back the filter falls to get more pressure through the pea gravel. for this reason you may not want to go much deeper than 12'-18" of gravel so there won't be to much backpressure to deal with.

I don't really want to go deeper than 18" will probably be staying around 12". Does the bottom of the bog have to be level, I don't think it would matter?

Here is a nice write up on bogs

http://www.oregonaqu...nner/basics.htm

Thanks addy. What type of plants did you plant in yours? Did you plant your carnivorous ones in there, I thought I remember you having some of these.

The wife liked the idea so if I get in the mood it looks like I might end up doing this. Still trying to lay it out and get an overall picture of what it will look like. I don't plan on digging down at all but rather building a rock wall about 12" tall and putting the bog in there. I need to try and make it fit in with the rest of my landscaping so that will mean hauling lots of more rock to build the wall up. And I thought I was done hauling rocks. LOL.

 

[addy1]

I have a few carnivorous plants in the pond bog, most are in land bogs. The bottom does not need to be level, mine was level, sort of, for the long run of piping,

I have a bunch of different plants here is a list

Obediant plant
black gamecock iris
dwarf golden sweetflag
dwarf cattails
parrots feather
Water Willow
green creeping Jenny
Marsh betony

4 leaf water clover
fuzzy 4 leaf water clover
mini spearwort
white star grass
water mint
blue water forget me not
water iris soft pinkkirk strawn
4 left water clover variegated
day lilies

 

[taherrmann4]

Addy, what if I sectioned part of the bog off say a 4x3 area. This section would still be part of the bog but have a stone wall that keeps the gravel back that is in the rest of the bog but is still part of the bog. I want to be able to plant some lotus in there. Thoughts?

 

[addy1]

That could work, remember the lotus like water, i.e. to float their leaves. My lotus are in tubs in a 300 gallon stock tank, about a foot plus water over the top of the soil. My pond bog has gravel higher than the water level.

Just read what you typed again..........lol, the wall would keep your bog area full of gravel, the lotus area would be water. My lotus tank is about 2.5 feet deep.

 

[HARO]

For what it's worth, I was consulted on a pond build several years ago where the owner (and his contractor) had built a wall behind the koi pond with huge chunks of limestone ( in the range of 12 to 16 feet long, 4 to 6 feet wide, and 3 feet high ). The total height of the wall was about 15', and the length over 50'. Behind this wall is a lined bog filled with gravel. Three pumps feed water to this bog, and the water returns to the pond via five separate waterfalls, each about 15' high. The water level in the bog is about 8" below the top of the gravel. The builder wanted ideas for plants to use in the bog, which was the reason he called me. Personally, I doubt if this bog will work as efficiently as the owner hopes, and I sure am glad I'll never have to shovel out all that gravel!!!!!
And by the way, the pond itself was about 15' by 20', and 5' deep.
John