Bog design considerations

[addy1]

in my case I pull water from about a foot off the bottom. I have minimal debris on the bottom.
My bog water is crystal clear also. And the pond is crystal clear.

 

[Nevermore44]

Do either of you have to net your ponds? Ie: once a year?

 

[addy1]

Do either of you have to net your ponds? Ie: once a year?

Bird only net on 24/7. It does not stop leaves. But the way my pond is built and pure luck I don't get a lot of leaves in the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

Do either of you have to net your ponds? Ie: once a year?

We don't net our pond. We get a few leaves, but not enough to go to all the effort to net.

 

[terraglen]

@addy1: May I ask, what is the substrate of your (largest) pond?

 

[addy1]

@addy1: May I ask, what is the substrate of your (largest) pond?

All of the ponds, except the lotus pond, are bare liner. The big pond a bit of pea gravel, kitty litter has drifted in over the years. A pretty shallow layer of it.
This is the 5 foot deep area. You can see my lowes bucket with holes, it is around the intake pipe.

This is the bottom of the 1000 gallon stock tank, just some hornwort and lilies.
A lot of these fish are gone mr heron torn through the net and had a snack on my fan tails and the big gal.

The lotus pond is a foot of kitty litter, with lotus free running.

 

[terraglen]

Your water is so clear... all that patterning on the bottom is aquatic plant growth, then?

(thanks for the photos)

 

[addy1]

The blue pattern is the color of the stock tank. It also has hornwort growing. The big pond, the pattern is some hornwort / anacharis growing, huge trap door snails, some pea gravel

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

I am in NW IN I have a 19,000 gallon pond that runs 24/7 year round. I am pumping 17,000 gal.of water per hr. I added a 4'x26'x2' bog with a 2" pvc pipe in the bottom of the bog. I covered the pipe with Lava Rock for good bacteria to live in, and some Pea gravel on top. Pea gravel will plug up easier than the Lava rock. I am pumping 5,700 gal. of water per hr. into my bog area. I have 3 waterfalls, 1 water fall is fed by a 16' mountain stream that is fed from a small upper pond. My pond has been running for about 15 years, for the last 5 years the only filtration I use is the bog and 2 leaf skimmers. This pond is all natural without the use of any UV or chemical use and it stays crystal clear. Praise the Lord !

 

[KDubU]

I am in NW IN I have a 19,000 gallon pond that runs 24/7 year round. I am pumping 17,000 gal.of water per hr. I added a 4'x26'x2' bog with a 2" pvc pipe in the bottom of the bog. I covered the pipe with Lava Rock for good bacteria to live in, and some Pea gravel on top. Pea gravel will plug up easier than the Lava rock. I am pumping 5,700 gal. of water per hr. into my bog area. I have 3 waterfalls, 1 water fall is fed by a 16' mountain stream that is fed from a small upper pond. My pond has been running for about 15 years, for the last 5 years the only filtration I use is the bog and 2 leaf skimmers. This pond is all natural without the use of any UV or chemical use and it stays crystal clear. Praise the Lord !

Any pics you can share? Sounds like an incredible setup.

 

[terraglen]

@Dave's pond Indiana :This is a great data point. I am thinking about using a slightly higher flow rate than I have seen commonly used, closer to one full turnover/hour as you have done. Once the bog is established, the efficiency limiting step for the whole filter should be rate of mass transport through the roots of the plants. Increasing the flow rate should improve this efficiency (to a point) .

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

If the flow rate through your bog is to fast it will serve as a mechanical filter more than a bio filter. A bog filter will serve as a 3 in 1 filter meaning 1) as a mechanical filter that will polish your water, 2) as a bio filter by providing a place for good bacteria to live. and 3) the plants will feed on the food supply that the algae needs to survive. Feel free to correct me if my line of thought is incorrect. Thank you Dave

 

[terraglen]

@Dave's pond Indiana : I was thinking about a 2000 gph pump in a 2000 gallon pond. I freely admit that I've chosen this mostly because it's just a little more flow than I've seen other people use, and I just want to see how it works. It's very easy to get less flow in the system if needed.

 

[Ronfire]

My current bog is in a 90 gallon stock tank. At time of shutting down the pump for the winter I had to disconnect the hose at the bottom to stop water returning to the pond. ( new bog wont have this problem). In the spring when I reconected the bog I had to drain the water to connect the hose. The water stunk verey badly like a sewer but did not seen to cause a problem for the fish when I stared it up and the water tested fine. My surprise was that most of the plants have not returned including the bull rush.

 

[Lisak1]

The water stunk verey badly like a sewer

That's pond muck - stinky but not harmful. If you re-pot lilies, you'll get a whiff of the same smell.

My surprise was that most of the plants have not returned including the bull rush.

If it's an above ground exposed stock tank, they may have frozen. Being exposed to the air would make the tank that much colder than if it were an in ground bog. Same with a plant that's in the ground versus one in a pot - while both are planted in soil, the one in the pot would freeze much harder than the one in the ground.