Bog finished.....mostly

[brandonsdad02]

Well after much thought, lots of questions, and a whole bunch of hard work, I can say I got my bog done. I was kinda hard to place since the pond had been enlarged this spring and had to be fenced in because my wife runs a state register in home daycare. The way my ground is around the pond, there was no way I could have dug it in, so i built above ground. Its a large triangle with the long end corner dumping into the pond. Its 18" deep and has almost 3,000 lbs of pea gravel in it. I have
1 1/2" pvc pipe running down the center with the slots cut about 1/3 of the way thru on the bottom. I have my 3,600gph main pump feeding that and my waterfall. I used landscape timbers to make the frame with and put a liner inside. The landscape timbers look nice with my log benches that I made to go around the pond. The water is still pretty cloudy from all the gravel, but its starting to clear up nice. Will post some pictures when I get somemore time.

 

[j.w]

Sounds great Ryan and would love to see some pix!

 

[addy1]

Neat looking forward to pictures, hope you love yours as much as I love mine. Keeps my pond perfect and algae free.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Well as promised, here are some pictures of my newly made bog.

Here is a shot of what it looked like before the bog went in.

I started this on a Sunday afternoon after spending that previous few days doing a lot of research, reading all 33 pages of Addy1 pond build thread, asking some questions and finally getting the wifey on board with this idea. It wasn't hard to convice her once I had her watch the fish cam Addy1 has set up.

This is what I ended up with.

The rest are just pictures that I took of it. I was so hot and sweaty building this on Sunday, I didn't even think to take pictures as I went. Took me 4 hours to get the frame built and get it level. The rest was easy.

It doesn't look that big from the front as you walk in the pond area, but this is take from the back side of the chain link fence.

This is my filter basket that I made from a small basket thingy I took from the daycare toys. They won't miss it for a few days.

This is after 2 days of running.

I wanted the bog to look like the benches that I made for watching the pond at night. Thats our favorite time to go out there. Its all lit up at night with 12 underwater lights.

A few weeks ago I ran a water line down to the pond from the house out of 1/2" pvc pipe. I got tired of having the hose ran across the backyard.

Everything was made with winter in mind. I have the water line hooked up to the water thingy on the house and it run about 10' in hose until it goes to the pvc line that starts under the deck. At the pond, just beyond the tee riser pipe I have a plug that I take out and the water line is drained. The pvc running to the bog has a rubber coupler just right before it 90's up to go into the bog. Just unscrew that connection and the bog is ready for winter.

I have a few more plants coming from Addy1 which will make it complete. I will post pics when I get those planted.

 

[addy1]

Looking good there! like the way you built it, fits right in with your build

 

[j.w]

Looks really great w/ the rest of your pond and property Ryan. And you did a wonderful job!

 

[brandonsdad02]

Thank you. The field you see behind the pond is where I got most of my rocks for the pond. The MASSIVE granite boulder was in the front of the house at the end of the driveway. I pulled it to the pond area last year with a 4wheeler and a tow strap. Well we never got around to placing it so it was the time out rock for the kids. This year during the rebuild the wife and I shoved it inch by inch to where it sits now. That thing must weight about 200lbs.

I was thinking about planting some sort of vine plant at the top of the bog wall and have it come down the sides of the wood. Any ideas on that?

 

[addy1]

creeping jenny would do that, might be easier to control than a vine, stick its roots in the bog, direct the branches to the wall. There are a lot of ground covers that would look really neat growing down the wall.

 

[don't ask]

looks nice ryan... did you find a new time out spot/rock?

 

[brandonsdad02]

They have to sit on the retaining wall block that we have around the fire pit. We have a area right off of our patio from our walk out basement that we rocked and have a fire pit in the middle.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Got eveything finished with the bog. Got the plants from addy yesterday and got them planted this morning. I just can't believe how fast the water cleared up after it was up and running. Have had some tads end up in the bog. Not sure how they made it there because the only way possible is thru the pump and pvc then up thru all the gravel. Think we are going to Menards today to pick up some landscape light cable and I'm going to put some lights in the bog. Will only be putting them around the edge as I don't want the cable connections in the water.

 

[j.w]

Maybe there was some tad eggs stuck on a plant and they were ready to hatch and voila instant babies!

 

[brandonsdad02]

Everything has been going nice with the new bog. Got all the plants put in over the weekend and then put some landscape lights in the bog. I made sure that all the connections were out of the water. My pond was running clear by last friday. Not too bad since on monday it was chocolate milk. I just can't believe how well it filters everything. Starting to get some string algae in the bog but I know that it came from some of the plants I got from my friend in Des Moines. She has been dealing with string algae all year. Still unsure how that tads got in the bog. I had some hatch in the pond a few days before I made the bog so the only way I could think is they went thru all the gravel. Has anyone ever put fish in there bog? I have water that is on the top of gravel and was wondering if a few rosies would like to swim in it?

 

[addy1]

I had fry in mine last year in a few spots, lost track of them. You could give it a try. Mine drains down if our power goes off so prefer not to have water needing critters in the bog. The tads seem to do fine with the occasional dry, they dive into water pockets in the gravel.

I had the slimy green algae in the bog until the plants took off, once it was warm, sunny, water, no plant coverage = algae. The plants grew, took away some of the sun on the gravel, compete for the food = algae gone.

 

[taherrmann4]

How deep is your water level from your gravel? Mine is only an inch or two at most not enough for fish. I do not have string algae in the bog only some green slimy rocks. The plants are just now starting to take off.