Broken bog manifold pipe!

[GBBUDD]

Today we started the adventure of fixing the bog! Pulled some of the plants and started pumping out the water. Then the fun of removing the gravel. Bog is 10x3x2.5 deep. Decided to only check out broken pipe. Seems its not broken- clogged! I suspect the horsetail rush has something to do with it. Roots running all along the pipe. Going to attempt a partial fix- replace old pipe which turns out is 1 1/4" with 2". Have the new 2" manifold ready so going to try to leave the good pipe in place and replace everything else.

2.5 feet of gravel from the top of the pvc to the surface ?
you had drilled holes correct ?

you think its the horse tail that's clogging the line there not a lot of horse tail in your photos

 

[mrsclem]

Holes and slots. I had pulled a lot of the horsetail. Couldn't believe how big the runners were. They ran right along the pipe.

 

[GBBUDD]

glad I got rid of mine, after seeing how fast it was growing in or out of the water.

 

[mrsclem]

I had heard it would get out of hand. I make sure to keep my lizards tail under control. The roots on that have caused problems in the past.

 

[GBBUDD]

I IMAGINE it grew into the pipe you going to cut it open and make sure its all gone and pipes open ? i built my recent bog with 30 inches of gravel on matrix blocks i hope it is deep enough to avoid root backup i imagine theres next to no chace roots can grow down 4 feet as the blocks are 18 inches

 

[mrsclem]

Planning on pulling clogged pipe and putting in 2" on the one side. Going to leave the other 1 1/4" pipe in place for now. Removing all that pea gravel would be a nightmare. Doing just one side isn't going to be fun!

 

[SarahT]

Planning on pulling clogged pipe and putting in 2" on the one side. Going to leave the other 1 1/4" pipe in place for now. Removing all that pea gravel would be a nightmare. Doing just one side isn't going to be fun!

Good luck. I'll be interested to see how it progresses. We're "there for you" (in spirit).

 

[mrsclem]

Got a lot done this morning! New manifold is in, new 2" x 10' pipe. Used a Fernco coupling to attach the 1 1/4" pipe that was working.

All the plant roots held the gravel in place but still need to remove the gravel from under the new pipe.
Roots from lizards tail and horsetail were wrapped around the one pipe and had gotten inside.

 

[addy1]

Humm I have lizard tails never had any issue pulling the plants ie not huge roots. Now need to check,but can't yet.

 

[mrsclem]

Don't think you will be doing any pond work for a while! Enjoy the down time-

 

[Tula]

Wow, @mrsclem ! At first I wasn't sure what I was looking at....holy cow....some very healthy root systems there !!

 

[addy1]

Don't think you will be doing any pond work for a while! Enjoy the down time-

Yeah stitches etc, no water contact.................. esp dirty mud covered water.

At least 2 weeks, ever after stitches removed not water tight for another week.

 

[poconojoe]

I wonder if we should have wrapped our manifold pipes in landscaping fabric or something similar? Would that stop the roots?
Maybe not.
I don't know....maybe the fabric would clog easier?

It's still quite amazing those roots traveled all the way down there being you have 2.5 feet of gravel.

 

[mrsclem]

Thinking fabric would clog fast. I don't think the bog out that often and then its usually the easy to pull stuff. I have a hosta in there that I have tried to pull for 2 years- won't budge. Sticking to shallow rooted plants from now on.
Going to raise the sides to stop the overflow as well.

 

[Tula]

I think shallow rooted plants that spread easily would be great. If you still wanted some plants with larger root systems, you could place them in a pot and set in the bog.

 

[mrsclem]

I may put some iris back in. Water mint & willow, water celery, cress all good.

 

[Tula]

I bought some water cress at the grocery store when we had our bog and it did great ! I have water celery at our pond's edge...it grows fast, but is easily plucked and roots don't seem to deep. I bet water iris wold be beautiful.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

At our past house, and consequently past pond, we had a simple Aquascape system: Biofall into stream, into pond, skimmer with pump & around it all goes again. We placed a container of Umbrella palm in the biofall, on top of the bag of lava rock (which, back then, was the 'go to' media for putting in a biological waterfall unit)

One Spring when we had 'pond guys' come do our Spring clean out (which was really more of a drain, rearrange, tidy up plants, etc...) the roots of that plant had gone out of the planting basket, through the bag of lava rock, into/through both filter mats & right to the bottom of the biofall box. Those poor (fortunately, burly) young men had to drag the entire mess out in one whole massive root ball, which weighed a TON! (Well, probably not literally, but was REALLY heavy!)

So, yeah. Am I surprised that plant roots can travel down 2, 3, 4 feet & clog something up? Nope. Not in the least.

 

[poconojoe]

Yep, those umbrella plants do have some massive roots.
We are lucky they are tropical and won't survive our winters.
When I pull them out in the fall, it's amazing how large the root system can get.

 

[mrsclem]

Taking a break from bog work today because it's hard to move! Muscles I didn't know I had hurt. Getting netting ready to put over koi pond. We have a few trees over both ponds!