Convert swimming pool to natural pool/pond

[sherry]

If you have a straight wall that 's 4 feet wide. the water flows over in the middle that leaves 2 feet to each side where water splashing can easily travel 24 inches or less off to the sides and thus leaking out of the Containment liner.
Take the same 4 foot wall but bend it now the same 24 inches comes out infront of where the water, lands but is now the sides are closer to the splash it will need to travel 30 inches or more to cause a leak. By getting outside the liner. View attachment 151492

Thank you. If I understand correctly, are you suggesting to build the bog retaining wall in U shape? Otherwise we'll need a bigger area to avoid the leak.

 

[GBBUDD]

ONLY if the falls are taller, if its only a foot tall. the rocks being out off to the sides will do the same job. if you have an aquascapes certified contractor they should know what to do.

 

[sherry]

ONLY if the falls are taller, if its only a foot tall. the rocks being out off to the sides will do the same job. if you have an aquascapes certified contractor they should know what to do.

The gazebo base has 18'', plus the height of the bog itself (at least 48''?), the falls should have 5'.
I hope they do

 

[GBBUDD]

That can make an impressive waterfall . But with a 4 foot drop can come high evaporation and being blown by the wind. Making that splash zone even more of a concern and need.
Now with the 4 foot height you don't have to make it one drop it can be made into several drops. Several waterfalls and making the drops angle to different directions.
Watch the thousands of videos on you tube

 

[sherry]

That can make an impressive waterfall . But with a 4 foot drop can come high evaporation and being blown by the wind. Making that splash zone even more of a concern and need.
Now with the 4 foot height you don't have to make it one drop it can be made into several drops. Several waterfalls and making the drops angle to different directions.
Watch the thousands of videos on you tube

4ft drop will have high evaporation? We are in California here which is very dry and in drought. How much a problem of evaporation would it be? That makes me wondering if we should dig inside the gazebo base so that the waterfall is lower.

 

[GBBUDD]

If I remember correctly you had like 4 feet between the gazebo and the pool. Like I said before a waterfall does not need to drop 4 feet to be pleasing to the eye if anything the stream built properly with multiple 1 foot drops or there abouts with slight twists turns and splits off to one side or another of a Boulder is far more appealing then just a straight 4 foot drop. And in a dry climate such as yours I'd avoid the large drop .

 

[sherry]

If I remember correctly you had like 4 feet between the gazebo and the pool. Like I said before a waterfall does not need to drop 4 feet to be pleasing to the eye if anything the stream built properly with multiple 1 foot drops or there abouts with slight twists turns and splits off to one side or another of a Boulder is far more appealing then just a straight 4 foot drop. And in a dry climate such as yours I'd avoid the large drop .

Thank you for your advice. Yes we do have about 6ft distance between the gazebo base and the pool. Do you mean that we can still keep the height of the bog (i.e., build it on top of the gazebo base) but make multiple 1 foot drops or adding turns? Thanks.

 

[GBBUDD]

Making all the drops the same always looks man made and just doest cut it in my book . Varying each one like the first being a two foot drop looking straight on to the pool. Have that fall into a little pool of water where that has the water fall off say the left side so when looking at it from the pool you see more of the side of that water fall .
Look at the videos out there you'll see what I mean but again . Beauty is in the eye of the beholder . do some homework with the videos . And build it once .

I put together a little collection of videos in a blog here some very impressive pond builds . There's probably 30 videos in it . Not so much like yourbut ones that are stunning to give you ideas

 

[sherry]

Can anyone please help me on the plumbing: I want to re-use the current pump and add a pipe before the return line so that water goes from the pump to the bog filter. Below is the current plumbing. How do I make that change? I don't see a multi-valve control to set to "recirculate" mode. Thank you!

 

[Bluerooster]

Looks like the return from the filter has some sort of gizmo labeled "turbo cell", it appears to be installed using a union on each end. (I assume to replace it from time to time) You can remove that, and fabricate a tee with union on each end to replace it. From that tee, You can plumb to the bog. You can add a valve to the plumbing to the bog, as well as a valve in the pipe about where i see a wire laying accross the existing pipe down stream from where the tee will go. That way you can regulate the flow to the bog, and return jet(s).
Also you can close the valve to the bog to prevent drain back, in the event of servicing at some point in the future. I would like to see a pic of the whole set up. There is apparently something just out of frame to the right of the photos posted.

 

[sherry]

Hello, I am back here asking for help with plumbing. Below is my plan and please let me know any suggestions.

First some correction on the pool size: pool is 28'x15' about 400 sqft and has 12000 gallons. The current pump is intellipro variable speed with 3600~7500GPH, with 2'' inlet and outlet. The current plumbing is 1.5'' skimmer + 1.5'' bottom drain -> (2'') pump -> cartridge filter -> chlorine generator -> pool return. I plan to build a 8'x10'x2' pea gravel bog on the pool deck. Water overflow back to the pool.

1. If I re-use the pool's pump, do I direct all the water to the bog? or it would be better to only direct part of them to the bog and the rest to the pool return jets? There is 100ft distance from the pump to the bog, would this be a big problem? I plan to adapt the 2'' to 3'' and run a flex PVC for 100ft. Then adapt to 2'' and run to the bottom of the pea gravel bog.

2. If I were to add a new (self priming) pump (I plan to use PerformancePro 3/4 HP Artesian2 High Flow Pump 8,880 GPH), I'll run a 3'' flex PVC from water to the bog. I'm not clear on how to do the plumbing. Do I need to pre-filter the water using a skimmer? Do I just place the inlet pipe in the middle of the water? Do I need to add a retro bottom drain and connect to the pump?

3. which way is better, (as in 1) replumbing the pool pump, half go to the bog and half go to the pool return, or keep the current plumbing, use pool pump for recirculation only and add a new pump to pump the water to the bog.

Thank you!