CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[GBBUDD]

It's a reverse check valve. check valves have a spring that shuts a flap once the power goes out thus blocking most flow to stop back flowing/ syphon . But they also need head pressure pushing down on it to keep it tight and keep it from leaking. A vacuum breaker is held closed when the water is being pumped. Once the power goes out the flap springs open letting in air thus breaking the back syphon . HAVING THE PIN HOLE AT WATER LEVEL OR JUST BELOW, and a vacuum breaker are the same but a hole can clog by algae and a vacuum breaker can fail from a spider web holding it closed .i have never seen this happen but imagine its possible

 

[combatwombat]

It's a reverse check valve. check valves have a spring that shuts a flap once the power goes out thus blocking most flow to stop back flowing/ syphon . But they also need head pressure pushing down on it to keep it tight and keep it from leaking. A vacuum breaker is held closed when the water is being pumped. Once the power goes out the flap springs open letting in air thus breaking the back syphon . HAVING THE PIN HOLE AT WATER LEVEL OR JUST BELOW, and a vacuum breaker are the same but a hole can clog by algae and a vacuum breaker can fail from a spider web holding it closed .i have never seen this happen but imagine its possible

Yes, but there’s no algae and I also had a 2” valve above water line totally open, so that can’t explain what’s going on. Maybe it has something to do with the fact I didn’t glue any of my joints inside the pond. Maybe water is getting in through the unfilled joints and draining that way.

But the flow out of the pipe was strong enough that I don’t think that could possibly be it.

 

[GBBUDD]

you'd have to draw a diagram of what you have done . it could be a host of things it could be nothing

 

[combatwombat]

I'll have to come back to the bog plumbing later. Currently working furiously to finish up the tasks only Barney can do before he goes home to the dinosaur park. Of course, I seem to always realize I need to spend a day fiddling with something that needs to come before a Barney task.

I've been working on our landscaping so long it's kind of embarrassing. Especially since everything still looks like shit! Think my wife is starting to wonder when I'll start paying attention to my business again. Maybe never. Might go get a job as a heavy equipment operator. Have kind of grown fond of the work.

Not the maintenance, though.

Think I finally fixed the hydraulic leak, but have been casually hunting for a slow oil leak for months. Too dirty to see anything in the engine compartment. Probably going to have to clean it up first to have any luck. And now realizing the bucket is quite a bit looser than I remember when Barney arrived. I'm sure that's my doing from moving boulders around. Going to try to come up with a fix for that before returning as well.

Currently have about 14 extra BIG boulders laying around. Trying to button up design for the rest of the property so I can set 'em where I want 'em and do the rest of the work later. These rocks are kind of too big fo the rest of the property, but one benefit you get on land that you don't in a pond is that if a rock is too big, you can just dig a hole for it and bury 50% or more of it. Looks better that way too. Always cringe when I drive by a landscape with boulders and they're just sitting on the ground. Nature almost never does that!

Anyway, who ever buys this place after we move on is going to be SO PISSED if they ever decide to move a boulder and realize it's twice as big as they thought it was. Also, there's going to be a 75' long pondless stream in the front yard, so get ready for my second 60 page build thread once this one is done.

Another funny note: I might not have enough dirt left to do the berms I want in the front yard. WHERE DID IT ALL GO? Oh yeah, one whole side of the back yard is about 2' taller than when I started...

 

[addy1]

Maybe I still don't understand vacuum breakers. I had 2 valves open above water line as well as a standpipe with hole in it. All connected to the primary bog line.

Those should all do the same thing as an open vacuum breaker, right?

IMHO yes mine is just pipes above water line = no vacuum

 

[SarahT]

Currently have about 14 extra BIG boulders laying around. Trying to button up design for the rest of the property so I can set 'em where I want 'em and do the rest of the work later. These rocks are kind of too big fo the rest of the property, but one benefit you get on land that you don't in a pond is that if a rock is too big, you can just dig a hole for it and bury 50% or more of it. Looks better that way too. Always cringe when I drive by a landscape with boulders and they're just sitting on the ground. Nature almost never does that!

You are SO in luck. Nature does dump boulders and move on! A "glacial erratic" is a boulder left on the ground by a glacier that moved the hunk of rock from its original place and left behind when the glacier started to recede ("melt"). A boulder left there ... all alone, far away from home ... waiting for the @combatwombat glacier to master Barney's glacial might to ... move erratics into place in the home landscape. I can't wait to see it!
Think "Wedgwood erratic" in Seattle.

 

[combatwombat]

IMHO yes mine is just pipes above water line = no vacuum

You can still get siphon/vacuum with pipes above water line. If you have a check valve, that's probably good enough at stopping it.

Speaking of check valves, I know a lot of folks don't like them because they seem to fail often, but I'm trying to figure out how a swing check valve (no springs)—especially if it's installed vertically—fails. Some gunk gets between the flap and the seal?

 

[combatwombat]

Oh, also some good news. Needed to finish the last little bit of work at the bottom of the pond yesterday. Started to pump it into the cistern and went off to do some other work. Forgot the cistern was already full and totally flooded the area behind the cistern. Probably pumped about 1,000 gallons into the space.

IT WAS ALL GONE 10 MINUTES LATER.

How's that for soil infiltration? Totally unconcerned about drainage now.

 

[addy1]

You can still get siphon/vacuum with pipes above water line.

I don't have a check valve, no issues with siphoning, so far.

 

[combatwombat]

I don't have a check valve, no issues with siphoning, so far.

I hope for the same!

 

[GBBUDD]

Nature almost never does that!

nature always does that but she then has millions of years to set the rocks in the soil

 

[GBBUDD]

You can still get siphon/vacuum with pipes above water line. If you have a check valve, that's probably good enough at stopping it.

Speaking of check valves, I know a lot of folks don't like them because they seem to fail often, but I'm trying to figure out how a swing check valve (no springs)—especially if it's installed vertically—fails. Some gunk gets between the flap and the seal?

They fail when there is NOT ENOUGH BACK /PRESSURE BUT IT'S MORE THEY LEAK MORE SO THEN A FAILURE

 

[GBBUDD]

I don't have a check valve, no issues with siphoning, so far.

YOUR POND AND BOG ARE PRETTY MUCH AT THE SAME elevation not much of a need for them .

@combatwombat save your money do a vacuum breaker over a check valve

 

[combatwombat]

YOUR POND AND BOG ARE PRETTY MUCH AT THE SAME elevation not much of a need for them .

@combatwombat save your money do a vacuum breaker over a check valve

I have an external pump (arrived today!), so I need a check valve regardless.

 

[combatwombat]

So, I got burned out recording and making videos, but I’ve been busy. Capped the in-pond block wall w/ flagstone, ran new aeration lines, put the rest of the sand in and fixed the spots where sand was migrating, did a bunch of edging, installed most of the plumbing between the bog and cistern, designed the front yard and fixed some downspout drainage issues.

Might get water flowing this week.