CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[j.w]

@combatwombat oops after I wrote that above I talked to my hubby and he said don't do it! Don't put anything hot over that septic lid w/a stainless cover or not as septic tanks produce methane gas and if there is any kind of even a small leak coming up that whole thing could explode! So he suggests strongly that you not even try it at all!

 

[j.w]

Maybe just put a nice big pot w/a plant in it over that septic lid

 

[combatwombat]

@Lisak1: Yikes! Glad Fido was ok. Those are all totally valid concerns, but my situation is a way less risk than all of those scenarios. This fire pit will not be burning the house down. It's 30' away. And I think I've figured this out already. Going to replace the plastic lid with 3" thick concrete one and that should pretty much solve the problem.

@j.w: Good call. But this isn't a septic tank. It's the pump vault on the pond. No methane gas...

 

[GBBUDD]

CREATE AN AIR GAP ABOVE THE COVER THENcover the cap with flag stone or similar even metal and a second airgap to the firepit

 

[Lisak1]

An air gap was my thought too - just don't have the heat directly over the plastic lid.

I didn't think you'd burn your house down - just an anecdote about how we often underestimate the power of fire! We had a fire pit with a lid that we would use to put out the fire. 24 hours later you could pull off the lid and puff on it and the fire would restart just from the hot coals. Fire likes to win!

 

[combatwombat]

An air gap was my thought too - just don't have the heat directly over the plastic lid.

I didn't think you'd burn your house down - just an anecdote about how we often underestimate the power of fire! We had a fire pit with a lid that we would use to put out the fire. 24 hours later you could pull off the lid and puff on it and the fire would restart just from the hot coals. Fire likes to win!

My wife saved our neighbor’s house from burning down a year ago. Bug zapper fell into their recycling bin. Flames had just spread to the siding when she walked by and noticed.

 

[Lisak1]

Crazy! The house across the street from us burned a number of years ago. The heat from that fire was so hot that the siding on the houses on either side just melted like frosting on a cake. We couldn't even stand in our front yard and watch - it was like an inferno. It was really sobering to watch the firefighters have to just back off and watch it burn until the heat subsided enough that they could get close enough to try to knock it back.

 

[addy1]

Current hubby had his previous house burn to the ground. The inspectors think something electrical. ATF had to check it out as his house was over 500k. He said it was unreal to watch it burn, lost their 3 dogs in the fire, but none of their kids.

 

[combatwombat]

Another little update. Thanks, @addy1 for the purge plants. The bog is as full as it's going to get for now. Probably going to have to redo some bog plumbing next year as I cannot shut down the pump for the winter without losing a foot of water in the bog. Whoops. Maybe I'll just keep it running year round and forget about it. Will see how ambitious I feel in the Spring.

 

[addy1]

Very nice their lives were saved!
The rest in the woods. A huge pile!
They should take off.

I shut my system down, but the bog does not go dry. Water drains down to the top of the gravel level. The plants start growing way before I turn the bog back on in the spring.

 

[Lisak1]

@combatwombat - we put a ball valve just ahead of where the main line drops down into the bog. We can shut that and keep the bog from draining. Not sure how your plumbing works, but it may be an easy solution. At the time I thought it was a dumb idea - after all, the pipe was running DOWN... how would the water run UP and back down the line? Shows how little I understood about water.

We don't shut our pump off intentionally over winter but if we ever have to, we can keep the water from backflowing from the bog into the rain exchange. The bog will stay full to the top when the valve is closed.

 

[addy1]

Here what was sent: to help you out @combatwombat

canna, pickerel weed, bog bean, water butter cup, mint, obedient plant. lizard tail, marsh bentomy, water willow, iris, sweet flag , some deer chewed lilies.

 

[combatwombat]

@Lisak1: It's a fine idea. I even have one just as you describe so that I can control flow between the bottom of the bog and what gets dumped out on top via the overflow and fountain. My mistake is that I didn't glue any of the joints in the bog because I thought "who cares if it leaks" and it would make it easier to reconfigure if I needed to change something in the future. So even with all valves closed, water above the pipes will seep into it through those joints until it's drained down below it.

I guess I'll get to reap the rewards of my "easy to reconfigure" logic.

Thanks @addy1. I have it all written down and thought I had it all remembered. Then I started filming and forgot everything.

 

[Lisak1]

"who cares if it leaks"

Best laid plans... well, plan B. Keep it running all winter. Our first year mistake was to shut our pond down - our water drops so low in both bog and pond the we lost every single plant that first winter. We learned they don't mind being completely frozen in the ice, but marginals don't like being out of water all winter. Now that my plants are ginormous I don't think it would be as devastating for them but those first year marginals took a bad hit.

 

[GBBUDD]

@combatwombat - we put a ball valve just ahead of where the main line drops down into the bog. We can shut that and keep the bog from draining. Not sure how your plumbing works, but it may be an easy solution. At the time I thought it was a dumb idea - after all, the pipe was running DOWN... how would the water run UP and back down the line? Shows how little I understood about water.

We don't shut our pump off intentionally over winter but if we ever have to, we can keep the water from backflowing from the bog into the rain exchange. The bog will stay full to the top when the valve is closed.

But what happens when your power goes out what then ? the water will back flow and drain the bog

 

[GBBUDD]

Another little update. Thanks, @addy1 for the purge plants. The bog is as full as it's going to get for now. Probably going to have to redo some bog plumbing next year as I cannot shut down the pump for the winter without losing a foot of water in the bog. Whoops. Maybe I'll just keep it running year round and forget about it. Will see how ambitious I feel in the Spring.

Simple solution on your dog supply line being a foot under water. TAP into the line outside the bog reduce the line I assume its a 3 inch line . RUN A VENT PIPE SORTA SPEAK SO IT COMES UP above the water line. install either the vacuum breaker or do the pin hole or as poconoe did . make another small water feature like a frog spitting water etc

 

[combatwombat]

Simple solution on your dog supply line being a foot under water. TAP into the line outside the bog reduce the line I assume its a 3 inch line . RUN A VENT PIPE SORTA SPEAK SO IT COMES UP above the water line. install either the vacuum breaker or do the pin hole or as poconoe did . make another small water feature like a frog spitting water etc

I actually already have 3 of those in the bog area (dedicated vacuum breaker, fountain, and 2” overflow port) and they do not solve the problem.

How would moving the vacuum breaker outside the bog solve the problem when the problem is not siphon but the infiltration of water into the pipe via water pressure?

 

[GBBUDD]

a vacuum breaker should be as close to the highest point as possible . I don't understand how three wont break siphon

 

[combatwombat]

a vacuum breaker should be as close to the highest point as possible . I don't understand how three wont break siphon

Because the problem isn’t siphon.

 

[combatwombat]

3" of rain here in the last 72 hours. Reservoir is full again! Nothing like the storms I'm hearing about elsewhere, but sure glad I had new gutters installed this summer and cleaned out our dry wells.

My bog plumbing design continues to cause me problems. Had a power failure at some point last night. I think the reservoir overflowed and—despite my design to avoid it—some water made it into the pump house and got the extension cord connection wet. That tripped the GFCI breaker. Check valve failed, so a foot of water from the bog drained back down into the reservoir, overflowing it further.

When I opened it up, I found that the o-ring gasket in the flapper had slipped out of it's groove. The last time I had a power failure, the test plug on my DIY priming pot got blown off and same failure occurred. "Fixed" it by simply removing it. Figured I didn't need it since there would always be a foot of head from the bog to prime the line. Not if the check valve fails and the bog is empty, though!

So, I'm putting the priming pot back, but this time with a threaded plug + teflon tape. And gotta hop on it fast before all of @addy1's bog plants die.

This is a temporary solution. I can see now that I will not be able to truly rest easy until I fix the plumbing where it enters the bog. I think my solution is going to be to go back to the traditional design—plumbing goes over the liner. Not too complicated of a fix, but will have to move a bunch of rocks that were a pain to set and patch the hole I made for the bulkhead fitting.

Aye aye aye.