Filtered water into a bog?

[timvz]

So, I have a foam fractionator that I just finished building. (see picture) I'm siphoning water off the top of the waterfall to go into the fractionator. There are three filter elements and a bag of lava rock in the waterfall and bio balls in the fractionator. I was thinking that it would be easy to create a bog in front of the fractionator inlet to the pond. However, I've heard that you don't want filtered water going into a bog. Would this water be too "clean" for a bog? Thanks.

P.S. The fractionator was fun to build. 6 in. tubing was probably overkill but I didn't have a lot of height to work with. I wanted to keep it hidden behind the waterfall. The two inch siphon was a little too wide to keep the flow going so I added some obstructions to the siphon outlet. At first I thought I could solve the problem by reducing the effective diamter of the siphon outlet. I inserted three tin strips in a "star" pattern. The siphon continued to fail. I then notice that with a finger or thumb obstruction the siphon worked great. So, I jammed some pieces of lava rock into the siphon and presto! In hind site, a 1.5 inch siphon might have been better. I'm also very happy that my waterfall is quieter now. Much more relaxing, as it was a bit of a roar before.

 

[shakaho]

If you are building a bog filter as your sole or main filter, then you don't want to do more than crude mechanical filtration. However, if you are using your bog filter just to clean up nitrates and some of the other things removed by plants, it's fine to run filtered water through it. I like to put a basket of plants in lava rock under the water return from a filter. Ferns particularly go wild under these circumstances. Make sure you set it up so the water goes through the rock.

 

[timvz]

Ferns would be great! However, I live in the desert. Hot temps in the summer and direct sunlight most of the day. Ferns probably require a more gentle climate, yes? I've got some watercress in my falls. It has done well through the winter, but I'm anticipating it too may have trouble in the summer.

 

[dieselplower]

I have said a time or two that if you run prefiltered water though a bog, you will not see the FULL benifits that could be achieved. On the other hand, filtering out the larger solids could increase the amount of time the bog could go wihtout needing a cleaning. Some bogs will never need cleaning. But some will. I think you sure can run filtered water through a bog, but it won't see MAXIMUM results. It will still be good!

 

[shakaho]

Most ferns are tropical. They do like wet soil, but I haven't had much success growing them in a bog.

Here is a fern in a basket of lava rock. If you peak through the foliage you can see the outlet pipe from the filter. The bottom of the basket is just below water level so there is minimal splashing noise. It also makes for a quiet pond with a very gentle flow toward the pump.



Here is the same fern 4 months earlier.



There was still room for another plant in the basket then.

If the sun is too intense for ferns, you are likely to have a problem with the pond getting too warm for the fish.

 

[timvz]

Evaporation keeps the water cool enough out here. We have very low humidity. Of course, we loose a lot of water but that's pretty standard in the desert.

 

[shakaho]

Addy has had a desert pond. She can comment on how well ferns grow. I suspect that if their feet are wet they will be OK.

 

[pecan]

I live in the high desert and have tried ferns many times with no luck anywhere. Soil is too alkaline for them and anywhere directly in the water has too much sun for a fern at my place.

Some folks don't understand how little cloud cover we actually get. I think where I live we have 50-100 more sunny days than most other places in the country, it's always sunny, because it never rains LOL. We average 10" of rain annually.

I planted some ferns last year I got from the local nursery in some shade areas of the yard. This will be the last attempt if they fail. The nursery told me they can handle our alkaline conditions better than most ferns so lets cross our fingers.

I also have very high water ph, always have and always will. so I am not sure even if I had the shade over the water that a fern would be ok.

Some bog plants I have that have done great are...

All types of lilies, day lilies do great and are a dime a dozen here
Irises
watercress (though they prefer more shade)
Hostas (though they prefer more shade)
Creeping Jenny
and various aquatic grasses

Mint, very invasive

Canna lilies and Calla lilies also do great but are annuals here
Some more annuals here are elephant ear and impatience (need shade here)

Honestly I think the problem with ferns is PH since even in shade they struggle.

 

[Andy41]

Hi,

My 2 cents.... i feed my bog after the first mechanical filtration stage, so the water has passed through a Vortex and a series of brushes at that point.

It's been running for about a year and a half now, and the bog is starting to silt up quite a bit. Looking at the water feeding it i'd guess that the biggest particle is about 0.5mm..... i'm planning on cleaning and enlarging the bog in the spring.

cheers,

Andy.

 

[addy1]

Mine is big, it gets non filtered water, the only filter of the pond, 4th year. So far no tracking, no horrendous amount of muck/slit It takes very good care of my pond no string algae, no green water, water tests (when I do them) always good. I do not draw water from the bottom of the pond, about a foot up. The bottom of the pond does not get a lot of muck build up. Every other year, sometimes once a year I do net the bottom, don't get much.

 

[Lisak1]

I guess all you can do is try, right? The question is what is left in the water once it's been filtered and your plants will let you know whether they are happy or not. We have a bit of an issue with our marginals in the pond - we sometimes have to feed them with a fertilizer to keep them green. The bog is sometimes TOO efficient!

Our bog is also large (not as big as addy's I don't think - ours is 6x9x6) and is also our only filtration. Everything we put in the bog grows great - irises, cannas, watercress, water celery, cattails, hosts. I even grew a couple of tomato plants in it last year, just to prove I could. I had two stems that I pruned off a tomato plant that I was planting in the garden. I just stuck them in the gravel and by the end of the summer they were both enormous - about 4 feet wide and three feet tall. The bullfrogs were happy because the tomato plants attracted the hummingbird moths... dinner every night for the big boys. The water coming out of the bog is clean clean clean - no silt or signs of any debris, even when we shut it down briefly to clean off the waterfall.

We'll all be interested to hear how your bog does!

 

[addy1]

With my larger fish load the bog plants are actually doing a lot better. The first summer of the pond, 4 fish added some later, the plants were not the happiest. I use fertilizer in the lily plants, osmocote I know some gets out into the pond water, but still does not cause an algae bloom, the bog seems to suck out any excess nutrients that occur.

 

[timvz]

I've got a fair amount of algae and string algae (no pea soup). I think it's from the fertilizer in my pots. Plants don't seem to be doing to well on average, though. Might be from the high pH. I don't know.

pH = 8.2
ammonia = 0.25 ppm
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0

I don't have a very high fish load yet, but I'm thinking the algae eats most of the nitrates.

 

[addy1]

My small slow flow warm ponds get string algae, the big ponds never get it, I even toss some in for the fish to munch on.

 

[Lisak1]

With my larger fish load the bog plants are actually doing a lot better. The first summer of the pond, 4 fish added some later, the plants were not the happiest. I use fertilizer in the lily plants, osmocote I know some gets out into the pond water, but still does not cause an algae bloom, the bog seems to suck out any excess nutrients that occur.

Our bog plants do great - it's my marginals that are a challenge to keep happy. Maybe I need more fish! Shhhhhhh! Don't tell the fish police!