How to add an intake bay to a natural, mud, pond.

[denap]

So, I have a large 80kgal retention pond that I added fish to a couple years ago. Been getting along with no filtration and just doing hyacinth, parrot feather, etc. Now I'd like to clear up the water and going to add an intake and bog. I have no idea how to size either of these or what the flow needs to be through the intake/bog. Since the pond is mud, there's no way to dig a separate intake and line it. I was thinking of just sinking a large container, IBC etc, with gravel and an external pump.


How would you go about adding an intake to an existing mud pond? How big should it be? What's should the flow be? The aquascapes site helps a little, but not specific enough for my sit.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Sounds like a huge project, and I hope you get some good advice.

 

[GBBUDD]

BY mud pond do you mean a clay bottom:? or was the clay covered with a soils layer like sand and gravel? if its clay and you added any large rooting fish like koi you'll never have clear water. can it get better probably but for 80k to build an appropriate bog and intake i bet your going to look at a minimum of 40 k

your idea of a concrete casket is a easy fix but will have challenges to work through

 

[denap]

BY mud pond do you mean a clay bottom:? or was the clay covered with a soils layer like sand and gravel? if its clay and you added any large rooting fish like koi you'll never have clear water. can it get better probably but for 80k to build an appropriate bog and intake i bet your going to look at a minimum of 40 k

your idea of a concrete casket is a easy fix but will have challenges to work through

I don't know how it was created, it was here when we bought the property. A ground water/retention pond/basin roughly 65' across. Just a big hole we've planted the edges. Introduced goldfish and koi a few years ago and it's been surviving like this just fine with floating plants doing their thing, but the water is murky. Can only see down 3-4" of the 4-5' total.

Ideally I'd like to avoid a collapse and see down a bit better as we've got some nice fish at this point.

I'm at a loss for how to cut in an intake as I can't hold back the water to put something in. Was thinking of just sinking an IBC tote full of gravel at the edge and siphoning from that with a rock weir at the top. But the whole thing would live inside the pond itself. Does this make sense? Not sure how this would work.

 

[combatwombat]

An intake bay can be pretty shallow. Do you really need it to be dry to build it?

The IBC tote idea is interesting. Might work.

The way it’s done by the pros on big, existing ponds is they dig out the intake area next to the pond, leaving a thick berm of earth between the pond edge and the new intake bay acting as a dam. Once all work is completed, they dig the berm out and allow the intake to flood.

 

[denap]

An intake bay can be pretty shallow. Do you really need it to be dry to build it?

The IBC tote idea is interesting. Might work.

The way it’s done by the pros on big, existing ponds is they dig out the intake area next to the pond, leaving a thick berm of earth between the pond edge and the new intake bay acting as a dam. Once all work is completed, they dig the berm out and allow the intake to flood.

thanks. I had thought of that. My concern here is leaving too small a berm and it collapses under the weight of the pond. AND, I really don't want to increase the footprint of the pond by a mistaken 10x10 intake. Hence the in-the-pond IBC. I may start with a siphon off the bottom via a 3" flex pvc to feed the bog and see how that works. I'd *like* an intake, it's not necessary.

 

[GBBUDD]

Diging it out is how to do the task with no monitoring needed as the water drops you have how ever deep the intake is to draw the water.

The tub or concrete vault can work as well and easily so but a three sided higher than water level and one low side for the water to fall in from and skim the surface. But with leaves this is where you need to keep close eye on the system as it can clog /dam up quickly.
The bigger the vault the better

The other trick is to place culvert on end at the surface and have it like a whirl pool but that's more for limited leaves. Or more maintenance.

 

[denap]

How necessary is the whole void space thing in a bog? I've seen now some with and some without the void.

It seems like I could just run 3" flex into some 6" rigid pvc with slots and let it up well from there. I was planning to build the bog with a sloped bottom from 3-4' and with one deep corner with an 18" culvert pipe for clean out.

 

[GBBUDD]

The more people keep building bogs we are finding many versions all with the same principles but different methods to get it there.. is there a bog that was built that way I do not know. Can I say it will faill now can I say it will succeed. No .

I have seen time and again the cleanout or flushing do next to nothing .
I just remodeled my bog and found after 4 years there was hardly and debris locked in the rocks.
While others state they got so much come out of there clean out thar stuck that they kipper it down.

But what I can say is in the five years running my pond now the bog is fantastic the water is crystal clear can see down 6 feet without any cloudiness what so ever.

 

[j.w]

@denap

 

[Jhn]

Here is another video on how to install intake bay on a natural pond.