Leaking bog

[mrsclem]

I shut my bog down for the winter and within 2 days the water was gone! I knew I had a leak somewhere in the pond causing about a 2-3" water loss every couple of days. It looks like the leak is on the bottom of the bog as the cleanout pipe I have shows almost no water. Can I leave it shut down for the winter or will my plants all die? I have a collection of Louisiana and Japanese iris I just put in. Most of the other plants were pulled. I can leave it running but I'm concerned about hose from pump and spillway freezing up. Just redid this bog 2 years ago!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

It may be related to how your "bog" is plumbed. The water may be siphoning back into the main pond basin. Do you have a cut-off or check valve on the "bog" supply line?

 

[mrsclem]

OMG! Never considered that ! I had the water being pumped from a holding area separate from the pond. In the past it has siphoned back with power loss but I put a small hole in the supply line to allow air access so it wouldn't siphon. Going to restart it right now and then try again after moving pump up to bog.

 

[Mmathis]

It may be related to how your "bog" is plumbed. The water may be siphoning back into the main pond basin. Do you have a cut-off or check valve on the "bog" supply line?

Good catch! I had the same issue, but ended up adding a hole to break the siphon. Has worked well.

 

[mrsclem]

I had a check valve on the line but it never worked so drilled a small hole. Water was spraying out the hole and over the side of the bog so I blocked it. I hope this is the problem, don't want to even think about redoing all that work. So glad to have all the great minds on the forum to point out the obvious!

 

[Mmathis]

I had a check valve on the line but it never worked so drilled a small hole. Water was spraying out the hole and over the side of the bog so I blocked it. I hope this is the problem, don't want to even think about redoing all that work. So glad to have all the great minds on the forum to point out the obvious!

I hope it works, too. Maybe with the water flow to the bog turned off, it won't stray out and the hole will break the siphon. I would almost rather [I said almost] drain the pond due to a leak than have to empty the bog!! My little turtle bog is only 6x3 or so and I had to pull all that gravel out one time, during the early stages -- OMG, never again!

 

[mrsclem]

So far so good. Seems to be holding. I know what you mean-2200lbs of pea gravel and we had to pull it all out 2 years ago to redo plumbing on bottom. I'm already worried enough going into winter with this pond overstocked. going to try to keep it all running. Will check water level again tomorrow and give an update.
Thanks Meyer!!!

 

[addy1]

In answer to your other ?, the plants, most likely, will die, the roots will dry out. I leave mine full of water, everything freezes in place, well if we ever get cold weather that is.

 

[mrsclem]

Good to know Addy. So far its holding. I pulled most of the plants as it was overgrown but just put in new iris plants and don't want to lose them.

 

[Nepen]

I had that scared once... I even have the hole at the pipe but it dint work, the gravel plugged the hole lol. I ran my pond all winter last year, only turned it off for a few days when I was afraid i'll have ice buildup.

 

[mrsclem]

Bog is still full! YAH! Going to try another check valve and hopefully that will fix the problem. I'm hoping I won't have to shut things down till next year. Going to keep things going till there is major ice. Thanks everybody!

 

[addy1]

I bought a one Inch check valve from lowes, it has been working for around 4-5 years now. White pvc check valve, the metal one failed within one year.

 

[mrsclem]

Well, there is a leak in the bog. Had to shut it down when we had the hard freeze several weeks ago. Since then things have thawed out and I restarted it. Left the supply hose just set on top so it couldn't backflush. I shut it down when we got snow 2 weeks ago and it drained overnight. Have refilled and checked again. Definitely have a leak and close to the bottom! Going to have to just keep it running and top off as needed as there is no chance that the bog can be torn down and redone any time soon. Everything else seems to be ok so just hoping it doesn't get worse.