Was that an owl? Uh oh looks like you will need a net! I have one over my pond otherwise all my fish would be gone. I put mine up high hooked on metal fence posts so I can get under it easy if need be. Have it hanging down on side too hooked to a short wire garden fence otherwise things come in through the side, like Mr or Mrs sneaky heron, raccoons etc. Easy to unhook and area and lift up the net and attach it to the top rope I have weaved around the net edge of the whole thing. Not as pretty w/the net but I'm not willing to lose my fish!
Apologies for the crazy late response, I’ve had a lot going in my life lately and finally have some time to refocus on the pond. Yeah, it was an owl and the culprit for all my missing fish when I first started up my pond. The pond is netted now and may remain that way when I’m not actually outside enjoying it. I am taking advantage of the warm winter weather and tweaking my pond by permanently sealing up my snorkel in the bog. After that I’m going to redo my stone patio seating arrangement for better viewing enjoyment.
why are you doing that?
I definitely did not provide big enough escape slits for the water beneath my bog with the amount of water I’m pushing through the bog so if I try to go “full throttle” on the pump the pressure causes a volcano effect of water gushing out the vertical snorkel pipe. So I’m just capping off the top of the pipe so it forces all pressure beneath the bog. Maybe if I muster up the energy down the road I’ll redo the bog plumbing below, but for now this was an easiest short term fix.
my snorkel is DIY using irrigation drainage piping. I filled the vertical end of the snorkel with 3/4 gravel, capped it, and it’s doing as good as I can expect without fully sealing it. The Water still spews a bit from the vertical pipe when I have the pump valve opened all the way up, but I can tell water is being pushed to the other openings of the bog because of the displacement and air bubbles. Pump is rated for 6,300 gallons. I definitely underestimated how big I should’ve made all of my openings in the bottom section of the bog. Only way to fix that is to rebuild the bog plumbing and we’re talking moving a few tons of rock by hand. Not in the mood to do that quite yet as the bog is still working just fine. My vertical pipe extends out past the water line about a foot, I could just cut it down to water level and cap it there which would make me feel a bit better and get rid of the volcano effect since it would be at the water level. There is just to much pressure in there for me to expect the cap on irrigation tubing to not spew water. I can’t fully seal it like you would with PVC piping.
I’ll look into the wing nut idea, but I’m not gonna rush it since the bog really is running just fine with no issues. Just my personal preference to have all the water kept below.
thank you @GBBUDD! I should of asked for your assistance before I impulsively filled in my vertical snorkel tube with gravel. Your wing nut recommendation worked perfectly and is what I should’ve done from the start. You aren’t really missing anything as I am pushing a lot of flow through my bog which is what I want (personal choice). The bog may look small, but it’s 7ftx7ftx5ft and there is plenty of space for slow water to settle. My bog already had a ball valve T’d of that I could put less flow through the bog, but I want all flow through the bog.
