Rebuilding a pond, tips on bog filter?

[GBBUDD]

iris will explode be careful it can be a bear to remove. water cress , grows fast easy to pull , same with forgetme nots

 

[dinm]

Water lily growth creeped up today like crazy, I guess cause it is very warm and goldfish are also chasing each other. Spring is here I suppose.

 

[dinm]

I don't have much left to do, I think I might add one or two more water lilies. Today I had created a little wooden box for cables, looks quite clean but i need a few more big rocks so the focus is on them not on the box as it is next to the pond under a balcony.

No leaks that I can see, just evaporation by the looks of it. Never can say never but it seems good and it has been almost a month since bog started running, very happy with it. Algae in bog seem to be slowing down growth too as plants and bacteria catch up, though its just a guess but a week ago you removed some and next day it was back.

 

[dinm]

Below that rock I had for measuring now, I have to say I hate to guess whether its a leak or just evaporation. There hasn't been rain in over a week though and days are often 22-27c and myself I feel like evaporating at the peak heat of the day. It's been a month since I fixed the low edge issue with the waterfall from the bog, and the water hasn't been below that rock for a month, my guess is it is evaporation. But the pond is not level so any rain that does fall, decent rain fills it back up easily, so not sure how much water has been lost. I guess one thing to do would be that, to use a bucket that I know how much gallons it holds and see how much it takes to fill it back up to that certain water level.

That would be one thing, because it may that I am not losing a lot of water at all and yet it seems a lot because the level drops but the pond is not entirely level so that's a tough guess.

 

[dinm]

I measured it from what it was 5 days ago, 60l (15gallons) loss more or less since than. And probably 2-3x time that water loss where it should be ideally, but where it should be ideally there is a low edge somewhere, whether its wicking or something I'm not sure, I do have a lot of geotextile used as underlayment before rocks.

Now I don't know whether 15gallons is normal for 5 days of evaporation, it may be. I've fixed several low edges in the past, and I still think I have some sort of wicking action because in some places the soil's wet which it certainly shouldn't be.

 

[GBBUDD]

i would not worry about 3 gallons a day water loss look at it as a water change

 

[dinm]

i would not worry about 3 gallons a day water loss look at it as a water change

I went ahead and checked all sides for low edges, some did have proper low edges but most were fabric wicking water out somehow. Then I just worked on building up soil behind the liner. I guess that might be normal but this was certainly contributing to it and seeing there were several yeah that could cause some trouble, especially when the pond was near full and even when its not it still contributes.

Building up soil behind the liner seems to be the proper way for edging, like in most of those videos where professionals do it and they recommend it. I did build up soil behind the liner for one side when I initially built it, which ended up looking great but for most I was very lazy as it was winter and building up soil with mud isn't great. Gonna look better and I hope much less of a chance of water being lost by wicking or low edges.

I will keep it like this maybe the rest of the day or a few days to see what's going on.

 

[dinm]

Thinking of getting some more bigger rocks tomorrow, this is too good a opportunity to miss out on as I had to add some rocks anyway. I raised one big stone to check for water, and a million ants live under it, I don't mind it but that's pain if I have to move it in the future.

 

[ranjanty]

Is it ok to put a new Firestone Pondgard 45 mil liner over a LLDEP liner to help protect the new liner?

 

[j.w]

@ranjanty
If you do that you should put holes in the old one so water does not get trapped in between them.

 

[dinm]

Is it ok to put a new Firestone Pondgard 45 mil liner over a LLDEP liner to help protect the new liner?

The Firestone one becomes the actual liner if you plan to use it as overlayment for some reason. LLDEP basically becomes underlayment then. Not sure why you would do that

 

[dinm]

2 days later the water level hasn't dropped at all I would like to say but I'd jinx myself perhaps. So it was the low edges too causing this, but surely evaporation was helping. I've been redoing the edges too, pond has a better shape now I like to think but still not 100% finished.

 

[dinm]

I think leak it is not, I've found something interesting, I've not really cared about the sound much, but it does seem a bit bogged down now like something is resisting the spillway flow like it certainly seems slower for some reason.

 

[dinm]

I think it is clogged in some shape or form, no idea how after a month but the flow seems to me too slow now, it's barely making aeration. Then again, the level in the bog is also smaller, could perhaps be the pump that's clogged. But in just one month this seems a bit odd.

But plants seem to be choking out the algae, and the bacteria are pretty active now I think

 

[dinm]

I still have no idea whether it's a leak or not, if it is it must be to do with waterfall part, my luck is that I got a ton of ants under the rock, they invited themselves in and find it comfy. And I think with rain I won't know till a drought comes.
But that will decide it, if it is wet then it must be that it is dripping under the waterfall spillway that was glued and I had some metal support added as well.

I would like it not to be a leak but as days have become cold again I don't know how could it be evaporation. Haven't gone below that level I measured almost 2 months ago when I first had a low edge in the waterfall so I have no idea.

Anyway just being vigilant but also not wanting to pull some heavy rocks to find out. But i might have to if it comes to that.