Is anybody using a wet well instead of a skimmer for their pond? Not sure if there is a different term other than "wet well"? I searched on the forum for "wet well" and did not find anything.
Skimmer vs. Wet Well
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sissy
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never heard of it .
It is the submerged pump area like a pond-less waterfall or stream except, it is at the end of the pond where a skimmer would normally go. The water spills over out of the pond and disappears into a bed of gravel, where underneath is the pump that returns the water back to the top (bio falls, bog or whatever).
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That doesn't sound like it's easy to clean because eventually the gravel will need cleaning.
Yes that is one of my concerns. I've been told it it pretty easy to remove large debris (leaves and such) from the top of the gravel, but not sure beyond that, what cleaning would be required.
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To be honest, that's a very bad set up. The only way I would do it that way is if you had the gravel on a perforated liner that you could lift. Then you can lift up all the gravel at once and hose it down.
This is exactly what we have. The water flows through the gravel into a 1000 gallon rain exchange which houses the pump. The gravel is easy to keep clean - we just spray it with the hose set on "jet". Occasionally we rake it a bit. But that's it. We love our "bad design" pond!
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And you just killed all the beneficial bacteria that was there. And detritus flows down. Anyone who's kept aquariums with gravel know that the gravel will get quite dirty, but more power to you if you love it.
Thanks Lisak, so I assume the water goes from there to a biofalls or bog or something else? How long have you used this system? We are gearing up to build a 2 pond water feature, approx 10,000 gal. Just trying to figure out the design.
But being able to lift the gravel to rinse it (your suggestion) wouldn't kill bacteria? I'm not sure how that would be any different. The gravel actually doesn't get "quite dirty". Unlike in an aquarium where the fish (and therefore waste material, food, etc) are in direct contact with the gravel, the gravel in the rain exchange (or "wet well") is not in direct contact with the fish so the only things that make their way into the this area are the leaves and other material that fall into the pond and are "skimmed" off the top by the water flow.
Yes, the "detritus" (small bits of leaves or other organic material, since we scoop the large material out before rinsing) does flow down into the rain exchange when we rinse the gravel, but we have a layer of underlayment that traps the small particles of debris that makes it through. There is sits until it's broken down. We did initially have some concern that the debris might build up on the underlayment and slow the water flow - so far that concern has been unfounded.
The rain exchange is filled with matrices (I think we have something like 32 blocks in there) with gravel (layered from larger to smaller) comprising the top 12-14". The water is pumped from the RE back up into the bog where it flows upward through the gravel (again, largest at the bottom to pea gravel size at the top) which feeds the waterfall that flows back into the pond. We have anywhere from 1-4 inches of water on top of the bog at all times, depending on how fast we run the pump. (Variable speed allows us to slow down or speed up the waterfall.) The bog is heavily planted with irises and cattails which come back every year. We add different things to make it interesting - canna lilies grow to 6 feet tall in the bog - beautiful! Last year I grew tomatoes in the bog - I don't think I'll do that again, as they really overgrew the space, but it was a fun experiment! Watercress grows great in the outlet of the bog and really helps keep the string algae down in the early spring. The bog is home to some of the smaller frogs who prefer staying out of sight, especially of the two big bullfrogs who make their home in our pond. The bog is a whole other habitat - we love our bog!
We built our pond four years ago - this will be our 5th summer. We generally shut down for the winter and find that the bog clears any murkiness from the water within a matter of a few hours once we start it back up in the spring. This year we opted to keep the pump running and have enjoyed watching the ice form on the waterfall and melt and get covered by snow, repeatedly all winter long. The biggest change we've noticed so far is lots more string algae. Apparently it isn't bothered by the cold, and since it's the only thing growing in the pond right now it's having a hey day. But we see it as just another plant that is helping to remove nutrients from the pond and keeping things in balance. Once the other plants get growing and it has more competition it will get reined in.
Our total system (including bog and rain exchange) holds 4000 gallons... give or take a few hundred. One of the beauties of this type of system is the ability to store water. When we have a rainy spell, the rain exchange fills up and we have extra water to see the pond through the drier times. The water level in the pond itself never falls - the only noticeable change is in the RE itself, where the amount of stored water will fluctuate. If we know we will be away from the pond for an extended period, we just make sure the RE is full and we know we can leave home without concern that the pump will run dry. We regretted not adding a auto-fill in the beginning, but honestly haven't found it to be an issue. We do have an overflow drain that goes to the storm sewer which has been helpful a few times... like right now when we have massive amounts of snow melting!
We keep our fish load low and feed sparingly. We plant the pond heavily with floaters, waterlilies, sedges, rushes, cattails, etc. The pond is extremely low maintenance, which leaves me time for the gardening and poking around that I enjoy about having a pond.
Lisak, thanks for the details. This is very helpful. I have used a skimmer and biofalls before, but was introduced to the concept of wet well and bog/wetland filter from a company that builds ponds. I was concerned about the process to clean the wet well, but recognized the water storage ability also. Have u had to do any cleaning of the bog besides plant debris on top? Thanks again for the post.
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Because then you'd be able to use pond water to wash your gravel. Good for you, whatever floats your boat. Hooray.
WB if you are reading this. I know now you do what you do.
Ah! A sub-tweet! Clever!
Actually we DO generally use pond water to rinse our gravel - and water our gardens, too, when we find ourselves with a full RE. We have a small utility pump that we drop in the pond for that purpose. That's our redneck "water change" - pump a few hundred gallons on the gardens and into potted plants and then refill the pond.
Thanks Lisak, sounds similar to what we are considering. Did design & build ur pond?