Spring in FL filter idea

[Alvarero]

Hello everyone. In FL the plants are starting to bloom as spring comes around the corner. We only had one cold snap. My plantains all burned from the freeze but new growth has already started. Here is an idea and I would like some advice from some of the veterans on the forum. I purchased a 100 gallon generic stock tank. I saved 15 dollars compared to the rubber maid. Next time I'll spend the extra money. I already have a skippy type filter and a trash can packed with a/c batting and a uv filter.

Here is the question. I would like to use the extra stock tank and create a small bog with it. I want to plum it with some pvc pipe and cover the pipe with pea gravel and other small rocks. This will be an additional filter. I have some extra water flow as I am running a couple of 5500 gph pumps. I would like to give it a try.

Are there any ideas or suggestions. As some of you may remember, I was planning on making a bog out of my lily pond. The lilies are growing nicely and I have a large colony of platys that survived the winter. I don't have the heart to evict them from their home so the large bog is out of the question for now.

 

[addy1]

That should work great, water in, through the gravel and plants, water out back into the pond. If you draw the water from mid pond ie not the bottom you won't need to deal with a lot of muck getting into the gravel, but it will still do a great job in filtering.

 

[DrCase]

A grate under the P gravel , with a water space may help the in coming water spread out more evenly.
A low drain would help to back wash the muck if needed

 

[addy1]

My small bogs, all had a grate under the pea gravel about an 3-4 inch space, with a bottom drain. The bog for this pond is too big it is just piping gravel and a drain.

 

[Alvarero]

Thank you both. I bought some ac filter batting for the pond today. A few years ago I had some in a shallow area and the fish bread in there like crazy. I suspended it toward the top of the water since so the eggs aren't too deep. As I visit the pet stores I notice the cost of fish is going up considerably. The Koi I used to buy for 3.99 are not 6 or 6.99. I know it is a seasonal product for most pet stores. But it seems to stay at the same price or higher as the spring season comes around. So far I only lost about 5 fish this year to the heron. Not bad considering. Maybe some babies that are homegrown will be a little wiser than the imports from the fish store.

Thanks again. Rob

 

[addy1]

Laughing, the heron will be smarter than the fish, unless they have one good place to hide and deep enough water to escape to.

 

[Alvarero]

So the babies have hatched. I have goldfish fry everywhere along the edge of the pond. I plan to work on the bog filter this weekend. I'll take some pictures soon.

 

[addy1]

So the babies have hatched. I have goldfish fry everywhere along the edge of the pond. I plan to work on the bog filter this weekend. I'll take some pictures soon.

Neat, will be looking forward to your pictures. I will have a whole bunch once the water warms more, they sure are bumping and chasing

 

[j.w]

Congrats on your new babies Alvarero! Can't wait till mine produce some more.

 

[sissy]

Gosh how many do you think you have ,you may need a bigger pond( wink wink )They keep breeding like that you may be giving fish away .

 

[Waterbug]

In general filters should be designed to fix a problem. I'm not sure what problem or problems the filter is needed for...so no way to tell if a 100 gal bog would "work".

In general, I think bogs have to be fairly large to have the best chance of killing algae, but you have a UV and that is 100% effect against green water algae. If you have a green water problem with a UV I'd look into correcting whatever problem the UV has.

Bogs can also be pretty good at settling out and trapping small particles. Again bigger is better. The longer the water is in the bog the better the chance of particles getting stuck some place. If this is the filter's purpose you don't have to worry about grates and even flow. Flow will find channels and as particles are trapped water will find other channels, until, hopefully after many years (decades), the bog will become completely clogged and have to be replaced. The clogging action is actually a very important function. Large particles get stuck making a large opening smaller, allowing smaller particles to be trapped. The process is repeated until the tiniest particles are trapped. Diatomaceous earth filters use this same principle. Swimming pools lack the larger particles so the DE steps in that role. These trap particles down to the 3 micron range. A single cell algae is about 25 microns.

However, if the filter was meant to remove ammonia you would want the grate and multiple pump outflows, and you'd want to push a lot of water through it in an attempt to stop particles from being trapped and killing the ammonia converting bacteria. Using this type of filter for removing ammonia is now very dated. Much better filters have since been developed.

Putting submerged media in to a container as a general purpose filter is currently fairly unique to water gardens. It was state of the art many years ago. Other fish raising operations (hobby and commercial) moved on to new, better performing filters. For some reason water gardening didn't. I think it's mainly because most water gardens don't really need filters so really anything will "work" when it isn't needed. Or if a pond clears the filter gets the credit even if the filter had no role (most water gardens clear by themselves). In other fish raising operations filters are very important, fish die otherwise. So they've been very willing to consider new ideas, test results, and move toward better filters.

For a water garden I think the best filter is a stream. Perfect media for green water killing bacteria, exposes green water algae to UV (the sun works the same as a UV, just not as powerful).