Suggestions for container upflow bog

[elpalito]

Thanks Lisak. I am going to stop focusing on that clean out -- in truth, the bog will be small enough that I can just clean it by hand every 2-3 years if I really, really have to. lol But I may just follow your idea - modified. Leave a pipe wide enough to stick a wet-dry vac pipe down to the bottom. I'm not planning on having a huge fish load in the pond, so I'm probably ok.

 

[elpalito]

While waiting for the stones why not dig a shallow shelf around the pond. You can hide the liner laying stones on the shallow shelf coming up and put of the water.

Unfortunately, I have a den of raccoons near by - so the design was always going to leave 4-6 inches of liner exposed with another 8-12 inches of stone on top to deter them from reaching down. They've already left footprints around the pond and paw prints from the top down on the sides that show me how far they can reach. Very useful! I now know how high the rocks have to go.
If a raccoon can't see a clear way out of the water, they won't get in -- but they love shelves.

 

[addy1]

I have a lot of raccoons around they have never bothered the ponds. I watched for prints for years never saw any, no plant damage. I have a shallow end they can walk right in.

 

[elpalito]

Yeah, I have a group of 3 - it seems. A 4th died IN my backyard two autumns ago - a bit of a shock discovery when I was raking leaves.
I had a small test pond for over a year and, while they didn't bother the fish -- minnow may have been too small to grab -- they ate any pond plant I had except for water lettuce. Water hyacinths were a big hit. They'd use the shelves built into the preformed liner to reach things in the middle of the pond.
Clever animals - so I'm trying to discourage them.

 

[elpalito]

Well, I'll have to get a picture up on here soon -- but the pond is generally done. My bin for the bog won't arrive for a few more weeks though. So I'll focus on planting around the pond. I added a dozen red minnows. 18 cents a piece since they are considered feeder fish, but I like them as they are. Nice and cheap and they'll hit 3 inches by the end of the year.

 

[elpalito]

Pond and bog are done. These are from about 2 weeks ago. The bin kept getting delayed, so just got cheap concrete and another liner. I think the plants will fill in and and cover up the sharp lines a bit.

The pond has 4 goldfish and 12 minnows (well, I bought 12... i counted 16 after I put them in, though). I don't expect they'll all survive, but we'll see. I left town for 10 days and I just got a chance to look at the pond this morning and there are fry in the pond. I assume minnows -- but I didn't think they were old enough to be spawning given the original size. So I'm done feeding the fish and let the adults keep that fry number contained. I'll let nature take it's course here.

But, all done. And a pleasant addition next to the new deck.

 

[mrsclem]

Looks great!

 

[poconojoe]

The clean-out doesn't have to be at the bottom. It can be a vertical stack connected to the very end of the distribution manifold that lays under the gravel.
When you do a flush, turn off the pump, open the stack (screw cap) and turn the pump back on. Any debris caught in the distribution manifold will be forced out through the open stack.