Hi all! I am committed to turning off my bog filter/waterfall for the winter (in fact, I have already done so).
I am somewhat uncertain as to whether I should now drain the bog filter as much as possible or leave the water in there. The bog filter is a 40 gallon Brute trash barrel. It is heavy duty. My concern is whether or not ice expansion could cause cracks and subsequent leaks in the trash barrel. The trash barrel is half buried in a mound of dirt and is 2/3 full of rocks (big ones on the bottom, then medium, then pea gravel. I would guess that once the rocks are taken into account, there might be 20 gallons of water in there now. There is a milk crate at the very bottom with a 4 foot high PVC pipe sticking out of it--i.e. there is a void space so that it is easy for me to stick a pipe down to suck out the water if I wish.
I am leaning towards draining it (I figure the worst case scenario is that I am back to ground 0 in the spring in terms of beneficial bacteria in the bog, though honestly given the fact that it can be seeded from the pond, it should be better than it was when new this spring). But before doing so, I do want to see what everyone thinks. Thank you in advance!
Edit: I'm Zone 6 (B?) in the US. So nighttime temps average about 30 F, daytime 40-45 in winter. But we do get some cold weeks where we are 30 F during the day and 10 F at night for 5-7 days. I.e. the barrel water will ice to at least some extent at some point. (I'm going to run a heater in the pond on the cold nights)
I am somewhat uncertain as to whether I should now drain the bog filter as much as possible or leave the water in there. The bog filter is a 40 gallon Brute trash barrel. It is heavy duty. My concern is whether or not ice expansion could cause cracks and subsequent leaks in the trash barrel. The trash barrel is half buried in a mound of dirt and is 2/3 full of rocks (big ones on the bottom, then medium, then pea gravel. I would guess that once the rocks are taken into account, there might be 20 gallons of water in there now. There is a milk crate at the very bottom with a 4 foot high PVC pipe sticking out of it--i.e. there is a void space so that it is easy for me to stick a pipe down to suck out the water if I wish.
I am leaning towards draining it (I figure the worst case scenario is that I am back to ground 0 in the spring in terms of beneficial bacteria in the bog, though honestly given the fact that it can be seeded from the pond, it should be better than it was when new this spring). But before doing so, I do want to see what everyone thinks. Thank you in advance!
Edit: I'm Zone 6 (B?) in the US. So nighttime temps average about 30 F, daytime 40-45 in winter. But we do get some cold weeks where we are 30 F during the day and 10 F at night for 5-7 days. I.e. the barrel water will ice to at least some extent at some point. (I'm going to run a heater in the pond on the cold nights)
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