Pond Bog Idea

[gerryyangani]

See my high-tech diagram below, but this is on the other end of the pond than what the majority of the water flow is (it shouldn't block water movement).
I just don't like my plants being confined to pots, and having to maintain/move/divide/repot them constantly. I think if they had free room to grow- it would look tons better.

My idea is building some sort of wall (bricks or such) that cuts off the shallow end from the deep end of the pond, and backfilling both shallow areas with some sort of gravel (perhaps only the second-deep area on the left side of the diagram- and not the super-deep area as much so because of fish). I still want fish to be able to move around in the shallow area, so I'm thinking 3" of water on top of the gravel.

My main worry is stinking, or other problems I may not have thought of yet (which is why I wanted input). Any problems you see?

[Shep]

Can't blame you for the "Bog" idea, they are quite tempting. Tim God has a thread started in the "Bog Gardens" section and can give you his personal expierience and suggestions. He linked a site about pond constuction http://www.nelsonwatergardens.com/data/resources/other/1_Bog%20Filter%20Construction.pdf and from what I understand from them is that your bog area needs to cover 10 to 20 percent of the surface of your pond area however they suggest having no standing water above the gravel.... good luck and keep us up to date on the make over.

[gerryyangani]

Thanks for the reply, but I wasn't planning on using it as a filter.
Circulation on this end of the pond is already fairly poor, which is why I didn't think I would lose too much by turning it into a bog area.

Is there a reason why there should not be water on the top?

Has anyone else attempted something like this, or ran into trouble?

[Jonna]

Even if you don't need it as a filter, I think water circulation is a good idea.  It will get anaerobic, stinky and perhaps dangerous for the fish if the water is left stagnant.   I'm building a small pond now with a bog that will be the filter but even if I had other filtration (and remember you can never have too much biological filtration) I would still put some kind of water return at the bottom to keep it from getting stagnant.  If you just had one return at the far side on the bottom that slowly drained through the bog and back to the pond, I think that would keep it fresh.

[Julles]

the reason there shouldn't be any standing water is so you don't get the stagnant, stinky water referred to above.  that said, I also had the idea of building a bog with one area that would be NOT moving... because I wanted a place where dragon flies could lay their eggs, and I had heard they laid their eggs in stagnant water.

But all in all, it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.  We work so hard to keep our pond water clean and clear and DISEASE FREE, it seems to me that stagnant water would just be a breeding place for something nasty that could get into the pond and overwhelm the fish.

Now, if you were to put that in an entirely seperate area, where water wouldn't run off into the main pond, perhaps you could try it.  Plant roots do filter out muck and yuck, so perhaps it would maintain itself cleanly.

[Jerry]

I once visited a very clear pond with large Koi.  I asked where the filter was, The owner said, "There is none."  it did circulate though a boggy area.  That , of course, was the filter as in nature

[Jonna]

I think a bog as a filter works really well, I'm planning on it working well anyway.  What I don't think would work so well is if the water wasn't circulating through the bog.  That's why I think it would be better to route a return from the pump to the bottom of the bog area and let it percolate up through the bog and back into the pond.  That should keep it from going stagnate and it would add a lot of biological and some mechanical filtering.