Timgod - do you think your wife would mind much if I picked your brain a bit?

[newbieincaliprincess]

 

Hope not. Ever since I started my ity bity pond that I received for my birth day I have wanted a mostly above ground pond and I knew the minute I saw your pictures of your bog garden/koi pond I wanted to do something similar to that. and plant the bog with taller plants to act as a "fence" Here's where I have a few questions:

If I was to build my koi pond a bit smaller than yours (around 8 ft long 3 ft with 4 ft or 5 ft deep with one foot under ground) how wide would I need my bog to be?

I planted all my plants in my current teeny tiny 60 gal pond in pot's with Joyce's soil and I have had a FANTASTIC experience with my first summer in my first pond. I would like to continue to see the crazy growth I get with the soil but the bog's I see are all made of gravel and rocks... Can I ... IDK line the bottom with rocks, the sides with gravel (about 3  inches thick or so) and fill the center with organic compost? or will that defeat the point of the bog?

are you happyer with the seeping cinder block wall or the water fall?

My other idea is to build something like this:

              -----------------------------------------------------
              l                                                                         l
              l                                                                         l     <--- This entire section would be the bog
              l                                                                         l
              l                                                                         l
              -----------------------------------------------------
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l   <----  these 2 areas would be my pond section's
              l                l                                        l                l             And around the inside I would build a
              l                l                                        l                l             bench. This entire area would be
              l                l                                        l                l             between 2 sheds in my back yard creating
              l                l                                        l                l             a cubby. I thought from there I would
              l                l                                        l                l             take lattice staple some sheer fabric to
              l                l                                        l                l            one side of it and simply set it on top of
              ------------                                        -------------           the sheds and allow the fabric to hand down the sides too thus hiding the ugly exterior walls of the sheds and shielding the ponds from birds, oak tree leaves, and making it pweety


In my second idea I would use 2 smaller pumps (one strong enough for each side's volume to cycle once in an hour so the pond would essentially cycle 2 times per hour) in this plan I would use way more lumber, way more liner, but I could possibly keep either goldies in one side and koi in the other or use one side as a lilly garden and the other for koi.

Now as far as my old insy winsy pond goes I plan on turning it into a bog / guppy pond. I am hoping I can simply fill it with compost and water about 5 inches above the soil put 2 inches of gravel and release the guppy's... will that work?

[newbieincaliprincess]

I got so into describing I kind of forgot to ask additional questions about my second idea. How would I set up the bogs... I thought it would be nice to do a water fall flow. And to keep things simple I was thinking I would build all 3 containers (bog and 2 ponds) separately then just attach the liners and allow the water to flow. Will that work or will the bog flood over? Dose this plan sound good? any tips or revisions? I'm pretty excited about it now. 

[Timgod]

If I was to build my koi pond a bit smaller than yours (around 8 ft long 3 ft with 4 ft or 5 ft deep with one foot under ground) how wide would I need my bog to be?

8' x 3' equals 24 square feet. Depth is not really an issue. You want between about 20% of your total surface area of the pond in the bog.
So using your 24 square feet number you need a bog of about 4.8 square feet.
You want the bog to be at an end away from the area where the pump is to get a full circulation of the water system.
You could do a 8' x 1' on the top of your diagram. This would give you 8 square feet. Plenty of surface area.

              -----------------------------------------------------
              l                                                                         l
              l                                                                         l     <--- This entire section would be the bog
              l                                                                         l
              l                                                                         l
              -----------------------------------------------------
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l
              l                l                                        l                l   <----  these 2 areas would be my pond section's
              l                l                                        l                l             And around the inside I would build a
              l                l                                        l                l             bench. This entire area would be
              l                l                                        l                l             between 2 sheds in my back yard creating
              l                l                                        l                l             a cubby. I thought from there I would
              l                l                                        l                l             take lattice staple some sheer fabric to
              l                l                                        l                l            one side of it and simply set it on top of
              ------------                                        -------------       

If you do the horseshoe shape, you might need 2 pumps to get a good flow and circulation throughout. Dead areas that don't get circulated well are bad for fish.
Waterlilies won't care, they actually do not like running water.
Given that I have now done several, I prefer the waterfall type to just the seepage type but that is just a personal choice, not that one is better than the other.
The extra water disturbance created by the waterfall helps with oxygen levels when we get near 100 degrees here,
Make sure the waterlilies do not get shaded by the shade cloth or they won't bloom very well if at all.
As to the guppies... I have never grown them so I do not know their requirements.
If you are planting bog type plants, they really do not need any soil at all after the first week or so. Once the waste and dirt stirred up by the fish filters through the rocks and is trapped, the elephant ears etc will use that as their nutrient source. Their root systems spread out and act as a natural filter in addition to the gravel.

Hope this helps.

Tim

[Jennie in MT]

Tim, any chance you have your construction pics available on your website??

[reddad35]

My bog area is all above the level of the pond surface. I created a stream bog area. I dug to 2 foot depth and am pumping directly out of my pond to the top with a flat spot of about 3 feet. I laid flat stone to create a stream back down to the pond. The whole bog area is filled with pea gravel. Some of the pumped water falls to make it look like a stream. The rest falls over here and there and the plants thrive. It has been maintenance free so far. This is not my main filter system. I do know however this has helped greatly to the pond clarity and looks of the pond surroundings.

[rethrope]

Is the pond still around?

[FrankJScott]

Please try Google before asking about Excellent Product Guide ec581_5