[VoodooChile]

I sold a few water features this Spring, and used the business as an excuse to design and buy one for the home front.

I was ready to start digging, when I met a guy with ostensibly a ton of experience who was highly critical of the Aquascapes' filtration system. He argued that the biofalls-skimmer system was insufficient for control of sting-algae, and that the only surefire way to get crystal clear water was through the use of bogs.

And actually, if you read the fine print in the Aquascapes literature you will run across the sentence, "At Aquascapes Designs, string algae growing in our customers' ponds has been a pain in our rear for years...our Aquascapes Systems would keep ponds from turning green but had little effect on string algae." This to sell a product-- String Algae Buster-- that I am not interested in using.

The bog concept, as well as I understand it, pulls water through a gravel bed that is loaded with marginal plants. The gravel acts as a medium for microscopic organisms that break down waste, and the marginals uptake the excess nutrients and use them to grow.

Pretty much I am sold on using the bog concept, since one reason to put in a pond on the home front is to experiment with new ideas, but I am wondering...

What are the maintenance issues with bog filtration?

What is a good rule of thumb (besides bigger is better) for determining bog size?

What sort of problems will I run into constructing the bog out of drain tile, a sump pit and a sump pump?

I already bought the Aquascapes kit, and plan to employ it in conjunction with a slave-bog that I build myself. That way I can run the Aquascapes systems with/without the bog to evaluate string algae growth.

I know Aquascapes does sell bog systems, but I don't want to give Aquascapes any more of my hard earned dollars for more pricey pieces of plastic that by their own admission don't deliver the goods!!!

[Bill Schwab]

Voodoo:

A sump pump is going to push too much water. You need to run something around 500-850GPM for something the size of a sump pump. If you have a larger pit then you could use a larger pump. I stick to electro magentic bearing pumps. Far superior to ball/roller bearing units. A Nautilus 30 would work for what you are looking to do and add a ball valve at the exhaust side to regulate flow.