I'm so glad I found this. I have a natural pond about 50ft x 50ft and it's MUD. In the summer the water level goes way down, so I need to find a way for it to hold water, then add plants and pumps to clear it up and make living pond.
Beautiful! Would you have any suggestions for perennials to plant in a gravel "bog river" that could survive colder winter climates? (Northern Utah here)
We actually found it like that in a riverbed that we use to harvest logs. How lucky is that?!?!?!? There was very little modification that we did to incorporate into the water feature.
Don't feed your fish during the winter and use cold water beneficial bacteria. You may also use a phosphate binder as well. Phosphate binders remove a major food source of string algae. Thanks for reaching out. Please subscribe 🙏
That log spillway is really cool, Carl. And the fountains-it looks like you cut an urn in half and used both halves for different features. That was clever. Here's my question: What's the trick to building an elevated wetland in a flat yard like that? Are you setting your boulder retaining wall first and then digging it out, or digging first and then setting the retaining wall to add more elevation?
Thanks for the kind words Tyler. How's your project coming? Raised wetlands are a little clever to create. We take future elevations minus current grade and dig appropriately. Then we backfill the planter as we build the wetland. My foreman came up with the idea for the upside down urn. :)
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Coming along slowly! I look forward to a day when I spend more time executing the project than figuring out how to execute it. :)
This is the type of wetland filter I need. I like that the filter area isn't completely filled with gravel allowing it to be a shallow pond as well. Can you tell me how deep the total wetland filter is and how deep is it from the gravel level to surface of the water? Also How invasive are the cana's and can I use the ones from my local garden center or are they specail variety? Thanks for sharing!
There are about 8 to 12 inches of waterline above the gravel, and the wetland is 5 feet overall. The canna in this one was from a garden center and grows over 6 feet tall during the peak growing season.
Great video. What is the depth of the wetland filter? I am looking to have a large wetland and may need it deep enough for fish to control mosquitos. Any recommendations on max depth?
This is fantastic, I wish I could send you a couple of pics of my wetland and setup. But I do have a few question the tarot and elephant ear how did you put them in the pond did you pot them? Remove the dirt and just put the roots ? I’ve a few that I have saved through the winter and would like to replant them in the wetland and maybe also in the pond. I also have Canna same variety as yours and it seems as well that you have put them in the wetland I thought these plants needed more drainage than that. I live in PA what would be a correct temperature to be able to start replanting these plants outside thank you. J
Great video. Quick question. You said about putting a defuser in the water to add oxygen to it, then from there it travels to the skimmer then the wetland. If your installing a intake bay, will it work in the same format ? Many thanks Daniel
Sure. In a video? 😀 1. Mitigate the source 2. Activated carbon 3. Hydrogen peroxide 4. Flocculant 5. Aeration 6. Broad leaf plants 🌿 in the pond that are hardy to your planting zone.
I love your channel, thank you for putting this info out there! I have a problem with lily pads. No matter what I try they end up taking over the entire pond unless I physically get in and hack them back every few days in the summer. It's time consuming and also ends up looking terrible. We have a 10' round pond in Ohio with full sun. (We bought a house with this in place). What am I missing here? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Thank you for your kind words and subscribing! This spring, do a full cleaniut and remove them all, remove the gravel, repot them and add new gravel. It's the only way I can think of the slow their growth. Rootbound lilies are well contained to small areas. All the best to you amd yours! Carl
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Thank you, we tried to get them out once before but they are suprisingly difficult to remove. We're working on the wetland filter (which we thought was just an upper pond before watching your channel) now and hope to get to the bottom pond before it gets to cold. Thanks for the great videos!
Beautiful pond! Thank you for sharing. I have an excessive growth of string algae in my 1000 gallon pond in direct sunlight. It’s dimensions are 10 x 8 and the bog filter is 10 x 2 with taro and watercress. Please help with guidance
Very interesting video. Being French, I am sorry I am not catching well the names of the plants you are mentioning. Do you mind putting their names in written? Many thanks.
String algae is evidence of excess phosphates. Get a phosphate binder and use a mild oxidizer like barley extract. Also remember that some string algae is actually good at clearing the pea soup algae from ponds so you want some, just not overrun. Also, is your pond is leaking and the autofill runs all the time, you could be introducing phosphates through the tap water or well water. Bad food can also feed string algae. Back off the feeding and let the fish eat it. Read your food labels and buy food that is less than .07% phosphorous. It's a complicated issue, perhaps I should do a video. 😉
I don’t have the pond set up with auto fill. We have had lots of rain this winter. When the water is in the 40s and less I don’t feed the fish. But I’ll check the food ingredients. I’ll get some barley extract. Thank you.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens should I let the filter get established before adding plants or is that mostly a fish rule? Right now its just my turtle in dechlorinated water and a very small amount of some floating plants I plucked out of a local pond. I still need to get some tubing so I can hook up the pump to my "bog/waterfall"
It's all about nutrient. If you plant before adding fish, then the plants rat the food that otherwise would have fed the algae. If you overstock before your plants are mature, then the plants can't keep up with the fish and you'll have green water. Timing is everything, grow your fish population in relation to the plant growth. Make sense?
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens makes sense in theory. But idk how to put it into practice lol probably not many fish going in it. Mainly for my turtle but might throw in something small and fast that I dont care about? If he eats them he eats them. If they live thats fine too but its not a huge pond so I dont wanna overcrowd it. I think its 125 gallons but its not all the way full because I dont want my turtle to climb over the edge and fall to the floor and then free roam the house until I find him lol
I'm dealing with string algae on my waterfall. It chokes out the sounds. Normally I leave it on the bottom drop as my fish love it. Cannas struggled this year in my yard. Crazy Michigan weather.
I'm glad I covered that. String algae is a valuable plant in the right places, but is balanced by diatoms. Introduce diatoms with Nualgae and salt your pond to 2.1#'s per 100 gals.
Hi Sissy, It's easy to be confused with all the different opinions out there. We follow Aquascape's guidelines for wetland construction. It is recommended that there is 800 gallons per hour per Aquablox in the surface area of the wetland. For example, a wetland that has 15 aquablox can handle 800x15=12,000 gallons per hour of max flow. Now, we do recommend that the flow is less than the max flow as the wetland performs better with lower flow.
At 4000 gallons, you would want to turn it over at least 1x per hour, but if it were my build, I would use multiple pumps and run it combined over at least 8k gph. I like running a pump on the bottom of the pond inside a koi cave to the wetland and an additional pump inside the skimmer to a waterfall that compliments the wetland or biofalls. I have had great success with eh Aquascape Aquasurge pumps for many years. I may have as many as 1000 of them in service or more.
Great question! Elephant ear and taro plants share some similarities, but they are actually different plants. Elephant ear plants are members of the Colocasia genus, while taro plants belong to the genus Colocasia esculenta. One of the main differences between elephant ear and taro plants is in their edible portions. Taro plants are primarily grown for their starchy, potato-like root, which is a staple food in many cultures. On the other hand, elephant ear plants are not typically grown for food and do not produce a large, edible root. Another difference between the two plants is in their growth habits. Elephant ear plants are typically larger and more foliage-heavy, while taro plants tend to be shorter and stockier with less leafy growth. Lastly, the leaves of elephant ear and taro plants can look similar, but there are subtle differences. The leaves of elephant ear plants tend to be more heart-shaped, while taro leaves are more arrow-shaped.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Would regular elephant ear work in a wetland filter? I have lot growing in my yard I seem to get rid of. Thought I might put them to work in the filter
No. We want our roots to freely grow and absorb as much nitrate and phosphate as possible. Competitive exclusion removes the food source of something you don't want and feeds it to something you do want.
@jerrusruppert982 my pleasure. If you found my content informative and would like to support our channel, please consider sharing this video in social media and subscribing. Have a great day!
Pond looks great, love the urn use in the wetland.
Thanks
I'm so glad I found this. I have a natural pond about 50ft x 50ft and it's MUD. In the summer the water level goes way down, so I need to find a way for it to hold water, then add plants and pumps to clear it up and make living pond.
Call me any time for advice
888-713-7771
Dope love the plants and water feature
That log spillway was excellent! Beautiful wetlands and pond!!! Really good video! 👍🏻
Thank you. Check out my Instagram for photos of the completed project
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens AWESOME POND,❤ I just joined your channel
I'm going to check out some of your other videos about what you have going
Thank you! Wait till you see my latest mega pond. We break ground in two weeks.
I love how natural it looks... Watching this makes me wanna do number two which is normal I always do that when I see beautiful nature or garden...
That was weird. Thanks, I guess. 🤯🤛
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens lmaooooo
Thanks alot, thats very good information you share. Thank you so much.
Glad to help:)
This is stunning and I love it. You should* be proud.
Beautiful! Would you have any suggestions for perennials to plant in a gravel "bog river" that could survive colder winter climates? (Northern Utah here)
Great looking pond!
Thank you sir
Absolutely love the log spillway. Can we see more of that? Did you just hollow out a log?
We actually found it like that in a riverbed that we use to harvest logs. How lucky is that?!?!?!? There was very little modification that we did to incorporate into the water feature.
Really nice work!
Dear CArl. It looks crystal clear but what we can do during the winter when all the plants die out? how can we keep the algae away then?
Don't feed your fish during the winter and use cold water beneficial bacteria. You may also use a phosphate binder as well. Phosphate binders remove a major food source of string algae.
Thanks for reaching out. Please subscribe 🙏
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Thank you very much for your fast reply, i appreciate it a lot.
That log spillway is really cool, Carl. And the fountains-it looks like you cut an urn in half and used both halves for different features. That was clever.
Here's my question: What's the trick to building an elevated wetland in a flat yard like that? Are you setting your boulder retaining wall first and then digging it out, or digging first and then setting the retaining wall to add more elevation?
Thanks for the kind words Tyler. How's your project coming?
Raised wetlands are a little clever to create. We take future elevations minus current grade and dig appropriately. Then we backfill the planter as we build the wetland.
My foreman came up with the idea for the upside down urn. :)
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Coming along slowly! I look forward to a day when I spend more time executing the project than figuring out how to execute it. :)
Don't make me come to your neck of the woods
This is the type of wetland filter I need. I like that the filter area isn't completely filled with gravel allowing it to be a shallow pond as well. Can you tell me how deep the total wetland filter is and how deep is it from the gravel level to surface of the water? Also How invasive are the cana's and can I use the ones from my local garden center or are they specail variety? Thanks for sharing!
There are about 8 to 12 inches of waterline above the gravel, and the wetland is 5 feet overall. The canna in this one was from a garden center and grows over 6 feet tall during the peak growing season.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Thanks for the quick response, I'll be sure to let you know how mine turns out.
@@go_Rogue send pictures to carl@columbiawatergardens.com
Great video. What is the depth of the wetland filter? I am looking to have a large wetland and may need it deep enough for fish to control mosquitos. Any recommendations on max depth?
I usually dig them 6 feet. 4 for the filter, 1 for retained water line, and 1 for edging.
This is fantastic, I wish I could send you a couple of pics of my wetland and setup. But I do have a few question the tarot and elephant ear how did you put them in the pond did you pot them? Remove the dirt and just put the roots ? I’ve a few that I have saved through the winter and would like to replant them in the wetland and maybe also in the pond.
I also have Canna same variety as yours and it seems as well that you have put them in the wetland I thought these plants needed more drainage than that.
I live in PA what would be a correct temperature to be able to start replanting these plants outside thank you.
J
Call me at 888-713-7771. I'd be glad to help. I'm in California, and business hours are from 9 to 5 our time.
Great video. Quick question. You said about putting a defuser in the water to add oxygen to it, then from there it travels to the skimmer then the wetland. If your installing a intake bay, will it work in the same format ? Many thanks Daniel
Yes, absolutely. There is a tremendous amount of turbulation that occurs in an intake bay. Excellent question 👏
Hi Carl, have you been able to write down the names of the plants somewhere ?
Thank you !
Not yet. I'm traveling this weekend, but I'll get to that list monday
can you give me your top 10 tips and helps besides the obvious,, on tannin control if i'm struggling
Sure.
In a video? 😀
1. Mitigate the source
2. Activated carbon
3. Hydrogen peroxide
4. Flocculant
5. Aeration
6. Broad leaf plants 🌿 in the pond that are hardy to your planting zone.
I love your channel, thank you for putting this info out there!
I have a problem with lily pads. No matter what I try they end up taking over the entire pond unless I physically get in and hack them back every few days in the summer. It's time consuming and also ends up looking terrible.
We have a 10' round pond in Ohio with full sun. (We bought a house with this in place).
What am I missing here? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Thank you for your kind words and subscribing!
This spring, do a full cleaniut and remove them all, remove the gravel, repot them and add new gravel. It's the only way I can think of the slow their growth. Rootbound lilies are well contained to small areas.
All the best to you amd yours!
Carl
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Thank you, we tried to get them out once before but they are suprisingly difficult to remove. We're working on the wetland filter (which we thought was just an upper pond before watching your channel) now and hope to get to the bottom pond before it gets to cold. Thanks for the great videos!
Beautiful pond! Thank you for sharing.
I have an excessive growth of string algae in my 1000 gallon pond in direct sunlight. It’s dimensions are 10 x 8 and the bog filter is 10 x 2 with taro and watercress. Please help with guidance
Call me anytime. I'll be glad to help. 888-713-7771
Great video
Thanks very much!!!
Very interesting video. Being French, I am sorry I am not catching well the names of the plants you are mentioning. Do you mind putting their names in written? Many thanks.
I will do that today. Great idea!
How do you recommend to get rid of the string algae? My pond is less than a year old. String algae is on the rocks of my waterfall.
String algae is evidence of excess phosphates. Get a phosphate binder and use a mild oxidizer like barley extract. Also remember that some string algae is actually good at clearing the pea soup algae from ponds so you want some, just not overrun.
Also, is your pond is leaking and the autofill runs all the time, you could be introducing phosphates through the tap water or well water.
Bad food can also feed string algae. Back off the feeding and let the fish eat it. Read your food labels and buy food that is less than .07% phosphorous.
It's a complicated issue, perhaps I should do a video. 😉
I don’t have the pond set up with auto fill. We have had lots of rain this winter. When the water is in the 40s and less I don’t feed the fish. But I’ll check the food ingredients. I’ll get some barley extract. Thank you.
Im in love 💕
Thank you! 😊👍
when installing a pond, the plants around the pond have their own seperate irrigation system? a seperate plumbing going to them? thnx
I usually run drip line to emitters or a sweat line that forms beads of water along the line.
Im building an above ground pond for my pet turtle. Don't really know what im doin but im tryin lol
The most important thing is to have fun doing it.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens a healthy, more enjoyable environment for my turtle is number one for me. My fun can take second place 😉😅
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens should I let the filter get established before adding plants or is that mostly a fish rule? Right now its just my turtle in dechlorinated water and a very small amount of some floating plants I plucked out of a local pond. I still need to get some tubing so I can hook up the pump to my "bog/waterfall"
It's all about nutrient. If you plant before adding fish, then the plants rat the food that otherwise would have fed the algae. If you overstock before your plants are mature, then the plants can't keep up with the fish and you'll have green water.
Timing is everything, grow your fish population in relation to the plant growth.
Make sense?
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens makes sense in theory. But idk how to put it into practice lol probably not many fish going in it. Mainly for my turtle but might throw in something small and fast that I dont care about? If he eats them he eats them. If they live thats fine too but its not a huge pond so I dont wanna overcrowd it. I think its 125 gallons but its not all the way full because I dont want my turtle to climb over the edge and fall to the floor and then free roam the house until I find him lol
What about adding pond salt? Would that be a solution at low levels, 1000ppm or so?
Those are very low levels, but I am a strong advocate for pond salt.
👏👏👏👏👏
What is the difference between a intake bay and a wetland?
Intake skims and the wetland filters
I'm dealing with string algae on my waterfall. It chokes out the sounds. Normally I leave it on the bottom drop as my fish love it. Cannas struggled this year in my yard. Crazy Michigan weather.
First!
I'm glad I covered that. String algae is a valuable plant in the right places, but is balanced by diatoms.
Introduce diatoms with Nualgae and salt your pond to 2.1#'s per 100 gals.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens I'll try that. I don't want it all to go but the salt would help the fish also. Keep you posted
This lush California paradise is salted at .21
I want to add a bog to my new koi pond but I see different answers on flow rate for them. I'm so confused on this.
Hi Sissy,
It's easy to be confused with all the different opinions out there. We follow Aquascape's guidelines for wetland construction. It is recommended that there is 800 gallons per hour per Aquablox in the surface area of the wetland. For example, a wetland that has 15 aquablox can handle 800x15=12,000 gallons per hour of max flow.
Now, we do recommend that the flow is less than the max flow as the wetland performs better with lower flow.
Please subscribe if I was able to help you :)
Hi I'm looking for a strong pump but at the same time something that doesn't consume a lot of power what pump would you recommend??
How many gallons per hour?
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens well I'm making my pond atleast 4000 gallons
At 4000 gallons, you would want to turn it over at least 1x per hour, but if it were my build, I would use multiple pumps and run it combined over at least 8k gph.
I like running a pump on the bottom of the pond inside a koi cave to the wetland and an additional pump inside the skimmer to a waterfall that compliments the wetland or biofalls.
I have had great success with eh Aquascape Aquasurge pumps for many years. I may have as many as 1000 of them in service or more.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens well I have a aquascape pump that is from 4000 to 8000 gallons
But I wasn't sure if its a good pump
Have a look at my latest upload. The pump used on that video is an Aquascape Aquasurge 4000-8000 pump.
Wetland filter is that another name for a bog filter or are they different? Enjoying watching your videos. Im so glad i found your channel 🥰
It's also a bog. We call them wetlands because of their size and construction.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens ty, good to know. Trying to learn as much as possible here
Can you indicate the depth of the pond please?
Is Taro and Elephant the same thing? I'm not finding a clear answer on google
Great question!
Elephant ear and taro plants share some similarities, but they are actually different plants. Elephant ear plants are members of the Colocasia genus, while taro plants belong to the genus Colocasia esculenta.
One of the main differences between elephant ear and taro plants is in their edible portions. Taro plants are primarily grown for their starchy, potato-like root, which is a staple food in many cultures. On the other hand, elephant ear plants are not typically grown for food and do not produce a large, edible root.
Another difference between the two plants is in their growth habits. Elephant ear plants are typically larger and more foliage-heavy, while taro plants tend to be shorter and stockier with less leafy growth.
Lastly, the leaves of elephant ear and taro plants can look similar, but there are subtle differences. The leaves of elephant ear plants tend to be more heart-shaped, while taro leaves are more arrow-shaped.
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens Would regular elephant ear work in a wetland filter? I have lot growing in my yard I seem to get rid of. Thought I might put them to work in the filter
www.bonniesplants.com/how_to/poisonous_plants_to_fish.html
a waterfall with one stone, dang what a nice stone hahaha
That would be amazing
@@ColumbiaWaterGardens it is amazing 8:44 hehe
Isnt this plant known as dwarf umbrella sedge?
Maybe
What was that plant with the runners near your stream again?
Bacopa
that plant is also probably known as papyrus I have some everyone have some
What was the name of the plants again?
I think they are listed in the description
I looked. I may have missed it. I’ll check again. thanks
Is what you’re calling tores elephant ears?
Potatoes potatoes taros 🐘 👂
😆🤣😂
OMG I've never seen anything in this video the camera shot moves so much lol. Thanks for trying lol🤣
Sorry about that. I need to work on still shots for b roll. Thanks for the kind input, will try harder and keep you in mind.
Are your plants in pots?
No. We want our roots to freely grow and absorb as much nitrate and phosphate as possible. Competitive exclusion removes the food source of something you don't want and feeds it to something you do want.
Awesome thank you for the information.
@jerrusruppert982 my pleasure. If you found my content informative and would like to support our channel, please consider sharing this video in social media and subscribing. Have a great day!