Very simple solution with much lower odds of failure than a check valve. About to install this in my own bog, but thinking I will direct the flow to another water feature made from a large plant pot I have lying around.
I've been thinking about the breather pipe, thinking that the water would surely just run straight out of it, rather than going down to the base of the filter. Of course, fit a control valve. Thanks kev, my confusion is solved 👍
Another "con" of a check valve is that it will reduce your maximum flow rate a bit. Not a lot, but it effectively adds from 0.66-1.0m of head height due to the pressure required to open the valve for normal operation.
I just use a Y connector at the top location where my hose from my pond enters my bog. The flow from the pond goes into one of the sides of the Y and flows naturally down through the tube connected at the bottom of the Y, but when my pump goes of, the air enters the other side of the Y and the siphon stops. No need for a valve. Gravity does the work for me.
Aha! I think I’m starting to grasp this! 😆 Not very good at math so it’s taking me awhile to understand how to calculate everything, especially since I’m not that used to metric. Also, I’ve never plumbed anything. 🤔I have a small 260 gallon preformed pond liner. I’ve managed to make it look pretty natural, but it has been a pain to maintain. A bog filter is exactly what it needs, plus a waterfall/stream. Waiting for the current batch of pollywogs to grow up so I can begin the makeover in earnest. I have a large piece of the rubber liner to use for the water feature part and a bunch of beautiful moss rocks. 🙏🏽🪨💦
This is a much better approach. Cheaper than a check valve, and mine has failed too. I'd like to do a post mortem on it to see why, but it's a bit hard to remove it. I've been thinking about doing this, but it's also a bit hard to retrofit it. I think I might put some kind of closeable air hole in the top of the inlet pipe. In its simplest form, it might be just a hole with a rubber stopper, but I might be able to come up with something better than that. The problem is the retrofit issue, without disturbing everything too much.
The retro fit took less than an hour…although you are right about the disruption I needed to remove everything. When I pulled the valve off all the gravel fell down into the pipe. Pretty frustrating 😂 I thought it was going to be a 5 minute job.
I wonder how small the breather tube can be to allow enough air to get in to break the siphon. I'm thinking about drilling a hole into the inlet pipe and fitting some small garden irrigation tubing with a shut off valve to adjust the flow. A bit smaller than the pipe you used.
@@Ozponds or maybe some sort of butterfly valve which the water pressure would keep closed but the negative pressure in siphon mode would suck open allowing air to rush in.
Great videos, one watched several. I'm going to look at (ab) using an air admittance valve it my bog feed. It defeats the siphon without leaking water and is above ground in the case of a bed for replacement
This was exactly the video I needed to see. I've watched loads of your videos and with this one my final plan just came together! Thanks. One question... Can the bog be larger than the pond? I want to have a 400 litre cattle trough as the bog, to supply 250-300 litre pond made of an old tin bath set into a rockery, via a waterfall. Kinda thinking its the wrong way round, but it's how the space works and uses what I have.
I have been building my pond little by little, I wish I watched this before buying and installing the check valve. My bog filter is an above ground stock tank. The inlet attaches at the bottom and the water is then dispersed through a type of manifold system, I added a check valve to stop the water from siphoning back down into the pond if there is ever a power outage. I am now wondering if I cut out the check valve all together and install the inlet pipe all the way at the top with a valve as a breather.
Do you need to install a breather pipe if you insert your water intake (from pump into bog) at the bottom of the bog container via a hole saw on the side?
I would always have a way to prevent siphoning. Breather pipe is my go to, check valves fail. If you come in at the base and you don’t have a breather or check valve your bog will siphon when the pump shuts off.
I was at a friend's house yesterday and he's got a swim pool with a water fall ( no fish) and pump on a timer so when it switched off I saw the suction effect in action, as The water level only stopped at the point of the pipe opening
I think I understand the concept. I need to know how to build a bog system and what pipes and tools I need so that I can explain it to someone else who will do the build for me . This person can't watch video. I don't feel confident yet Kev. I think I will wait for your next video on building a bog. Do you have very low nitrates in your ponds using the bog filtration system ? Thank you . 😊😎🐠🐟🐡🌧🌨
I have a barrel, I have a stock tank, I just need some free time. Practically no nitrates in all my ponds, but I also don’t overstock them and I stopped regular testing years ago. But every time I’ve got curious almost non existent.
@Ozponds Then your system is definitely the one I need. As well as reducing nitrates the system also looks good. Thank you Kev. I will give it a go once the weather warms up. 😊
Hi Kev! Your vids are ALWAYS helpful! Question: How do i measure the flow rate sent to the bottom of the bog vs the flow of the water coming out of the breather pipe? I want to make sure that its not flowing too fast down to the bog and pushing the waste up, so i want to make sure i can figure out the right balance
You need to put a hose on the top section and measure/ time how much water comes out. Then use the flow rate of your pump to calculate roughly how much goes to the bottom.
Nice video, thanks. Can I ask about the pump… as this is sitting in the pond and pumping dirty water into the bog filter doesn’t it get blocked or covered in gunk? How do you keep it clean and maintain it?
G’day Paul. I do have a build video for this pond. But to answer your question. The pump sits in a diy skimmer. The skimmer has a course filter sponge which catches a lot of stuff. Also the bog was built for east of cleaning. Videos available on both the skimmer and the bog 👍
Hey Kev! Quick question on setting up my bog filter. My plan is to have tubing that flows across the bottom of my bog and into a clean out valve. They will have upward facing holes. My filter is going to be sloped down towards the clean out valve. Should I just create one hole in the clean out valve for the tubing to enter? Or create a few so all the gunk can get sucked in through the sides too?
Thanks for the quick response! I was just sitting around thinking about how the gunk would end up in the bin if there aren’t holes in it. Does your sediment tend to mostly end up in the bin naturally ? Or would it push up through the pvc going along the bottom and have a hard time getting back in when being cleaned?
@@magicmikefpu9510 hard to say because I can’t see through all the rock and pebble. Remember I’m using that large drainage/ leech trench component as my dispersal. It has heaps of large slots in its side, that allows plenty of gunk in as I back wash the system.
@@magicmikefpu9510 I’ve just realized this is the breather hole video, not a large bog filter. If you are using a cleanout point because you cannot use a valve (barrel bog design), you absolutely need to have holes in that cleanout point to remove the build up of gunk. My barrel filters have a valve at the base.
@@Ozpondsthanks, mate! Yeah mine is around 400 gallons and it’s in ground. So I will definitely add holes in the clean out valve. Thank you sir!!! I’ll let you know when it’s all set in a month or two
Hi Kev, how open does the valve have to be to stop the syphon? I want to prevent that but don't want extra water to the top of my bog so would like the valve open at the minimum. 😊
I showed in another vid how you can use a vertical pipe to still have an opening that no water will come out. I think it was the bog filter for the stock trough pond.
I'm building a bog filter and had planned to have 3 to 4 pvc pipes branching out from the inlet pipe from the pump (which is probably 10 feet lower then the bog). I thought the snorkel was all I needed for cleanout. Do you recommend I have an end cap for each distribution branch?
I built a bog in a barrel using your plan. All of the gunk in my barrel seems to be settling at the top of barrel. When I open clean out valve at bottom the water is clear not gunky. What am I doing wrong? I have a breather valve set very low. Thank u.
@@Ozponds hey I’m building my wetland right now, I saw you only used lager stone on yours, how is that working out, I would like to add aquablocks of course but dang are they expensive for just one.
Kev, does this only work when the pipe comes up over the top of the bog and then piping moves the water to the bottom of the bog? I have piping that goes straight into the bottom of the bog (hole in bottom of bog). Mainly due to if I try to go up and over (tall barrel), the flow drops to near zero due to the head height. |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | | -------------|-- | Pond Water---> | -------------|-- | |___Bog______________| Would attaching a t-piece to the inlet and raising a pipe up above the water level work if the pump stops? I'm thinking not, as the inlet (turns into outlet when pump stops) doesn't rise up like in your design, so gravity will still cause the water to leave? | | |~|~~|~~~~~~~~~~| | | | | ---------------|--| |----- | Pond Water---> | ---------------|------------- | |___Bog_____________| I guess I could try and try and throw something together to see what happens. But thought I'd ask first.
Thanks. I’ll have to give this a miss then. The “drawings” come out odd depending on what platform you’re reading them from. Hopefully it didn’t look like a jumbled mess for you 😂
Hi Kev, I did a test on my bog to replicate a power outage, The water seemed to continue to drain after the water level dropped below the breather, any idea why? Its only a little system for a patio pond in a Bunning plastic whiskey barrel with a small office bin as the bog.
Probably not enough air getting in. If the air gets in the siphon is broken. If you came in at the base it won’t work either, need to come in over the top.
Definitely coming in from the top. I have a feeling though the water level towards the bottom of the bog will eventually be the same as the pond as the bog is not completely above the water level in the pond. I might just let it completely drain as much as it wants to and see what happens. Love the videos mate.
I have no idea? What exactly is the flow? You’ve said how big the pond is, how big the barrel for the filter is, but no pump! No one can assess if flow is too much, if you don’t provide the actual flow rate 😉
Hey buddy, I checked my bog, and the water did syphon back into the pond. Can I confirm where the breather pipe is installed. Does the water level cut off at the point?
You just need it to suck air into the pipe when the pump shuts off that breaks the siphon. The water level will sit at the point of overflow. I’ve lots of vids and diagrams showing where I place mine, but you can place it in lots of different areas.
@@Ozponds I did it! I got a T joint, added a small pipe, and added a 90-degree bend. It works perfectly! If I hadn’t found your channel, I would have had no idea about this breather pipe situation. Do you have a website? I’ll send you my design, haha
It can that’s why I only plant shallow rooted plants. That way they are easy to manage 👍 if you want you don’t even need the plants it’s the bacteria’s that do the heavy lifting.
Hi Kev have you ever done a bog filter in a liner so with no plastic containers to hold everything? was wondering if you have a video or info on this as I’m making mine quite big out of sleepers with a liner inside. 👍
@@kevscott8900 yes that is the simplest method. Have you done any testing? You want the the smallest hole you can have to reduce the flow of water bypassing the bog, but yet big enough to allow in enough air to kill the siphon.
This is quickly becoming my favourite channel. Great work bro!
Wow, thanks! 👍
@@Ozponds I’ve made a start on my 3m square bog pond inspired by your video. Nearly spent £2k on a huge filter but saw the bog filter light 😎
😂 yes expensive filters are a path to the dark side.
@@Ozponds 😂😂😂
Very simple solution with much lower odds of failure than a check valve. About to install this in my own bog, but thinking I will direct the flow to another water feature made from a large plant pot I have lying around.
Fantastic mate 👍 Can’t wait to see it.
I've been thinking about the breather pipe, thinking that the water would surely just run straight out of it, rather than going down to the base of the filter. Of course, fit a control valve. Thanks kev, my confusion is solved 👍
😊👍
Another "con" of a check valve is that it will reduce your maximum flow rate a bit. Not a lot, but it effectively adds from 0.66-1.0m of head height due to the pressure required to open the valve for normal operation.
I just use a Y connector at the top location where my hose from my pond enters my bog. The flow from the pond goes into one of the sides of the Y and flows naturally down through the tube connected at the bottom of the Y, but when my pump goes of, the air enters the other side of the Y and the siphon stops. No need for a valve. Gravity does the work for me.
Perfect 👍
yes!!!!, check valves are crap, we always do a breather that doubles as a jet, nice work!
Aha! I think I’m starting to grasp this! 😆 Not very good at math so it’s taking me awhile to understand how to calculate everything, especially since I’m not that used to metric. Also, I’ve never plumbed anything. 🤔I have a small 260 gallon preformed pond liner. I’ve managed to make it look pretty natural, but it has been a pain to maintain. A bog filter is exactly what it needs, plus a waterfall/stream. Waiting for the current batch of pollywogs to grow up so I can begin the makeover in earnest. I have a large piece of the rubber liner to use for the water feature part and a bunch of beautiful moss rocks. 🙏🏽🪨💦
It does take a while for it to all sink in, but once it does you’ll be able to build any sized pond. I think you’ll create something wonderful 😊👍
Thanks for the vote of confidence and thanks for sharing all you have with us out here in UA-cam Land. 😊I bought the PDF so that should help too.
I hope it does. That’s my aim. 😊👍
This is a much better approach. Cheaper than a check valve, and mine has failed too. I'd like to do a post mortem on it to see why, but it's a bit hard to remove it. I've been thinking about doing this, but it's also a bit hard to retrofit it. I think I might put some kind of closeable air hole in the top of the inlet pipe. In its simplest form, it might be just a hole with a rubber stopper, but I might be able to come up with something better than that. The problem is the retrofit issue, without disturbing everything too much.
The retro fit took less than an hour…although you are right about the disruption I needed to remove everything. When I pulled the valve off all the gravel fell down into the pipe. Pretty frustrating 😂 I thought it was going to be a 5 minute job.
I wonder how small the breather tube can be to allow enough air to get in to break the siphon. I'm thinking about drilling a hole into the inlet pipe and fitting some small garden irrigation tubing with a shut off valve to adjust the flow. A bit smaller than the pipe you used.
It should work Geoff so long as air rushes in it will stop the siphon. 👍
@@Ozponds or maybe some sort of butterfly valve which the water pressure would keep closed but the negative pressure in siphon mode would suck open allowing air to rush in.
I’m not familiar with butterfly valves. Now I’m curious to learn more.
Great videos, one watched several. I'm going to look at (ab) using an air admittance valve it my bog feed. It defeats the siphon without leaking water and is above ground in the case of a bed for replacement
Sounds cool 👍
Can i attach this ball valve to a 1 inch flexi hose, i have a moderate size bog
Yeap. You’ll probably need to glue it. In my experience the flex pipe isn’t a perfect fit with the pvc.
This was exactly the video I needed to see. I've watched loads of your videos and with this one my final plan just came together! Thanks. One question... Can the bog be larger than the pond? I want to have a 400 litre cattle trough as the bog, to supply 250-300 litre pond made of an old tin bath set into a rockery, via a waterfall. Kinda thinking its the wrong way round, but it's how the space works and uses what I have.
Awesome! Yes the bog can be bigger. That’s no problem.
Great watch. Well explained. Thanks as always
Glad it was helpful!👍
I have been building my pond little by little, I wish I watched this before buying and installing the check valve. My bog filter is an above ground stock tank. The inlet attaches at the bottom and the water is then dispersed through a type of manifold system, I added a check valve to stop the water from siphoning back down into the pond if there is ever a power outage. I am now wondering if I cut out the check valve all together and install the inlet pipe all the way at the top with a valve as a breather.
If the check valve is working leave it. If it ever fails you know what to do 👍
Amazing video maan as always 👍
Nice video!! But to make sure I really got it, the breather pipe should be installed on the in pipe? Tell me I got it right! 😂😂.
Ok. You got it right 👍
@@Ozponds thanks!!
@@Ozponds it worked!! Many thanks from Ghana!
Excellent 😊👍
Do you need to install a breather pipe if you insert your water intake (from pump into bog) at the bottom of the bog container via a hole saw on the side?
I would always have a way to prevent siphoning. Breather pipe is my go to, check valves fail. If you come in at the base and you don’t have a breather or check valve your bog will siphon when the pump shuts off.
I was at a friend's house yesterday and he's got a swim pool with a water fall ( no fish) and pump on a timer so when it switched off I saw the suction effect in action, as The water level only stopped at the point of the pipe opening
I think I understand the concept. I need to know how to build a bog system and what pipes and tools I need so that I can explain it to someone else who will do the build for me . This person can't watch video. I don't feel confident yet Kev. I think I will wait for your next video on building a bog. Do you have very low nitrates in your ponds using the bog filtration system ? Thank you . 😊😎🐠🐟🐡🌧🌨
I have a barrel, I have a stock tank, I just need some free time. Practically no nitrates in all my ponds, but I also don’t overstock them and I stopped regular testing years ago. But every time I’ve got curious almost non existent.
@Ozponds Then your system is definitely the one I need. As well as reducing nitrates the system also looks good. Thank you Kev. I will give it a go once the weather warms up. 😊
Hi Kev!
Your vids are ALWAYS helpful!
Question:
How do i measure the flow rate sent to the bottom of the bog vs the flow of the water coming out of the breather pipe?
I want to make sure that its not flowing too fast down to the bog and pushing the waste up, so i want to make sure i can figure out the right balance
You need to put a hose on the top section and measure/ time how much water comes out. Then use the flow rate of your pump to calculate roughly how much goes to the bottom.
@@Ozponds thanks!!
Also, with the Bog filtering it naturally, does the pond still require any PH testing on a regular basis?
Nice video, thanks. Can I ask about the pump… as this is sitting in the pond and pumping dirty water into the bog filter doesn’t it get blocked or covered in gunk? How do you keep it clean and maintain it?
G’day Paul. I do have a build video for this pond. But to answer your question. The pump sits in a diy skimmer. The skimmer has a course filter sponge which catches a lot of stuff. Also the bog was built for east of cleaning. Videos available on both the skimmer and the bog 👍
Hey Kev! Quick question on setting up my bog filter. My plan is to have tubing that flows across the bottom of my bog and into a clean out valve. They will have upward facing holes. My filter is going to be sloped down towards the clean out valve. Should I just create one hole in the clean out valve for the tubing to enter? Or create a few so all the gunk can get sucked in through the sides too?
I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have some in the clean out. I’ve never done it that way, but I don’t mind it.
Thanks for the quick response! I was just sitting around thinking about how the gunk would end up in the bin if there aren’t holes in it. Does your sediment tend to mostly end up in the bin naturally ? Or would it push up through the pvc going along the bottom and have a hard time getting back in when being cleaned?
@@magicmikefpu9510 hard to say because I can’t see through all the rock and pebble. Remember I’m using that large drainage/ leech trench component as my dispersal. It has heaps of large slots in its side, that allows plenty of gunk in as I back wash the system.
@@magicmikefpu9510 I’ve just realized this is the breather hole video, not a large bog filter. If you are using a cleanout point because you cannot use a valve (barrel bog design), you absolutely need to have holes in that cleanout point to remove the build up of gunk. My barrel filters have a valve at the base.
@@Ozpondsthanks, mate! Yeah mine is around 400 gallons and it’s in ground. So I will definitely add holes in the clean out valve. Thank you sir!!! I’ll let you know when it’s all set in a month or two
Hi Kev, how open does the valve have to be to stop the syphon?
I want to prevent that but don't want extra water to the top of my bog so would like the valve open at the minimum. 😊
I showed in another vid how you can use a vertical pipe to still have an opening that no water will come out. I think it was the bog filter for the stock trough pond.
@@Ozponds Hi Kev, thank you for your reply. Do you have a link to that video? I have looked and can't find it.
Regards, Clive.
@@cliveraymond1712 I can’t find it either 😔
@@Ozponds No worries thank you for looking.
Hi , Kev , did I read your picture right ? The valve you installed is above the bog filter and separate from the flow back too the pond ?
Correct 👍
I'm building a bog filter and had planned to have 3 to 4 pvc pipes branching out from the inlet pipe from the pump (which is probably 10 feet lower then the bog). I thought the snorkel was all I needed for cleanout. Do you recommend I have an end cap for each distribution branch?
That’s a different style of bog to what I create. If you are building the Nelson design, you should build it like their guidelines.
I built a bog in a barrel using your plan. All of the gunk in my barrel seems to be settling at the top of barrel. When I open clean out valve at bottom the water is clear not gunky. What am I doing wrong? I have a breather valve set very low. Thank u.
I’m not sure. Is the water being directed into the base of the barrel? Have you got a nice slow flow? Why is the breather pipe set low?
That’s awesome because I want to use my bog for the waterfall as well.
Perfect 👍
@@Ozponds hey I’m building my wetland right now, I saw you only used lager stone on yours, how is that working out, I would like to add aquablocks of course but dang are they expensive for just one.
So far I’m not experiencing any problems but it’s still early days only 6 months old.
@@Ozponds I think I’m going to go your route, and thanks for the videos your probably the best diy pond builder I’ve seen and I’ve watched a lot.
Thanks mate. That’s very kind, although there are lots out there far more talented than me.
Kev, does this only work when the pipe comes up over the top of the bog and then piping moves the water to the bottom of the bog?
I have piping that goes straight into the bottom of the bog (hole in bottom of bog). Mainly due to if I try to go up and over (tall barrel), the flow drops to near zero due to the head height.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| |
-------------|-- |
Pond Water---> |
-------------|-- |
|___Bog______________|
Would attaching a t-piece to the inlet and raising a pipe up above the water level work if the pump stops? I'm thinking not, as the inlet (turns into outlet when pump stops) doesn't rise up like in your design, so gravity will still cause the water to leave?
| |
|~|~~|~~~~~~~~~~|
| | | |
---------------|--| |----- |
Pond Water---> |
---------------|------------- |
|___Bog_____________|
I guess I could try and try and throw something together to see what happens. But thought I'd ask first.
No you really need to come in over the top.
Thanks. I’ll have to give this a miss then. The “drawings” come out odd depending on what platform you’re reading them from. Hopefully it didn’t look like a jumbled mess for you 😂
😂 no it was a jumbled mess.
Hi Kev,
I did a test on my bog to replicate a power outage, The water seemed to continue to drain after the water level dropped below the breather, any idea why? Its only a little system for a patio pond in a Bunning plastic whiskey barrel with a small office bin as the bog.
Probably not enough air getting in. If the air gets in the siphon is broken. If you came in at the base it won’t work either, need to come in over the top.
Definitely coming in from the top. I have a feeling though the water level towards the bottom of the bog will eventually be the same as the pond as the bog is not completely above the water level in the pond. I might just let it completely drain as much as it wants to and see what happens.
Love the videos mate.
if use a 100litre barrel for a 1000l pond with a waterfall will the flow be too much for a 100litre barrel? TIA
I’ll also have a skimmer on the pond with a pump if that makes a difference
I have no idea? What exactly is the flow? You’ve said how big the pond is, how big the barrel for the filter is, but no pump! No one can assess if flow is too much, if you don’t provide the actual flow rate 😉
Hey buddy, I checked my bog, and the water did syphon back into the pond.
Can I confirm where the breather pipe is installed. Does the water level cut off at the point?
You just need it to suck air into the pipe when the pump shuts off that breaks the siphon. The water level will sit at the point of overflow. I’ve lots of vids and diagrams showing where I place mine, but you can place it in lots of different areas.
@@Ozponds I did it! I got a T joint, added a small pipe, and added a 90-degree bend. It works perfectly!
If I hadn’t found your channel, I would have had no idea about this breather pipe situation.
Do you have a website? I’ll send you my design, haha
I notice there's a solar panel for one of your pond. What do you use it for? Thanks
I have a few. Some are for lights, others run little circulation pumps.
@@Ozponds thanks a bunch
My brather pipe keeps sucking air down into the filter itself. Not sure if that would cause issues with function or not
I’d say it’s a good thing. Nothing wrong with adding more air to a filter 👍
@@Ozponds exactly what I figured. Thanks mate!
Hi Kev. Do you leave the breather valve off until you need it?
No. I keep it slightly open. You never know when you’ll have a power out.
Wouldn't the roots from the added plants in the barrel eventually clog the filter?
It can that’s why I only plant shallow rooted plants. That way they are easy to manage 👍 if you want you don’t even need the plants it’s the bacteria’s that do the heavy lifting.
@@Ozponds thank you. The plants are so great though. Maybe I will plant in mesh baskets to help contain roots.
If you give them a good thin out once a year you should be ok. It’s only if the plants are left alone for too long that they will clog it.
Thank you
Anytime 👍
Thanks
Glad that helped 👍
Hi Kev have you ever done a bog filter in a liner so with no plastic containers to hold everything? was wondering if you have a video or info on this as I’m making mine quite big out of sleepers with a liner inside. 👍
Yeah mate. The two bog filters on the dream pond are built in the liner.
Air brakes for siphons should always be implemented
🐟🐟🐟🐟
why not just drill a 1/4 inch hole in the inlet pipe to the filter just above the surface of the bog filter water level.
@@kevscott8900 Only thing I can think of is the breather pipe is more versatile because of the adjustable valve.
Yes. You want to have control. Although a small hole will work to prevent a siphon starting. 👍
@@kevscott8900 yes that is the simplest method. Have you done any testing? You want the the smallest hole you can have to reduce the flow of water bypassing the bog, but yet big enough to allow in enough air to kill the siphon.
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