Okay I have doing some reading on this and am not sure I understand the concept-mostly where the water goes in and comes out. Is it basically a box on top of a box, with the roots from plants in the top box hanging down into the bottom box? And, does the water come in the top and go out the bottom or opposite? I think I really need a bigger pump or more than one. I guess I am up around 2000 gallons now. Geeze!
"veggie filter"-tell me more please?
Hi Chele! Let me see if I can do some explanation of them.
There are tons of ways to go with veggie filters. The ones that I have made are part of my stream system and are just mini ponds no deeper than 18 inches deep filled with only gravel that you plant the plants directly into (no soil). Bog plants do very well with only the nutrients from the main pond running through them and will siphon nutrients out of the water so the water going back into the pond will be almost completely pure. Other ways to go have included putting your plants into those pots that have a grid-like look to them (again most people that I have talked with use gravel only) and putting them into the stream bed or into an actual tank at the top of the waterfall area. Same process happens.
If you make your veggie filter ponds too deep or too large the plants get mighty heavy if you need to remove them for cleaning or treating the fish for a disease. My new pond will have a series of mini ponds only 14 inches deep with volcanic rock as the soil since volcanic rock will allow more good bacteria to adhere to them because of the holes in the rock. I will also have another veggie filter that will include plumbing UNDER the plants so it ends up an upflow filter. That filter will be aproximately four feet across as it shouldn't have to be cleaned ever as I am going to have a hookup to be able to attach an air compressor to it and blow the detrius out.
Another effective veggie filter is just planting plants in the edges of a long run of stream beds.
I wish I had a way of posting pictures of these various filters.
Thanks a bunch Lani! I have heard of sewing a pouch out of quilt batting, filling it with lava rock and having the water run through it. I have read some about the veggie filters and thought it might be another alternative. I have a bunch of pea gravel if you think that would work? One I read said to put the gravel in something like a lined milk crate and drop that in, so when you need to clean it you don't have to take out the rocks but simply lift the crate. No chance of a creek type bed where I have the pond, but I could swing 2x2 or 3x3 feet. My main confusion is trying to figure out where the water should go in, where it should come out and the best way to back flush if it gets gross. LOL I may also have a couple of sand filters left from old pools. Right now we are running the water through a skimmer left from a pool, and with a paper corrugated type filter. The water is pretty clear on the top few inches but cloudy beneath. No matter what I do, I know I need more plants, more fish and probably more pumps! Oh but I do so love my new pond. :)
The pea gravel will work just fine. If it gets really dirty you will have to mess up your pond to remove any veggie filter unless you plumb that area to dump into your garden instead of into the pond during cleaning time. Just remember that plants PLUS rocks can make for a very VERY heavy thing to be removing from a usually awkward site. The water would go into the veggie filter and through it then into the pond.
I really plan on sending you more plants for your pond. (really) but I have to rely on my DH and his schedule to get into the big pond to retrieve the plants as my knees and muscles won't work that well with the weight of the plants and dirt and the slippery slope. Hopefully this year we can get out other pond dug that will have much of our spare inventory in it near to where I can reach.
I am so glad you built a bigger pond. I hope to help fill it very very soon. Can you email me a list of what you do have so I don't duplicate things? Hugs, Lani
Hey Girlie Friend! Thanks again. I think I can do this where I can do a nice bit of plants in gravel and the quilt batting to maybe catch the particles with a back flow to empty into the garden instead of the pond! Whew! Now let's see....I'll take a pump that does about 2000gph, some prize winning koi, all your named lilies, any named lotus........Giggle! You don't need to send me anything. I am just fine! Sorry to hear your knees are giving you fits. I know how it is to wait on the kindness of others.
Hugs!
the knees are just fine but the muscles surrounding them are still pretty weak. It is this darned back that makes my knees collapse from the pain of it pinching my nerves. Need to have surgery on the back now but the surgeon that I will trust to do that is right now in the gulf taking care of our troops backs. I will wait.
I don't have many prize winning koi unless they are just babies now. We need to divide our lilies but until the new pond is done that will not get done. The named lotus will have to wait (again) till next season for division.
Sorry to hear you need surgery again. :( I bet you recover as quickly as you did after the bionic knees though! ;)
I told ya I was kidding about the plants!!!
and I wasn't LOL You may get them even if you DON'T want em. LOL
LOL I *might* want them, if you are going to be pushy! Giggle!!!
I use veggie filteration on my ponds. My vf's are elevated ponds, attached to bigger in ground ponds, via small waterfalls. I hope that makes sense.
The small pond (250 gallons) is 3 levels, with the middle layer being the "veggie filter". I use hyacinths in this one and they keep my water crystal clear. The water is pumped from the bottom level (in ground) into the top level. The water moves via spill way through the middle (veggie filter) level and spills over a small waterfall back into the lowest level. This veggie filter is about the size of a half barrel and the hyacinths florish here with multiple blooms daily.
The big pond (5000 gallons) just got it's own veggie filter last fall. It's big, about 8' x 10'. It's lined with cobble stones and river rock. The rock is about a foot deep. It will be heavily planted for optimal filteration. The water in the pond is already clear just from passing over all of that rock, I can't imaging what it will be like when the plants take over. The water is pumped from the main pond up into the veggie filter. It spills over a small waterfall spillway back into the main pond.
The rule of thumb on veggie filters is to have it at least 10% the surface size of your pond. I personally wouldn't go less than 20%, the bigger, the better and, the more plants you can have.
Branka, do you have any pictures? On the small one, you say the water goes from the lowest level to the top level and the veggie system is in the middle level right? What do you have in the top part? One more question, if the surface of my pond is 180 sq feet, then my veggie filter needs to be between 18-36 sq feet? Thanks, thanks!
that size would be good Chele. If you pump the water to the highest level then it can flow with gravity to the lowest level through a series of small water falls or streams so the water is oxygenated along the way to the pond below. The more times you can turn over each water molecule the more oxygen it will take into the pond which will help pond health. The plants along the edges of the streams or waterfalls would also remove nutrients from the water.
I do have pictures but they are not loading. I'll try again. This one is my small pond. You can see the lower pond and and the veggie filter full of hyacinths behind the waterfall. The uppermost level is behind the pink sedum and does not show here.
I have this pond torn apart because we have to redo the leaky waterfall. Since it's so bare now, I should be able to get a good picture that cleary shows all three levels. I'll try tomorrow if the rain lets up.
oh it's beautiful!!!
Thanks a bunch Branka and all! You have been very, very helpful! Being me and having the mind I have.......oh, scary! LOL Well, I have started on my first veggie filter. I am planning to get another pump or two and have more than one filter. I figure it will give depth and interest to the water garden. I have had a bathtub sitting in my back yard for like two years. I had no idea what I wanted it for but knew I could not pitch it. I dug out about fifteen square feet of plants at one end of the water garden and then flipped the tub, end to end until I got it close then rolled it into place. When hubby came home, he helped me level it, well actually put it in at an angle to create a water fall. I am going to cover it with pond liner, fill it with gravel and plant it. We can use the old faucet and drain holes for back flush. By the time I cover it and surround it with rocks, no one will ever know what it is! What do you think? Will it work? Do I have the concept right?? I may use some preforms or tubs to put in a couple more.
Just a mound of dirt with some liner would also work. Your tub sounds like it will work. Good luck!
Hi folks. Looking at Brankas pond and others...I NEED MORE SPACE! Oh well, maybe buy a lot of acres in Arizona. Florida. Just joking.
I have a very small veggie filter in my 50 gallon pond. It is a 2 gallons cascade & has lava rocks in it. I have planted in it Mint, 2 kinds..Elephant Ears..1 hyacinth (1 the last time I looked)..coleus, Impatients.
The tube from the pump goes into it.. that dumps back into the pond. I know I'm gonna have to thin them out soon.
Hows the horsetail doing Michele? Mine is finally sending up happy new growth and I hope yours is too. We're acutally having a spring and have moderate temperatures, it's keeping my lilies and several of my aquatics at bay.