Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Fish Inside - Trout

I finished putting in a homemade bog filter last night and it really cleaned up the water. It is simple with water flowing through boxes of gravel that I will plant over the next week. I am planning on using this type of filtration for my 1/10 acre pond.

Here is the system.

Pic of the hole spacing on bog pvc drain.

This is the filter half completed.

Filter draining into the trout tank.

You can see some of the perch by the pump. Before today I had to drain the water to see them.

Here is the whole rig. I had to use hardware fabric to filter the water coming in from the trout tank as there was too much FA coming in.



I also moved the submerisble aquarium heater placing it horizontal. When the perch crowd the bottom of the tank to get near the heater they dont touch it now, which I think killed about 8 perch since I put in the heater. No perch have died since I changed the heater orientation.

Bender, would you please consider a cut and paste post to the Cecil Envy thread. This information is extremely useful. I'll be honest in that I don't fully comprehend what you're doing, but I plan on thoroughly studying it so I can add this system to my redear sunfish tanks. How did you come up with such great ideas?

Here's the link.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000379;p=1#000000

Bruce I copied my last post and pasted it into the Cecil Envy thread with a brief explaination of what I am trying to accomplish.

The bog filter is a small scale version of what I am planning on doing using with my newly dug 1/10 acre pond. By creating contained wetlands to filter the water for me I should be able to increase my biological capacity without using a well. The biological filter uses a pump, however, low head pumping uses a lot less energy than pumping water up a well. The gravel in the filter traps sediment from the water and provides a place for benefical bacteria to live.

I am still debating using a well for my pond to further increase biological capacity, but I would use a low gpm pump to keep the electric bill reasonable.

How large do you anticipate the bog for the 1/10 acre pond would be? Also, could you pump the water up and additional 10 feet and make a scenic waterfall out of it?

One website I found suggested that a bog filter should be 10-20% of the size of the pond. The bigger the filter the better job it does.

I am planning on a 500 sq ft bog filter followed by an 80 stream that will have a 6" deep gravel bed. I will be planting the river bed with rice or allowing nature to plant what she wants. You could also use the bog filter as a garden as many plants would thrive with a constant supply of nutrient rich water.

The goal of the bog filter is to reproduce a natural wetlands. As long as you created the wetlands so it drains toward your pond you could create a waterfall at the highest elevation of the wetlands. There are some efficent pumps out there that would work great for a 10' waterfall. I saw one that pumps 11000gph at 300 some watts.

The size of the filter will depend a lot on the bioload or amount of fish waste that needs to be cleaned up. One also has to consider that the fish will grow during their stay in the pond or tank and the bioload exponentially increases as the average length of the fishes increase. Some filters use more efficient filtration media than gravel; for example plastic excelsior ribbons or bioballs. However if one plans to also use bog or hydroponic plants to remediate the waste then gravel may or may not be necessary depending on the plant species. Research has shown that some plant species are much better at removing and retaining waste products than others.

I have wondered which plants I should add, do you have a list at which plants are most efficent at removing waste and retaining waste products?

I am tempted to try rice after reading about it on a post in the Rice as a forage base thread.

Vetiver grass if you can find it in your area, it is non invasive, not quite as pretty as rice, but probably more effective for waste removal. Also good for erosion control, roots can grow down to 12'.
It is the tall grass on my floating island.

When I set up my system for Tilapia I found that I had serious peaks in the nutrient levels after feeding. Makes sense if you think about it. Anyway the peaks caused the bacteria in the filtration system to be overwhelmed and I had some mortality. I started feeding the fish using a belt feeder so the feeding was spaced out more evenly throughout the day and the ammonia from the waste didn't peak and the mortality rate dropped. Considering the biomass load in your 100 gallon system the filter you built may experience similar peaks if you feed once or twice a day. My system was a recirculating system with no constant water overflow so filter efficiency made a huge difference as there was no turnover. Belt feeders are aquaculture specific pieces of equipment, not too pricey, but they aren't for pond use so it may not pay for you to try one. just my .02

Rad, thanks for the info on Vetiver grass. I think I am going to try rice for the first test run since I found rice seed before Vetiver seed.

PaPond, one of the reasons I am planting the bio filter is to eliminate nutrients from the water. So far everything is running smoothly, with the flow through and I was able to cut down on the water flowing through the system. I feed twice a day by hand until the fish lose interest, although the perch are picky eaters and there is a lot more wasted pellets than in the trout tank.

The heater has been great for the perch. They are definitely more active at 60 degrees than 55. Since I was able to turn down the water coming in the system the heater has been able to keep the temps warmer.

Filter Update.

5 days after adding the biological filter and I now have zero FA. Water clarity is the best it has been since I added the fish. The only debris I have noticed in the water is old pellets. I might have to switch to a floating pellet to cut down on waste.

I have planted rice and Thai peppers in a seed starter try and will transplant them into the filter once they are 1-2” tall.

Bender, My water was cloudy when I fed the pellets but after I switched to Krill and grass shrimp it cleared right up. The fish eat the grass shrimp but fight for the krill.

My cloudy water was due to FA that hitchhiked along with the fish. Until the filter started working I couldn’t see more than shadows. Now every thing is clear.

I ordered some dried grass shrimp, daphnia and frozen krill. I have tried feeding grass shrimp and they wanted nothing to do with them. The daphnia had some activity but not what I expected. I will try the krill tomorrow and see how they react. I want them to be feed trained, however, so I will keep giving them feed and use the other as a treat.

Great thread, Bender. Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated.

I bought the freeze dried krill and FD grass shrimp. The grass shrimp I crumble up and they eat it but if they had the choice they grab the krill. I got BG in the tub so maybe there tastes are differnt then the trout.

I have perch and trout in seperate tanks, both did not touch the whole fd shrimps. Maybe the key is to crumble the shrimp. Trout are supposed to love shrimp so I was suprised they did not eat them.

When I fed the shrimp to the perch, the water temps were at 55 degrees and they were not eating as well as they are now in 62 degree water.

Quick update:

Trout are showing great growth so far. I havent removed them to measure but there is a definate increase in size. I might have to buy a larger pellet feed for them.

Perch are doing well and are now attacking the pellets like the trout. It is hard to say how much they have grown as there are so many.

I will be planting the biofilter with rice tonight.

I have lost 3 trout over the last couple weeks. I am not sure what is causing them to die now, after no casualties since they were introduced to the tanks. I did a quick dip test with the following results:

Nitrates = safe
Nitrites = safe
Total hardness = Very Hard
Total Alkalinity = High
PH = Alkaline

Right before they started dying I transplanted the rice and peppers in the biofilter. Some of the soil got into the water and made it cloudy so I increased the fresh water flowing into the system.

I am not sure if the problem is with the water or if it is from the soil introduced to the system.

I have 1 trout left and judging by the size of him, he was hogging all the food. I wouldnt be suprised if he is 12" long and he is fat!

Perch are doing well and have started to lay eggs in the tub! I am concerned because I wanted them to spawn in the pond! Should I move them to the pond asap? The pond is still filling naturally but I could hasten its progress using my well if needed.

Great. Do you still have 90+ perch left?

What was the original length of the perch, and how much have they grown?

Did they ever get used to seeing you, or are they still spooky like mine were?

I am down to around 85 or so perch now. With the perch spooking into a tight school everytime I come around and the various sizes in the school it is hard to say how much they grew. I think there has been some growth but now where in line with the trout. The Trout I have left has grown at over 1" a month which I found to be remarkable.

The pond level filled up by atleast 6 feet over the last two weeks. I have another 5 feet to full.