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The blue stocktank is my veggie or Bog filter. Love mine. Glenda

You have a nice pond, it's big. I see you still have some plants in the pond, which is what I wanted also (didn't know if that was how it was done).

I have a black tub with a spout (actually 2) that I'd like to place to the side somewhere (preferably buried some) & make a small one that just flowed back into the pond.

Like I said, I'm happy with my waterfall & so want to leave it be

I have about 15 pots of lilies around the edges sitting on the 2 ft level. They just had not grown a lot yet in the picture when it was taken. I have nothing at all in the bottom of the pond which is 4 1/2 ft.deep and is 8'x10'. I'm thinking of getting some plant stands and putting some lilies on them in the middle, but haven't yet. The marginals are sitting on milk crates I bought at Office Depot. I cut out some of the pieces out on the sides so the fish could swim under and through them for something interesting for them to do, since they don't really need them for protection from predators, with the net. They seem to really enjoy going through the obstacle course. Glenda

The "waterfall" on the left is my veggie/bog filter.It is made out of a 300 gallon stock tank.
I have a seperate "waterfall" on the right.

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Glenda, have you considered anacharis or hornwort for oxygenators...I'm sure you have. Those lilies will do fine even at 4.5', just lower then by 1' gradually as their pads grow...think about how they grow in the wild :) Gorgeous pond!!

To anyone with a bog area -- do you plant your marginals directly in gravel, or are they in pots? I have a bog with gravel and I set the pots down in the gravel to hide them, but I've heard other people say its okay to plant marginals directly in the gravel. I did tuck the roots of my parrott's feather into the gravel and let it drape over into the main pond, but I'm afraid of some of the other plants taking over. I love the pictures of everyone's ponds, by the way.

I plant my plants directly in the gravel. Yes, I have some Anacharis planted in some pea gravel in a dishpan on the ledge with the lilies. I had lilies sitting in the bottom of my old pond that was about 4 ft deep and they did really great. I may just put them in the bottom again. I wasn't too sure about the Anacharis, in my old pond that seemed to be where all the sting algae was coming from. When I took the pan it was planted in out and dumped it out to wash off the string algae there was LOTS of Osmocote that I had put in the gravel. I washed all that away and planted it in the gravel without Osmocote or anything else and put it back in the pond and so far so good. Glenda

I do both.
I have tropicals that I overwinter indoors. I put these in pots with gravel so that in the fall I can remove them more easily.
My cattails, Iris, var. parley , lizards tail etc. are planted directly in the rocks.
I also added a bottom drain to the stock tank so that when I need to drain and clean everything, I turn a valve to drain it.

pikecoe,

I was going to say what sheepco has, so never mind. I have mine in 3' and there are putting out stocks that are at least 5'. I actually started them out with 1 foot stocks and they "grew up" to the surface.

Someone tell me a good formula to use for a veggie filter ( X sq. ft will give X amount of filtering) please.

LP

LP, I dunno that. I just made the veggie filter sort of like a bigger skippy so I'd have more room for plants. I had so many in the pond I couldn't see the fish any more! Had to keep whacking out lilypads :( So now I have a 30ga skippy on my 275ga pond and a 60ga veggie/skippy on my 300ga pond. All's clear (for now!).

LP, the bog filter instructions we used suggests the filter should be 10-20 percent of the surface area of your pond. I'm not sure if that would apply to a skippy-type filter as well.

I think someone's posted this link on here already, but it was very helpful in our gravel bog filter construction and has a great list of plants to try using in a filter.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Nelson Water Gardens Bog Filter Construction

WELL! I learned something today, guess I didn't construct a true Bog Filter!! My gravel is about 1 ft deep, but I have 1 ft of water above the gravel. Guess I just have a bog-filter-extra-pond. I have pipes in the bottom like I put in the skippy and the water comes out of the ends of the pipes that are pointed in 4 different directions and is pushed up through the gravel. If I ever get entergetic enough to shovel a ton of gravel out of the stocktank and re-build it, ...not... I might do it differently, but I think it works great like it is. Glenda

Glenda, I guess mine isn't a true bog filter either. I have anywhere from an inch to several inches of water over the gravel. Works for me too.
Sherry