# Whole pond biofilter concept



## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

I have a little bigger aerator than I need and was trying to think of something better I could do with the excess air. 

Basically, it is powered by air, much like how an undergravel filter works in an aquarium and passes water through media filled with bog plants to take up excess nutrients and filter the water. I think there are similar things being done with electric water pumps in koi ponds but I think operating this system wouldn't cost anything extra since I'm running the aerator anyway.

What do you guys think?


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## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

http://www.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/AirliftPumps.htm


I think I'd play with that some. I would go from a short 3" pipe to a 2". Then I'd see just how high I could lift it. If I could get High enough with good flow I'd have it cascade over large lime stone then into the bio-filter. 

Just a thought


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Interesting concept! Any ideas on how much water is going to actually to passing through the emergents? My primary concern would be moving too much water through too small or large of an area and just stirring up the sediment. I doubt you'll see to much of a reduction in nutrients unless you've got a large area layed out for the plants to grow and the water moves slowly though it. Eitherway, cool idea. If you give it a go, keep us updated.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

I'd like to turn a 15' wide and 25' long swale into sort of a wetland/bog area with a small walk bridge over it. During the driest months, I'm going to have to lift water up to 2' up to it to keep it wet. The lifting of water is my main problem to overcome and I really don't want to add to electric costs and would like to avoid small water pumps. I also need some plant selection help. I suspect the koi websites probably have a lot of info on plants. I doubt I'll actually use common cattails...they're just easy to draw. I'm thinking some emergent and hybrid lilies. The main goals are diversification and visual appeal and it might as well be functional too. I can't establish any non-invasive plants where the grass carp can reach them. I was thinking about 20 or 30 gallons per minute flow. I've never done a koi pond or wetland and I'm pretty weak on plants too so this will be a challenge.


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## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

I've been looking at the air lift pumps from the university of Kentucky. They don't use an air diffuser. They simply inject air in a pipe. According to them, you can lift the water to a height equal to the depth of the injector. 

I believe I would bring a 3" pipe into sump pump crocks set end to end to a depth of 6 or more feet. Mortar the joints together. Then I'd put some concrete in the bottom to stop mud. The I'd start, from the bottom up using 3/4 or 1" pvc, a cap, a 6" stub, a tee open to one side, a 2" stub, a tee for air injection, then the riser. 

Since the air is used as a piston you would want large bubbles instead of small ones, like the MARS system works.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Looks like a really cool idea. Can't really help you as far as plants go, but I know of people who can. Maybe shoot an e-mail or a phone call to the director or asst. director of the OSU wetland. If you really lay out your plan in a well organized and somewhat scientific fashion, I'm sure someone would be more than happy to help you with vegitation selection.

http://swamp.osu.edu/

Contacts at the bottom.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

There are a lot of great emergent plants out there! Cattails are pretty plain jane in my opinion, and like ya said, they'll find themselves there regardless. Any selection you make is going to be invasive to a point, but an occasional glysophophate application occassionally will keep those in check.

A few recommendations with images to go along;

*Bulrush*: There are a lot of varietys of this plant, from short to tall, most of the native varieties you find around here stand 2-4'. I personally find them attractive. They grow in dense clusters and produce A LOT of seeds. The waterfowl love this, whether or not thats a pro or con is up to you  










*Pickerel Weed* Ugly name. Beautiful plant. Picture pretty much speaks for itself.










*Arrowhead* Pretty invasive, lives primarily in zones where water levels fluctuate in ponds. Good looking plant though.










*Yellow Iris* Blooms right around mothers day, big vibrant yellow flowers. Spreads through tubers mostly, but they seem very slow to expand.











Those are just some off the top of my head. The best thing you could do is check out an area water garden store to get an idea of what you want. In you're situation where you're looking for a lot of plants, buy bare root plants if you can, they are a heck of a lot cheaper!

If you're worried about the amurs being an issue when the water is higher, just place a small barrier in the transitional real. Snow fence, or chicken wire works.

There are a lot of neat aquatic marginal/emergent plants out there, and quite a few are native. Cool little project you've thought up. Good liklely good it will help with some nutrient reduction and if nothing else will be pleasing to the eye.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Tweaked the design a bit. Large rocks to keep grass carp out. Used a little of Gary's info and will expand on details of the pneumatic water pump in the future.









Two likely locations. Initially I was thinking about the swale at location 1. It is where runoff comes from most of the time. Rarely, does it flow through the swale at location 2. Now I'm thinking that having the grass at location 1 will do better job of filtering silt than the filter so at this point I'm leaning toward Location 2. The problem with location 2 is that there is a 5" perforated plastic tile that drains from around half of my yard running near location 2 so I'd probably have to either reroute it or let it dump into the filter pool. What do you guys think?

Here's the lay of the land. This was after a really big storm.









Closer shots


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