Hi Ann,

There are a million easy, cheap ways to get water through some sort of
mechanical filter and nutrient removal system. You should be able to do it
very inexpensively. 'Professional' generally means that they will think
about it and then you pay them for doing design and perhaps labor for you.
The design is generally easy and labor is labor...ours or someone else's.

We use kiddie pools in sequence to get settlement. The plant roots
mechanically filter.

NO gravel! It is a huge pain to clean. We have 2" drains in the bottom of
the kiddie pools. Once a year they are opened to drain the muck out of the
ponds. Then pond water sprayed over the plant tops to complete the flush.
When we have totaly clean veggie filter pools, without any siphoning, ever.
If you can plumb the drains in, it really is pretty basic and cheap.

They are not a bog, they are 12" ponds with plants sticking out. They are
on the berm beyond the main pond. You can see them on our website.

Again, we avoid gravel totally as it grabs so much muck.

Good luck.
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See our pond at: home.bellsouth.net\p\pwp-jameshurley
Ask me about Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (clears $120+ per child) at: jogathon.net

"Ann in Houston" wrote in message
om...
I am planning a gravel bog addition to my koi pond. I was told about a
filter from Aquascape called the "Snorkel", which is made for this
purpose.
Supposedly, you just sink a sump in the clean out once a year or so, and
there is no need for washing the gravel. Here is a link for a similar
model
with a diagram. I don't get how the solids get to the clean out vault.
Also, I wonder how the water would disperse to the sides when it can just
go
up and then down the slope and back to the pond. They sell additional
slotted pipe sections, to put out to the sides with the vault acting as a
hub, but the base unit is $600.00!!!!!!!! and each extra pipe is three to
four hundred more. And besides, I don't think I want that many hoses
going
to this bog. It will only be about six feet wide. I can think of a
couple
of different ways to accomplish the settling of the gunky stuff in some
kind
of container buried like this one. And if it's successful, I'll sell it
to
anyone here for a measly 250.00. I mean, that rubbermaid stuff gets
pricey.
; ) Here's the link.


http://www.thepondprofessional.biz/c...roduct_id=1190

If anyone here can help me understand this diagram, maybe a few of us can
put our heads together to do it cheaper, and possibly better. Any help is
appreciated. I am going to also post this on garden web.

Thanks,

Ann