Tristan 0 We have a swimming pool (with an automatic cover that collects rain water) next to the pond and I try to clean the wetland in the fall after a couple dates of significant rain. The pool cover holds a LOT of water which is not chlorinated. I pump out the gunk and water the trees and wash down the gravel and refill from the pool cover. Works great. To your point we don’t waste the water - clean rain water or nutrient rich fish poo water :). Really appreciate all your instructional videos - More please!!
Excellent video! Great explanation on how to clean out the smelly goo...lol...My plants loved me every spring because they would get the benefits of the goo...lol. Excellent fertilizer and I mean Excellent....God bless
@@KoiAddiction Everyday I try to stay busy. I am still having my breakdowns at times but I know the God Lord has my son in his hands and that he will see me through this. Thank you for asking friend. God bless
Hi John and Tristan, so many thanks for this video and all others. I have a question on the construction of the wetland. I posted it under an older video but maybe you overlooked it. I am sorry if I am mentioning it again here: I have a doubt on this point: whenever you inject, say 2000gph, water in the filter, these 2000gph needs obviously to get out through the waterfall. Not less (or you will overflow the filter), not more (or you may not have enough water to make a nice waterfall). So: how do you calculate the size (width ? depth ?) of the waterfall to equalize that much quantity of water that goes in and that goes out? Does my question make sense ?
Waterfall typically is 1500 gallons per hour per foot of width as a MINIMUM FLOW. We often do more than that though. As long as you leave room for the water to get back into the pond, gravity will bring it home ;)
Thanks for sharing, a couple questions: 1. How long does the filter take to recover and start working efficiently again? 2. Could you possibly VACCUM the wetlands regularly - say every 3 months to prolong the service time?
Once the filter is cleaned (our way) it is still alive and kicking, we clean not sterilize. The big clogging happens inside the gravel bed, not so much at the surface SO I would say vacuuming is a way to keep it cleaner but will not pro-long the need to clean. A good pre-filter (skimmer or intake) will do a better job of prolonging the need to do an internal cleaning. Keep the solids going in to a minimum!
What size pump are you using to suck water out the snorkel? ie what flow rate? Is it important to have a really powerful pump to do this? Or is it more just a matter of getting the water at the bottom out?
Very helpful. We are considering an ecosystem pond. A couple questions: How often do you have to clean the wetland filter, especially if you minimize fish? What do you do for replacement water if you don't have access to well water?
We typically only do a heavy cleaning once a year on a wetland of course that depends on fish load etc. and the size of the wetland. Routine maintenance is just cutting back plants and doing general cleaning as needed.
I love how you show and explain what you do and why! ❤️ However not everyone has access to well water. How do you refill it if you don’t have well water???
What water are you using to refill the wetland filter after finished cleaning? Is there still enough water in your storage tank or was it all used to flush the gravel? Thanks for the videos!
Question... if you end up using all the water taken from the wetland, what water do you use to fill it back up? If you turn the pumps back on won't it lower your pond? Then what fills that back up?
Yes it will. We like to fill with pond water to keep the filter “Alive”. If we need to add water to top up the system, we top up the pond after we fill the filter. You can always have tubs of water ready to add before you start!
The job of the wetland is to break down the ammonia in your water. it is possible that it will consume small organic solids, but it is not a mechanical filter.
@@KoiAddiction If I may, I would offer a correction to your statement that the wetland does not act as a mechanical filter. While the skimmer that houses the pump offers the main mechanical filtration for larger items like leaves, spinners, string algae, ect., there will inevitably be small suspended solids that get past. Those suspended solids are small enough to get past the skimmer but would still cloud the pond water. Additionally, some larger stuff like algae, pine needles, etc. will manage to get past the filter basket and filter pad that is in the skimmer, sometimes getting caught in the intake screen of the pump (my personal experience) or, if it's a solids handling pump, the stuff will get ground up and passed along to the bog. Once that mixture gets to the bottom of the upflow bog, it hits that big open void created by the centipede and aquablox and slows down, allowing much of those small particulates to settle out to the bottom (that mucky water at the bottom that you spoke about). Maybe it's semantics but I would argue that IS a form of mechanical filtration that removes fine solids. 🙂 Remaining fine suspended particulates can also get additionally filtered out by the gravel bed as the water rises through it (while the nitrogen munching bacteria do their job) which is part of what you are backwashing down at the end of the year. The result of these many layers of filtration and the bacteria happily doing their job is (hopefully) the clear water we all crave. 🙂 Thanks for the well produced video and all the good info!
With a few years of weekly clinical psychological sessions, I think Tristan will be fine. I'm very hopeful, but do keep sharp instruments away for some time and definitely keep him out of the deep end of the pond until he's cleared by medical staff.
Depends on so much. How long has it been? How big is wetland, how much debris is it consuming? Ball park for our team $2000,00 (current inflation rate)….
I don't get it. Can you explain it again, only this time, sloooooooowerrrrrrr 😂 Basically, what you're saying is anyone can do it if they have the time and if they have a little more equipment than the average homeowner, they can do it better. You definitely made it look marginally easy. The biggest "tool" needed seems to be time. If nothing else, these kind of videos could inspire people to try it themselves without the intimidation factor locking them up in fear. I know I appreciate that!
Modify the system to minimize work! Mimic nature! Build an eco-friendly system that doesn't require draining the pond. A pond should not be a burden! Draining the pond is too harsh to the plants, fish and beneficial organisms, and too much work! Add a section of plants near the filter to absorb bad water , debris and smells, if necessary. Then let the filtered water back to the pond. Introduce shrimps and garbage eating fish in the pond to eat fish poo and leaves. No need to remove any current fish, if any. Add clean pebbles in the pond to increase surface area for beneficial microorganisms to grow and minimize murky water. Perhaps add an outlet pipe in the bottom of the filter to lead the bad water to a wicky bed to grow fruits or vegetables, or just add pollution absorbing plants. Shade the water by adding waterlily, lotus, watercress, or such to reduce algae. Modify the filtration strategy to reduce maintenance work and you may even keep the filtration equipment. The modification is not complicated and should not break up the current system, except maybe add a hole to the filter bucket to let out dirty debris and murky water. We don't drain our pond. Hope you enjoy your pond too!🙏
@@KoiAddiction You should not need a crew of men to tear half the pond apart to access the clean out pipe. Just plant some tall plants around it or something. I have see this device from other ponds and they are not hidden or nearly impossible to get to like this. Also, your desire to save water is absurd. The water you throw out end up as rain or useable water at some point in the future. You act like you are destroying it forever.
@@martylynchian8628 moving a dozen small rocks is "impossible to get to"? lol He didnt tear the roots out to "get to" his snorkel.. he cleaned out the plants/roots/debris because it was overgrown and hindering the flow of water and damning up his wetland filter causing flooding outside its intended range. Your lack of understanding and nasty tone is unnecessary and ignorant. I know your comment is 2 years old. This reply is mainly for other people who might have the same misunderstanding. Your tone is likely why you never got a reply after. The -know it all- response you gave probably kept them away and from continuing further.
I have worked with pressure filters, bead systems, UV, salt water, external pumps, exposed liner, you name it. I am against no way, there is a place for all (at least in my mind). I just do Aquascapes because it appeals to me the most. We aren’t closed minded though. Other than doing concrete (because I don’t know crap about it) I would give a person what they asked for, at least as long as the result would work. I’m just not one of those “Aquascapes is the only way” kind of people. To each their own ;)
I bet when you sold the owners on the wetland filter system nothing was said about over-growth and the accompanying leaks or how often this cleaning was going to be needed, the "many thousands of gallons of water" this would take, and especially how much it was going to cost for you guys to come back and do all of this work. I would have walked away from that BS line about doing the final narration too. He knows you are full of it.
That is something we could do a better job of covering on the front end possibly. Now we have created a step by step video for them so they can do it themselves or train their own people to do it though. I would expect someone buying something of this “scale” would expect maintenance expenses-nothing is maintenance free…That’s a great video idea though, cost of cleaning a wetland filter! Thanks for the input ;)
Lol really what happens when your car needs a mot or fixing 🤣 🤔 if you brought a 100k car you would need to keep on top of maintenance and checks to make sure its running right. The amount the customer spent on project I'm sure they would like the person who built it to make sure everything is OK. And not many people would like to mess in all the fish poo 🙃 🙄 Great video as always lads keep up the great work 👍 👏
I’m hoping that we are communicating well with our clients and clearly defining expectations. Noone likes how expensive pond maintenance is, but getting great people to do such a nasty job isn’t going to happen unless you pay them well🤓
Can’t thank you guys enough for producing this series ! So much knowledge and experience shared in an easy to understand method ! 😀
Use it to educate and inspire. More ponds properly built and maintained will encourage more interest!!
Love the explanation you provide ! Thank you, it is so useful for us in Europe where nobody is able to clean our pond for us.
Glad to help my friend!!
Such an exceptional company!!! Great job continuing to educate and inspire the world about water features! Appreciate you guys.
We appreciate you guys! I missed you last week, will catch up this week!
You had me at fish poo for your plants, a landscaper's dream.
It takes a certain type of gal to be seduced by fish poo…just sayin ;)
@@KoiAddiction when I get my Brecks catalog its like flower porn for me.
Tristan 0 We have a swimming pool (with an automatic cover that collects rain water) next to the pond and I try to clean the wetland in the fall after a couple dates of significant rain. The pool cover holds a LOT of water which is not chlorinated. I pump out the gunk and water the trees and wash down the gravel and refill from the pool cover. Works great. To your point we don’t waste the water - clean rain water or nutrient rich fish poo water :). Really appreciate all your instructional videos - More please!!
We will never stop 🛑 #ThingsThatMatterWithPeopleThatMatter #PondGuysDoThat #ProudPoppa
This is a great video. Love how thorough your process is!
Another fantastic video from you guys. Love all your content , all the best from England 😊👍🏻
Excellent video! Great explanation on how to clean out the smelly goo...lol...My plants loved me every spring because they would get the benefits of the goo...lol. Excellent fertilizer and I mean Excellent....God bless
Bless you too dear. How are you holding out?
@@KoiAddiction Everyday I try to stay busy. I am still having my breakdowns at times but I know the God Lord has my son in his hands and that he will see me through this. Thank you for asking friend. God bless
Thanks. Great explanation.
Can't say I am looking forward to cleaning mine out 😬. Not for a few months yet though. 😅
Clean more often for less work!
That was a gtrat learning experience thanks and kudos guys
Thanks for hanging out with the Adams family!!
Hi John and Tristan, so many thanks for this video and all others. I have a question on the construction of the wetland. I posted it under an older video but maybe you overlooked it. I am sorry if I am mentioning it again here: I have a doubt on this point: whenever you inject, say 2000gph, water in the filter, these 2000gph needs obviously to get out through the waterfall. Not less (or you will overflow the filter), not more (or you may not have enough water to make a nice waterfall). So: how do you calculate the size (width ? depth ?) of the waterfall to equalize that much quantity of water that goes in and that goes out? Does my question make sense ?
Waterfall typically is 1500 gallons per hour per foot of width as a MINIMUM FLOW. We often do more than that though. As long as you leave room for the water to get back into the pond, gravity will bring it home ;)
Thanks for sharing, a couple questions:
1. How long does the filter take to recover and start working efficiently again?
2. Could you possibly VACCUM the wetlands regularly - say every 3 months to prolong the service time?
Once the filter is cleaned (our way) it is still alive and kicking, we clean not sterilize. The big clogging happens inside the gravel bed, not so much at the surface SO I would say vacuuming is a way to keep it cleaner but will not pro-long the need to clean. A good pre-filter (skimmer or intake) will do a better job of prolonging the need to do an internal cleaning. Keep the solids going in to a minimum!
@@KoiAddiction thanks guys
Great Video! Fabulous job Tristan🐸💙. Spear chucking!!!??? Really🤨
Lol!
What size pump are you using to suck water out the snorkel? ie what flow rate? Is it important to have a really powerful pump to do this? Or is it more just a matter of getting the water at the bottom out?
We use a 3500 gph but thats not a bog deal. High flow is better than velocity for back flushing though.
Very helpful. We are considering an ecosystem pond. A couple questions: How often do you have to clean the wetland filter, especially if you minimize fish? What do you do for replacement water if you don't have access to well water?
We typically only do a heavy cleaning once a year on a wetland of course that depends on fish load etc. and the size of the wetland. Routine maintenance is just cutting back plants and doing general cleaning as needed.
This is just an awesome video
Thanks Jerry!
Excellent! Thank you
Our pleasure my friend!
I love how you show and explain what you do and why! ❤️
However not everyone has access to well water. How do you refill it if you don’t have well water???
Save as much as you can in tanks- harvest rain-overfill the pond so you can use pond water…all of the above. You’ll have to experiment with it ;)
What water are you using to refill the wetland filter after finished cleaning? Is there still enough water in your storage tank or was it all used to flush the gravel? Thanks for the videos!
We add water back from the pond and then bring the pond back up to level with well water.
Question... if you end up using all the water taken from the wetland, what water do you use to fill it back up? If you turn the pumps back on won't it lower your pond? Then what fills that back up?
Yes it will. We like to fill with pond water to keep the filter “Alive”. If we need to add water to top up the system, we top up the pond after we fill the filter. You can always have tubs of water ready to add before you start!
Do i need separate line for bog filter and mechanical filter? Or from pond going mechanical filter first them to my wetlandfilter into the pond again?
The job of the wetland is to break down the ammonia in your water. it is possible that it will consume small organic solids, but it is not a mechanical filter.
@@KoiAddiction If I may, I would offer a correction to your statement that the wetland does not act as a mechanical filter. While the skimmer that houses the pump offers the main mechanical filtration for larger items like leaves, spinners, string algae, ect., there will inevitably be small suspended solids that get past. Those suspended solids are small enough to get past the skimmer but would still cloud the pond water. Additionally, some larger stuff like algae, pine needles, etc. will manage to get past the filter basket and filter pad that is in the skimmer, sometimes getting caught in the intake screen of the pump (my personal experience) or, if it's a solids handling pump, the stuff will get ground up and passed along to the bog.
Once that mixture gets to the bottom of the upflow bog, it hits that big open void created by the centipede and aquablox and slows down, allowing much of those small particulates to settle out to the bottom (that mucky water at the bottom that you spoke about). Maybe it's semantics but I would argue that IS a form of mechanical filtration that removes fine solids. 🙂 Remaining fine suspended particulates can also get additionally filtered out by the gravel bed as the water rises through it (while the nitrogen munching bacteria do their job) which is part of what you are backwashing down at the end of the year. The result of these many layers of filtration and the bacteria happily doing their job is (hopefully) the clear water we all crave. 🙂 Thanks for the well produced video and all the good info!
Thanks.
Running clear. Till you move the pump in the pond and disturb what was in the gravel under the pump.
Regular dosing, good fish load, and some swimming will move debris into the filter. Clean the filter more and the pond less!
Can the wetland filter be deeper than 4 feet?
Tristan - How long had this wetland gone before you guys came in to clean it. Looks like more than one seasons worth of gunk?
One year only!!
Healthy plants!
How's John G hav'nt seen him lately on youtube or on his road trip?
Doing great. We are stacking up content. Need another editor and another videographer to keep up with us LOL!
With a few years of weekly clinical psychological sessions, I think Tristan will be fine. I'm very hopeful, but do keep sharp instruments away for some time and definitely keep him out of the deep end of the pond until he's cleared by medical staff.
Will keep him safe😎
How much for a clean out similar to this?
Depends on so much. How long has it been? How big is wetland, how much debris is it consuming? Ball park for our team $2000,00 (current inflation rate)….
I don't get it. Can you explain it again, only this time, sloooooooowerrrrrrr 😂
Basically, what you're saying is anyone can do it if they have the time and if they have a little more equipment than the average homeowner, they can do it better. You definitely made it look marginally easy. The biggest "tool" needed seems to be time. If nothing else, these kind of videos could inspire people to try it themselves without the intimidation factor locking them up in fear. I know I appreciate that!
I think we have shown the “how” for the more industrious people. The rest just know what to expect when we come out and do it for them!
👍🏻
Sup LA Tony?
@@KoiAddiction really good how to segments you are producing man!
Modify the system to minimize work! Mimic nature! Build an eco-friendly system that doesn't require draining the pond. A pond should not be a burden! Draining the pond is too harsh to the plants, fish and beneficial organisms, and too much work! Add a section of plants near the filter to absorb bad water , debris and smells, if necessary. Then let the filtered water back to the pond. Introduce shrimps and garbage eating fish in the pond to eat fish poo and leaves. No need to remove any current fish, if any. Add clean pebbles in the pond to increase surface area for beneficial microorganisms to grow and minimize murky water. Perhaps add an outlet pipe in the bottom of the filter to lead the bad water to a wicky bed to grow fruits or vegetables, or just add pollution absorbing plants. Shade the water by adding waterlily, lotus, watercress, or such to reduce algae. Modify the filtration strategy to reduce maintenance work and you may even keep the filtration equipment. The modification is not complicated and should not break up the current system, except maybe add a hole to the filter bucket to let out dirty debris and murky water. We don't drain our pond. Hope you enjoy your pond too!🙏
We love our pond. I am thinking I will never have to drain my pond with our current design, only filter cleaning! Enjoy your water feature ;)
😎😎😎😎😎😎
Loves ya buddy!
@@KoiAddiction right back at you!!!!
Put the snorkel an a clearly marked and accessible place but hidden and impossible to get to.
Not sure whatcha mean??
@@KoiAddiction You should not need a crew of men to tear half the pond apart to access the clean out pipe. Just plant some tall plants around it or something. I have see this device from other ponds and they are not hidden or nearly impossible to get to like this. Also, your desire to save water is absurd. The water you throw out end up as rain or useable water at some point in the future. You act like you are destroying it forever.
@@martylynchian8628 moving a dozen small rocks is "impossible to get to"? lol He didnt tear the roots out to "get to" his snorkel.. he cleaned out the plants/roots/debris because it was overgrown and hindering the flow of water and damning up his wetland filter causing flooding outside its intended range. Your lack of understanding and nasty tone is unnecessary and ignorant. I know your comment is 2 years old. This reply is mainly for other people who might have the same misunderstanding. Your tone is likely why you never got a reply after. The -know it all- response you gave probably kept them away and from continuing further.
calm down roy
WI hat does that mean?
Build better systems
Will do ;)
But really until you try systems that don’t require costly muck outs you’ll never know
What leads you to the assumption that I have never installed a different type of system?
@@KoiAddiction Aquascapes exclusivity clauses
I have worked with pressure filters, bead systems, UV, salt water, external pumps, exposed liner, you name it. I am against no way, there is a place for all (at least in my mind). I just do Aquascapes because it appeals to me the most. We aren’t closed minded though. Other than doing concrete (because I don’t know crap about it) I would give a person what they asked for, at least as long as the result would work. I’m just not one of those “Aquascapes is the only way” kind of people. To each their own ;)
I bet when you sold the owners on the wetland filter system nothing was said about over-growth and the accompanying leaks or how often this cleaning was going to be needed, the "many thousands of gallons of water" this would take, and especially how much it was going to cost for you guys to come back and do all of this work.
I would have walked away from that BS line about doing the final narration too. He knows you are full of it.
That is something we could do a better job of covering on the front end possibly. Now we have created a step by step video for them so they can do it themselves or train their own people to do it though. I would expect someone buying something of this “scale” would expect maintenance expenses-nothing is maintenance free…That’s a great video idea though, cost of cleaning a wetland filter! Thanks for the input ;)
Also a video on necessary “routine” maintenance would be a value! Duly noted ;) We will get busy!
Lol really what happens when your car needs a mot or fixing 🤣 🤔 if you brought a 100k car you would need to keep on top of maintenance and checks to make sure its running right.
The amount the customer spent on project I'm sure they would like the person who built it to make sure everything is OK. And not many people would like to mess in all the fish poo 🙃 🙄
Great video as always lads keep up the great work 👍 👏
I’m hoping that we are communicating well with our clients and clearly defining expectations. Noone likes how expensive pond maintenance is, but getting great people to do such a nasty job isn’t going to happen unless you pay them well🤓
@@KoiAddiction 100 percent agree 💯 👍
Too much talk