never heard of a recirculating bog. A real bog is
water that has so much dirt/peat moss in it that it is really just wet mud and you can't see the water.

If you've got water circulating then it's not a bog.

by a recirculating bog i mean that there is water going through it, as would happen if you had a "bog filter" that i've seen people refer to. Well the water seeps up through various grades of gravel, then through the peat. The reason i call it a bog what i have is an alkaline peat aglomeration that throug which water seeps rather than being complelty stagnant. Arbuable part of what i call the bog would be more properly a marsh.
As for the recirculation part, my bog ( or bog filter if you will) will weep water much like a peat marsh or peat bog can do, though not as dry as I undedrstand a heath to be. In the marshy parts i''ll have more marshy plants and in the boggy parts more boggy plants... maby even fen, but an alaline fen an alkaline fen. It is because of the alkaline peat that i call it all a bog mainly...
This weeping water will join other water moving at different rates and depths etc, coursing into a pool fed also by a waterfall, at which point the water recirculates. That means the the seeping water is not just going away by sinking into the earth or spilling over the hilside sinking down into the earth nor drippping out over the hilide or disappearing due to the ET.
In any case, as all these waters recirculate I'll be adding small amounts of wter each day either tap water that comes either from the city water supply or from a well, to make up for any et that may occur.
Do alkaline bog gardeners (including those bog people who are also fenites and marsh officionandos) have any experience with adding water from city water supply in a recirculating sytem.
thanks, Asha

I have both bog and fen gardens. I originally made the mistake of using Oyster shell as my PH adjuster/calcium in my fen. Many of my fen plants did not tolerate the minerals/salts in the Oyster shell, so what I have is basically a mud hole filled with grass and a few plants. The only reason I have left this garden is that several species of orchids are doing really well poking up through all the grass etc.

Sorry, anyway because the fen is already contaminated by the OS I do occasionally water with tap water if needed, but remember My system is closed, and nutrients added have no way of leaching out. You should be able to get away with tap water because your system allows for the nutrients to be recycled. Do a conductivity test on your water. If it has a low conductivity then it will be better because there are less nutrients etc. dissolved in the water. Our water is so hard it crunches when you drink!

thanks for th info.
where do i test for conductivity? don't even know what conductivity means ... does that must mean the degree of hardness? Whst i usnderstand about a bog is the value of an alkaline condition, which can be achieved in several ways. I cna check. The ph of the wel water is slightly alkaline to begin with, so i presume that this is good water for a bog... while the city water is neutral and i don't know how negativly that would affect the bog condition, or if you can simply chose plants that require less akalinity.
Fens, as i understand them can be either alkaline or acid.
- A

conductivity = the amount of electricity that can flow through the water. distilled water does not conduct electricity well, while water high in dissoved salts/minerals conducts well. conductivity meters are available through places such as grainger supply.

While there are exceptions to every rule, a bog is Always acidic, NOT alkaline. Fens on the other hand can be acidic neutral or alkaline. Again the distinction between the two is the fact that a bog recieves all if it's moisture and nutrients from rain and whatever the rain picks up while falling. Fens are fed by ground water and therefore are much more nutrient rich.

is it possible to have a small tub say 2ft by 2 ft and keep plants and fish without a filter.

carpenteruk you can do that but you wont get but maybe one or two fish in there tops and you need oxygenating plants in there if you dont use a pump/filter. Marimo balls might be a good addition to this type of pond. you dont want too many plants in there the fish wont be able to swim and that stresses them out and they will die.

If you want such a small water garden why not try a whiskey barrel? They are around $14.00 - $20.00 and two fish go well in there and even three. I use oxygenating plants in there and no pump/filter as my water hyacinth does that for me. I also use marimo balls and those wow work so well!

Now the tap water issue.... tap water is fine as long as you dont have any fish in your pond or in any of the water you will be recycling/recirculating. The water you are recirculating must be de-chlorinated if it is tap water and you have fish. Water can be dechlorintated in a full 24 hours if left outside. To be safe I would let it sit for three days. To let is settle as well and work its magic. Make sure you follow the instructions on soaking a whiskey barrel or your fish will die. It takes about one week in your yard to soak if it has been soaking forever at the store. You can buy them new as well but I havent found one yet that is as big as the whiskey ones that actually had whiskey in them!