- Apr 22, 2014
- 2,666
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Like many people in the duck threads, I started my ducks off with a kiddie pool. Now someday, I would like them to have a large deep pond with a bio-filter, water jets to play in and cover from eagles above. That takes money and time. Both will come eventually, but for now I live in the world of fill and dump.
The second pool they got was a 100 gallon stock tank. This is vastly superior to a kiddie pool, but it needs a ramp setup and was a bit more expensive. Kiddie pool: $15 Stock tank: $85. So when my flock went from 2 to 13, I thought I would spoil them with 4 new kiddie pools (one replacing the old one from last year). So now the score is 1 stock tank / 4 kiddie pools.
The biggest disadvantage to kiddie pools is cleaning. If you use a pump, typically it will only empty so much water before it starts to suck air. If you try to tilt the pool, it will buckle and cause creases and small holes/leaks. And shifting water in buckets is heavy work. I have seen drain setups done on kiddie pools, but to tell you the truth if I was going to do that much work, I would do it with a stock tank. Also the ducks like to hang around the edges of the pools which means the immediate vicinity around the pool becomes paved with poo, so I like to move the pools periodically.
I have come across a combination of tools that has made the kiddie pool very easy to clean and not too much work. I pump the old water into the swamp, but you could pump it in your garden, or any place you see fit. I can clean all 4 pools and the Stock tank (about 4000 lbs of water) casually in about 2 hours. 20 minutes of this is actual work and the other 1:40 can be used to clean their house or feed the ducks or just sit back and enjoy the weather while I'm "working"
.
So here we go. I have two hose reels. One is hooked up to a water source in the back yard, and the other has been set up with a hose that has a female connector on both ends. The "source" line on the reel drains into the swamp.
So let's start with a really funky pool. Most of my flock is molting their "teenage" feathers and getting their adult feathers in. They can really ruin a pool:
I pump what I can with a dirty water pump. This is fairly fast and doesn't have a filter to get dirty.
I used to spend most of this time stirring the pool to get most of the solids out, now I do other things because the solids are not a problem.
Once the pump starts sucking air, it is time to switch to the most brilliant invention a duck pool cleaner could ever own. Shop vac makes a wet/dry vac with a built in pump that you can connect a garden hose to.
The reason I don't use this for the whole pool, is it has a filter on the intake to the pump that needs to be cleaned (about once / pool) and it isn't quite as fast as the dirty water pump, but it will clean up all the water, solids and feathers and pump the water out so you don't have to empty it.
Pretty slick huh? I then leave the vacuum turned on with the end in the pool and spray the sides of the pool with the hose to get most of the algae before it becomes a problem. This also gives the vac the time to empty most of the water out so it will be lighter to move on to the next pool. I put the dirty pump in the next pool (now that the power and swamp hose are free), fill this pool with the fresh water hose, and clean off the pump filter in the shop vac (a good shake will clean it off most of the time.)
Tada...
When I am all done with all 4 pools and the stock tank, I have to pour out about 2 gallons of water and spray out the inside of the shop vac. This is the only water I have to lift through this whole process. This may not be the best way, but it works well for me and keeps me from creasing the kiddie pools. Now to start planning that pond...
The second pool they got was a 100 gallon stock tank. This is vastly superior to a kiddie pool, but it needs a ramp setup and was a bit more expensive. Kiddie pool: $15 Stock tank: $85. So when my flock went from 2 to 13, I thought I would spoil them with 4 new kiddie pools (one replacing the old one from last year). So now the score is 1 stock tank / 4 kiddie pools.
The biggest disadvantage to kiddie pools is cleaning. If you use a pump, typically it will only empty so much water before it starts to suck air. If you try to tilt the pool, it will buckle and cause creases and small holes/leaks. And shifting water in buckets is heavy work. I have seen drain setups done on kiddie pools, but to tell you the truth if I was going to do that much work, I would do it with a stock tank. Also the ducks like to hang around the edges of the pools which means the immediate vicinity around the pool becomes paved with poo, so I like to move the pools periodically.
I have come across a combination of tools that has made the kiddie pool very easy to clean and not too much work. I pump the old water into the swamp, but you could pump it in your garden, or any place you see fit. I can clean all 4 pools and the Stock tank (about 4000 lbs of water) casually in about 2 hours. 20 minutes of this is actual work and the other 1:40 can be used to clean their house or feed the ducks or just sit back and enjoy the weather while I'm "working"
So here we go. I have two hose reels. One is hooked up to a water source in the back yard, and the other has been set up with a hose that has a female connector on both ends. The "source" line on the reel drains into the swamp.
So let's start with a really funky pool. Most of my flock is molting their "teenage" feathers and getting their adult feathers in. They can really ruin a pool:
I pump what I can with a dirty water pump. This is fairly fast and doesn't have a filter to get dirty.
I used to spend most of this time stirring the pool to get most of the solids out, now I do other things because the solids are not a problem.
Once the pump starts sucking air, it is time to switch to the most brilliant invention a duck pool cleaner could ever own. Shop vac makes a wet/dry vac with a built in pump that you can connect a garden hose to.
The reason I don't use this for the whole pool, is it has a filter on the intake to the pump that needs to be cleaned (about once / pool) and it isn't quite as fast as the dirty water pump, but it will clean up all the water, solids and feathers and pump the water out so you don't have to empty it.
Pretty slick huh? I then leave the vacuum turned on with the end in the pool and spray the sides of the pool with the hose to get most of the algae before it becomes a problem. This also gives the vac the time to empty most of the water out so it will be lighter to move on to the next pool. I put the dirty pump in the next pool (now that the power and swamp hose are free), fill this pool with the fresh water hose, and clean off the pump filter in the shop vac (a good shake will clean it off most of the time.)
Tada...
When I am all done with all 4 pools and the stock tank, I have to pour out about 2 gallons of water and spray out the inside of the shop vac. This is the only water I have to lift through this whole process. This may not be the best way, but it works well for me and keeps me from creasing the kiddie pools. Now to start planning that pond...
