Duck Pond Pump questions

[TLWR]

Quote:
Old thread, but was hoping jellybean might see this and provide some pictures.
Doing skippy filter research this weekend and hoping to get started on something soon so the ducks can have more water and not have it like it was this morning after 2.5 days - ew!

 

[jellybean]

I haven't been on here much at all, sooo busy! Winter for me is solid snowmobiling, so I'm on all my snowmobiling forums promoting our women's film and all, not on here much till spring starts up! This was the first pond I tried. I've since changed it quite a bit, plus that pen is split, covered with netting, and has a large walk in duck house. Only one side has access to a pool so the other is a babv pen. Now I have two small plastic pools, the expensive garden kind (found in the paper). One buried in the ground, one above it. But they are both coming out, just not big enough for all the birds I have now! I have two large and deep pools that were molasses tubs for cattle I got from my dad. They are deeper and bigger than both my current pools, and really thick and tough. Only one will fit in the pen, I think I'll have the other outside. I will leave it sitting on the ground, and dig out a spot under it where I will install a drain. The pump does great, but they still get a lot of dirt and rocks in there that can clog the pump eventually, and I have to clean it by hand. With a big drain I can rinse it all out once a month or so. I think I'll push up dirt or rocks around it for them to get it, it's about 2.5' high. Then set the filter up on something next to it. With rocks clear around it it stays cleaner, any dirt they can reach while swimming gets put in the pool.

 

[TLWR]

Quote:
What are you using for a pump?

I just laid out a landscape timber frame outline of 8'x12' and 6'x12'. Just need to figure out where it will go in the yard and look at liners to see what size we go with. I'm thinking 2' deep at the deepest and maybe slope it up on each end so it slopes into the middle and put a pump there? Or better to have it a flat bottom?
I want a pump sending as much poopy water into the filter as possible!

 

[jellybean]

http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Dirty-Submersible-Switch-Gallons-/dp/B000W8LFJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303672180&sr=8-1

It's really cheap, and has a large intake so will handle very dirty water. If there's a lot of straw or anything getting into it, it will clog eventually. Bought one last spring and it worked all year, but then wasn't working all the time. For the price though I don't care too much if needs replaced every year. It's large so if the water is too shallow the float doesn't let it turn on. Seems like at least 1.5' is good?? I bet you could get around this by wiring the float in the right (on) position, to the side of the pool or something.

 

[HorsesRule]

I have a pond that contains 200 US gallons and I'm thinking about getting some ducks. What size water pump and airator should I use?

Here's a photo of my pond

Please help

 

[Canam]

I noticed this is a pretty old post, but I'm curious. Did you figure out the pond, and if so, what worked best for you. We are going to start one as well, and I've been told it takes lots of research and planning!

 

[Shelly and Dave]

The best setup we have found so far is two 55gal drums. Pump feeds water into first barrel filled with lava rocks then flows in to second barrel filled with landscape fabric. Inlets to barrels enter top of barrels then pipe goes to bottom. Then add microbe-lift "only one we found that is not toxic to something" match start dose then almost double normal doses. We have 9 ducks and 2 geese water went from dark green to almost clear.

 

[TracyZ]

We recently built a pond for our 10 ducks approximately 21' x 20', 4000gallons. We have two large filters filled with lava rocks (approximately 400-500 gallons), which has to be cleaned a couple times a month. the issue we are having is that we can not find a pump that holds up, each pump we have had breaks or has a significant decrease in water flow after only a couple months. The most recent pump is a sewage pump, 5700gph, and it is now not able to pump the water back to the filters, which is approximately 20feet away and up about 5 feet. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm just completely at a loss and have no idea what to do next, I can't keep buying new pumps every couple months, especially when they are $200 each.

Thanks,
Tracy