Its a lot of work. I have made it a little easier finding new ways to manage it. The duck poop is so thick that even at 125 gallons if I don't change the water out every 5 or 6 days it becomes foul. I got a whole filter system I paid 100 dollars for but it was useless in keeping the pond clean. I was using 5 gallon buckets to empty the pond by watering all my plants and garden with the water but it was back breaking trudging those buckets to other plants in the garden. I got a pond pump with the filter system and I attached a piece of garden hose to it. Now I can walk around and water the plants with the pump on using the hose. Much less back breaking but much more time consuming. It takes about an hour for 3/4 of the pond to be emptied. Then I go in with a flexible bucket and get the mud and rest of the water out manually. I wash the sides down with regular water and a scrub brush and get rid of that water too. When I think its clean enough I refill it. I am a 55 year old woman and this is no easy task, but its worth it when I see how happy the ducks are to have the water clean. Also, living in florida I get quite a bit of rain here so I attached some gutter to the roof and have it set up so that it will flow into the pond when it rains to overflow it and add clean water naturally. This saves me a day or two of having to actually empty the pond and start over. I have some pics on my cell phone. I will try to come back here and share them with you.
