Using Duck Aquaponics to filter pond water and produce duck feed?

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Thanks for the videos, interesting. He is working harder than necessary and using more steps. I worry about bateria because he is removing solids and his water 'looks' clean but isn't.

He isn't removing the toxins, just solids and is returning dirty water to the ducks. I worry they will share infections & microbes & parasites.

 

[Fuhoo]

He is working harder than necessary and using more steps

Can you expand on that point? It seems to be a similar system to what I proposed (pool>solids filter>beds>pool).

I read your suggestion for the tailing pond but would that really be applicable for a small garden pond? And how would cleaning it work? It's not something I'm very familiar with so excuse my lack of knowledge.

He isn't removing the toxins, just solid

The reduced algae at least hints that the Nitrates are being removed. Hard to say anything conclusive without any water testing...
Regarding the worries about microbes & parasites. Isn't refiltering the same water (and topping up what evaporates) how a lot of Koi ponds (and other small garden ponds) work. The ducks share the same water troughs, feed, and pens... Would this really be a concern regarding the pond considering the setting?

 

[Fuhoo]

small garden pond

I realize that I should contextualize this a bit more, "small" means different things to different people.

The "pond" I have space for is between 350-750 Gallons (depending on how deep I make it), so it's more of a little pool the ducks can enjoy and clean themselves in.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Can you expand on that point? It seems to be a similar system to what I proposed (pool>solids filter>beds>pool).

I read your suggestion for the tailing pond but would that really be applicable for a small garden pond? And how would cleaning it work? It's not something I'm very familiar with so excuse my lack of knowledge.

The reduced algae at least hints that the Nitrates are being removed. Hard to say anything conclusive without any water testing...
Regarding the worries about microbes & parasites. Isn't refiltering the same water (and topping up what evaporates) how a lot of Koi ponds (and other small garden ponds) work. The ducks share the same water troughs, feed, and pens... Would this really be a concern regarding the pond considering the setting?

In nature (I live in deep woods) you'll see one duck couple per lake (large pond), I see my ducks who have access to more than one pond, will abandon a pond once it gets a little foggy w poo. They put their beaks in and shake it like they tasted something foul.
...
Bateria/microbes/parasites are smaller than those filters. If you look at water filters for homes using surface water they include light to kill them and the water has to pass slowly past the light.
To reuse the water you need to test it.

I am not familiar w koi, but I believe they are not food (are you eating your eggs/ducks?) And fish have very different poo than ducks. Birds often are preyed on by parasites that will go through digestive process in order to then infect other birds. It is part of their reproduction, and that is something I worry about that process enabling.

Are you in a water poor area? Can you refill the pond after washing it out?

I would not put the water through a filter, it isn't worth the effort.

The basic idea is:
1. Remove the water, wash out the sides/bottom of the container if it is not a natural pond.
2. The removed water can be put into a literal hole in the ground (or into your grey water system if you have one with a pre-filter which is just a section the water sits in and the solids fall, the clean water rises and moves to the distribution pipes under the ground.) Your goal is to give the solids a chance to fall, the cleaned water will naturally rise. The water either is drained off the top of this 'sewage' pond, or you let it seep into the soil and dissipate naturally.

I have dug watering canals, alongside the rows of fruit trees and I pour the water into that
The tree roots will find their way to the water and the nutrition from the poo. In my case it allows the water to be available to the trees when needed without overwatering when I empty the pond.

I made two sketches (apologies for the quality, I hope they help to explain what I mean. In my case the first pond is fed by water from fresh water streams. When it rains too much the water flows into the other reservoirs to catch the water for the garden & fruit trees to have it when needed. When I empty the B pond (duck pond) I pour the water into the canals, the water does not backflow because of the different depths and the height of the overflow drains.

Note that all this was built with a shovel and 1 piece of old 3" french drain pipes (without the cloth covers) the overflow between pond A and pond B have the pipe, the rest is just a matter of digging a little trench between the different canals. The heights do all the work, I have very little involvement. Only in the hottest part of summer do I need to put a pump in, normally rainfall overflows everything naturally and cleans it.

 

[Fuhoo]

are you eating your eggs/ducks

Aren't chickens rife with Salmonella and bacteria? We cook it out regardless.
I've never eaten duck meat though I assume you cook it out just as much as chickens

EDIT: To add, I'm asking around local people I know (and people they know) that own ponds and ducks, I'll get back with some updates on what they think of the bacteria/parasite topic.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Aren't chickens rife with Salmonella and bacteria? We cook it out regardless.
I've never eaten duck meat though I assume you cook it out just as much as chickens

EDIT: To add, I'm asking around local people I know (and people they know) that own ponds and ducks, I'll get back with some updates on what they think of the bacteria/parasite topic.

No, the salmonella is in their poo, that is why you wash the eggs.

They get parasites and we give them medications for it. Just do a search on BYC for coccidiosis and roundworms and cecal worms and gape worms and tape worms and threadworms (etc etc etc)

It is a constant concern and we spend A LOT of time looking at poo to try to guess (even though the darn things are microscopic). I would not recycle water, you are just playing Russian roulette, eventually one of them will get something and then they will all have it.

 

[MerryMeridional]

When I was looking for info about food safety grown with duck poo water, I found that very little if any (depends on the plant) is taken up by the roots and internalized into the fruit of the plant. Most of the pathogens that make us sick are on the surface of the produce and is not washed off. Additionally, the official guidelines for organic farming say to not apply fresh manure on produce you plan to harvest within 3 months.

So, knowing this, my plan was to grow things that would be cooked in my duckaponic beds. In my own Garden, I tend to cook my greens like spinach, kale and swiss chard (low growing vegetables that are more likely to get splashed by dirt of watering) and grow my herbs that could be used fresh in separate fabric planting bags that I carefully water at the soil level.

 

[addctd2plnts]

Yup, suddenly I am an amazing gardener... Try squashes (butternut and spaghetti) if you haven't yet. Just like tomatoes they are very duck poo friendly. But I think you have to stop on the tomatoes when you want them to ripen. I had a weird problem last year that they kept growing but wouldn't turn red (or yellow on the ones that are meant to ripen yellow.) I. Going to test that next summer.

If you tomatoes wouldn't ripen, was your weather really hot? Once it gets past about 95 degrees people start complaining their tomatoes won't ripen. Then once it cools down a little they all ripen.

 

[addctd2plnts]

I'm currently in the planning stage of adding ducks and a small pool/pond for my backyard and have been doing a lot of research into keeping the pond clean from the nasty duck poop.
We've owned ducks before and yeah, they muck it up fast.

Which is what brought me to researching Aquaponic systems. Now those use freshwater fish, which are a bit less messy than ducks but more importantly are not common carriers of bacteria that could be harmful to humans... Which can be transferred from the water into the plant.
But I still believe their systems and knowledge could still be useful for the purposes of a clean pond.

Reading through this interesting study I found: (LINK), they're using a sort-of Aquaponic system but on a grander scale where the filthy duck pond water is used to feed Water Hyacinth, cleaning it significantly before it is reintroduced to the pond while the Water Hyacinth is collected and used to supplement the feed of the ducks who in turn produced more eggs that were of higher quality.

This got my curiosity going on how this could be downsized into for someone to use in a backyard, and came up with the diagram below:

View attachment 3372357
Please excuse the shoddy MS Paint diagram, but I think it helps get the point across.

The lowest point in the system is the pond itself.
The pump is placed inside a skimmer, prevents large debris (feathers, leaves) from blocking the pump while also keeping the ducks safe from the pumps suction (saw a video where a guy's poor duck got it's head stuck inside the pump fitting and died!).
The water is then pumped into a solid separator, like those used in Aquaponic systems, to remove the large solids (aka sludge). More about all the different types here: (LINK).
The filtered water is then poured onto grow beds filled with soilless media. I mentioned Water Hyacinths because of the study but I suppose it can be whatever. Just make sure that no human is eating this stuff, to be safe.
The water, hopefully clear now, falls back into the pond.

Anyone here tried to make a similar setup? Any potential issues, concerns, or thoughts with the plan above?
I really am interested in ways to preserve water and reduce the amount of work that goes into caring for ducks, while making sure they get spend comfortable lives with access to clean water.

This is my favorite video on a duck filter system. Not sure if it's what you are looking for?

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

If you tomatoes wouldn't ripen, was your weather really hot? Once it gets past about 95 degrees people start complaining their tomatoes won't ripen. Then once it cools down a little they all ripen.

I wish, no, it was fall in Canada, it was definitely cool enough