Providing a pond for your ducks is great for a lot of reasons, but does that mean a huge water use dumping water everyday or can they be filtered? My journey to have a pretty duck pond that my ducks and I can enjoy without it being a big mess and maintenance nightmare has been ongoing for 3 years now, but I think I finally got it down. I have tried a tons of DIY options only to get really frustrated and honestly covered in duck poop every time I had to do filter cleaning and maintenance and I just couldn’t do it anymore.
How much filtration you need depends on the size of your pond and the number of ducks. I have 4 ducks and a 1200 gallon pond. with my current set up my water is tinged brown but is very clear. I can easily see to the bottom.
Equipment
I have 2 Matala Bio Steps filters, a bog filter and a skimmer and 2 pumps for this pond. Each black box bio steps filter is fed from its own pump. The skimmer is on the inlet to one of the pumps and a simple prefilter is on the other. The water flows through the filter which I converted to use only the black and green pads which don’t plug up as fast as the blue and grey pads which are for koi. One of the filters also has a UV light for algae control which works really well. To clean these, simply unplug the pumps, open the drain and the bottom and hose down the pads. Add Microb lift bacteria after cleaning.
The bog filter has black matala pads laying horizontally on PVC support base to support the plants and creat a drop out space. To clean just open the drain valve and blow down until clear. At the end of the season, remove plants for winter, drain the tank entirely and spray down the pads until clean. Despite what some people tell you, there are not really any duck safe plants for ponds so I added poultry fencing to the sides of the bog filter to keep them from eating the plants. It’s funny, there are a lot of plants in the garden that the ducks are not interested in, but pond plants…they will not stop eating.
The skimmer is a very simple small model for a home pond but it works well. I replaced the standard filter pad with a place matala pad and it has made all the difference. It traps all the feathers and plant debris protecting the pumps, I have had pumps fail from debris and from cavitation so you do have to be careful.
As I stated above, I have tried a lot of things, but this is the only thing I have found that works. I would like to add a few more ducks, but I’m not sure how much more load the filters will be able to take so we’ll have to take that slow. I just put the plants in this week so they may start to reduce the load soon, time will tell. Anyway, yes you can filter a duck pond, but it takes some tinkering.
How much filtration you need depends on the size of your pond and the number of ducks. I have 4 ducks and a 1200 gallon pond. with my current set up my water is tinged brown but is very clear. I can easily see to the bottom.
Equipment
I have 2 Matala Bio Steps filters, a bog filter and a skimmer and 2 pumps for this pond. Each black box bio steps filter is fed from its own pump. The skimmer is on the inlet to one of the pumps and a simple prefilter is on the other. The water flows through the filter which I converted to use only the black and green pads which don’t plug up as fast as the blue and grey pads which are for koi. One of the filters also has a UV light for algae control which works really well. To clean these, simply unplug the pumps, open the drain and the bottom and hose down the pads. Add Microb lift bacteria after cleaning.
The bog filter has black matala pads laying horizontally on PVC support base to support the plants and creat a drop out space. To clean just open the drain valve and blow down until clear. At the end of the season, remove plants for winter, drain the tank entirely and spray down the pads until clean. Despite what some people tell you, there are not really any duck safe plants for ponds so I added poultry fencing to the sides of the bog filter to keep them from eating the plants. It’s funny, there are a lot of plants in the garden that the ducks are not interested in, but pond plants…they will not stop eating.
The skimmer is a very simple small model for a home pond but it works well. I replaced the standard filter pad with a place matala pad and it has made all the difference. It traps all the feathers and plant debris protecting the pumps, I have had pumps fail from debris and from cavitation so you do have to be careful.
As I stated above, I have tried a lot of things, but this is the only thing I have found that works. I would like to add a few more ducks, but I’m not sure how much more load the filters will be able to take so we’ll have to take that slow. I just put the plants in this week so they may start to reduce the load soon, time will tell. Anyway, yes you can filter a duck pond, but it takes some tinkering.
