Advice on building a pond with a bio filter, using it for irrigation water

[dacull]

Unfortunately, I had an "incident" with one of my dogs a while back and lost all of my beloved welsh harlequins. But, after giving the dog a very stern talking to, I decided I enjoyed the ducks enough to have another go at it. Now that hatching season is coming up I'm making the most of the situation and building some improvements to my duck area. Other than much better dog-proofing, one of my main projects is installing a 400-500 gallon pond. I'm planning to use a home made bio-filter for the pond as well as pump water from the pond to irrigate my yard and garden. I know duck water is usually too rich with nitrogen and ammonia to put directly on plants and gardens, and from what I've read even the people with very large bio-filters still need to do some partial water changes, so this seems like it would make a good compromise? I'd really hate to waste all that water (and nutrients) from the duck pond, and I live in the city so there isn't really anywhere good to put it if not on the plants anyways.

I'm hoping some of the folks here with more pond experience can give me some pointers on how big of a filter I'm likely to need, and I guess if I'll need one at all. I'm planning to keep about 6-10 large ducks, (probably saxony), they'll have access to the pond all the time, and I'm guessing I'll probably use enough of the water for irrigation to change it over completely at least once a week most of the year. Thanks for any advice anyone might have

 

[Kevin565]

This thread should help you

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/146829/the-duck-ponics-experiment-raising-minnows

 

[dacull]

oh, thank you kevin! I remembered seeing that thread before, but didn't see it in any of my searches. That's a huge help

 

[KansasKid]

Just remember when constructing your own filter system that to prevent having to do absolute constant unclogging of the pump and risk burning it up and possible electrocution that there should be a filter before the pump. a gravity fed system like a skimmer box works pretty good.