Anybody have experience with ponds?

[KaylaMarie678]

Hi! I'm new to ducks and we were wanting to do a pond for them. Like a real pond not a pool in the ground. We have 10 Rouens and they are almost 4 weeks old. We are working on the duck house right now and next is the pond. We are planning 9x16 feet and we would love to do koi as well. Does anyone have tips on keeping it clean, filteration, will it need to be emptied and refilled often? Plants, fish, the whole thing. Everything I find from googling is so conflicting. Thanks in advance!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Like any body of water, whether an aquarium or ocean, the larger it is the easier it is to maintain.

Look into EPDM rubber as a liner. Koi will add a lot of turgidity so you'll probably need a pump and filter.

These places might have some of the things you need.
https://www.pondfiltration.com/
http://www.marineandreef.com/AquaticLife_Submersible_Marine_Utility_Pump_s/892.htm

 

[TLWR]

My pond is 7x10 and I have 4 runners and a welsh harlequin. They also have free run of our yard, though they stick to about an acre of that. This is to say they hang out in the pond, but are not in there all the time.

The pond is really gross. Does not smell until we start to drain it, but it is gross. But it has a filter and waterfall, so running water and it is still usable for the ducks. We are down to cleaning about 1x a year. The filter box is also cleaned when the pond is cleaned.

We did put in some feeder fish about 2 years ago. The ducks were not interested in eating them at the time. Scooping debris from the bottom of the pond (ours is partly under a tree), we scooped up our fish. So next time we drained and cleaned, we kept an eye out for him and put him in a bucket. Put him back in the pond and one of the ducks ate him that day. We never saw him after the 2nd day of putting him in there originally because the pond is green. But it seemed fine for that fish. Never fed him (didn't know he was still alive in there) and he lived for over a year.


This to say...
you are going to need some super filtration to keep the water clean enough to add fish and take care of their waste too. You'll most likely be draining and filling often to have clearish water and then you are upsetting the balance you have in the water making the fish happy.
Ducks are messy.
Fish are messy.
Add 10 large ducks and some large fish in a pond and it is going to be icky.


If you want koi, I'd build 2 ponds.. one you fence the ducks out of so you can see your fish and one for the ducks

 

[KaylaMarie678]

This to say...
you are going to need some super filtration to keep the water clean enough to add fish and take care of their waste too. You'll most likely be draining and filling often to have clearish water and then you are upsetting the balance you have in the water making the fish happy.
Ducks are messy.
Fish are messy.
Add 10 large ducks and some large fish in a pond and it is going to be icky.

Okay, I read that the fish would help by eating the duck poo. If they will only make a pond more difficult then I don't need them. I read that plants help keep a pond clean?

Draining once a year isn't so bad.

And I also read about putting some barley in the bottom of the pond and changing that out to help keep things clean.

 

[TLWR]

Plants will help greatly with keeping a pond clean. If your ducks do not eat the plants LOL

Ducks don't make keeping a pond easy

I tried barley and didn't really see much of a difference, but who knows if I used enough or did it correctly.
I tried plants. They did fine for a few days and then both the ducks and dogs decided they were a great treat and those were gone.

In the end, I have a 7x10 pond that is just under 1000 gallons and a 75 gallon filter box and a decent sized pump (not sure what it was rated anymore) in the pond. Moving water keeps it able to not need to be emptied often. Large kiddie pool of water, had to dump every 3rd day or the ducks wouldn't go near it. This pond, they spend the same amount of time (and there are more ducks now) in the pond, poop just as much in the pond, have addition of tree stuff falling in the pond and as long as the water flows, they are happy to jump in.
The poop settles to the bottom and I just have algae in the water so it is green water.
I drain, hose it out, scrub if needed anywhere and the pond itself is clean - no acorns, no poop, no leaves, nada. Then I hit up the filter box and want to throw up LOL That thing is disgusting. I really really wish I had put a drain in that box as well. It is thick with filtered poop goop! So I drain with a pump, add water, drain, repeat many times, scoop out the goop with a bucket. I should start wearing waders for this project. Pull out the bags of lava rocks and rinse those as best as I can, pull out the AC filter material and hose that out as best as I can and then make sure the box is clean as I can get it. Load it all back in, fill up the pond and box, plug the filter/pump back in and off they go again for another year+
So it may be nasty, but it is a once a year job and that makes it tolerable.

It is nice and clear for a day, 2nd day it starts getting cloudy and then by day 3, you wonder why you cleaned it to begin with.
Last time it was because I had new ducklings and wanted them to swim in clean water they could see in (or I could see them in). So that was last April. I might get around to it at some point this summer or may just wait until fall when it cools down to do it.