Building a pond - step by step - mostly complete post71

[ultasol]

Here's a website with some great ideas and another idea for a DIY filter.
http://www.tadege.com/diyprojects.htm

 

[AngelzFyre]

Quote:
Any new pond will have to go through a "cycle" before clearing up, no matter what you do. It takes time to build up the good bacteria and for the water to balance out. Spring brings algae blooms galore and if you're just starting up with a new biofilter, it'll need time...at least 3 weeks til the biofilter is seeded and doing it's job properly. Microbelift has great products though and you may also want to try the Barley concentrate additive once you get everything going to cut down on the string algae.
Your pond is great looking though, green or not!

 

[TLWR]

I told DH I put a thing in the fish tank filter to help seed the duck filter. He came out with the half a green scrubbie laughing at me. I told him that was all I could find and it isn't like there is a lot of room in the fish tank filters for extra stuff LOL

I was hoping to have plants in there at the start, but couldn't find what I was looking for so had to order some.
It's been going for a week with the filter now and it's tiny seed pad - hopefully the micobelift tac will help with that and then the plants and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have a much less green pond. Even Ally was a wee bit green last night

 

[Captain Cluck]

Awesome duck pool!

Do you have access to Barley straw, any sort of hay or even untreated, dried grass clippings?

Put some in an onion bag or stuff some pantyhose with any of those, tie shut and weight down to the bottom of your pool. The microbes naturally present in the straw/hay/grass will balance the algae and soon the water will be clear. Replace the straw/hay/grass every few weeks (or month or when it looks like its about half decomposed) to keep the water clear.

That should help a lot.

 

[TLWR]

Quote:
Already in there, not established enough yet for the barley straw to do too much, even with just 2 ducks in there. Was in there before the ducks.

 

[donnavee]

TLRW:
I showed this to DH and he is inspired to try a smaller version for our duckies. What size did you make your filter box? And would you mind sharing wear you purchased your liner and underlayment from?
Thanks.

 

[TLWR]

Quote:
The underlayment I used was from Lowe's - the roll of styrofoam stuff for laying under laminant flooring. I just cut my roll in half so I had 2 rolls the right height.
I think it was pondliner.com - was the cheapest after I added in shipping. Around $88 for the 10x15 45mil EPDM liner with shipping. I just deleted all those emails.

Filter box is ~24" tall x 39" wide x 25" deep. I bought a 8x10 20mil pvc liner from Amazon for that - much cheaper than it was at Lowe's and was eligible for free shipping.

 

[donnavee]

Thanks - I have been looking on pondliner.com as well and they do seem to be the most reasonable.

 

[DarkWolf]

$88 shipped for 10x15 45mil? Dang that's cheap as crud. I had an eye on an ebay seller for cheap EPDM, but this beats it hands down. Though eBay is still the cheapest I'd found for the PVC pond liner I use in my green roof projects.

Regardless, thanks for that bit of info!

Any update pictures? Lets see how green it is, now. And moreover, with ducks.

 

[emvickrey]

Quote:
Put a drain in it. We contemplated just a sump idea and then I was thinking, i don't want to have to suck it all out when I want to clean it, I may just want to blast it with a hose and go from there, so what's one more drain LOL


DH said he's voting for me being brave and having it done when he gets home.
I said he'd prefer it being running by the time he gets home and if it is, there will be 5 little ducklings swimming in there lol


His response:
As long as 2 are wild and fly away tonight.

I don't think he realized the 5 ducklings were itty bitty ones, not the 3 ducklets in the backyard already LOL

Be careful putting those little ducklings in the pond without a way for them to get out when they get tired. I made that mistake. I put a couple in their new pond and went inside briefly to change shirts and came out to a drowning duckling. I was able to save it but if I had been just seconds later it would have been dead. I found out they normally have a mother that judges when they've had enough and help them get out. Since we are their mother we have to make that call. So I put a piece of board in a slant in their pond and now they come and go as they please.