Building a pond - step by step - mostly complete post71

[tbitt]

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I Remember this Ice storm. We were without power for 5 days!! The bathroom that is in the barn FROZE and the pipes busted. If you do not have, I suggest you investing in a small generator before doing. You can get a gas powered one for very little money. It will insure that you will never have to dig out, and replace frozen/busted pipes to that Pump.

 

[AngelzFyre]

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Do you have pictures of yours? I'd love to see it!
I'd love to see it winterized also!

I've got a few pics of when I first did it...but not of it winterized. I don't know how to get pictures to post in the reply on here

You can see the front of the waterfall and the biofilter sits behind that. The piping on the right is what I put the preform pond over in the wintertime. My pond has never frozen, nor has the waterfall. Only once did it slow down and that was due to the pond netting getting slack and letting a big icicle form and it partially blocked the waterfall opening. I keep one of those Python syphon systems that I use for my fish tanks and bought extension tubing for it and can run warmed water from the house over any ice that forms now.

I use the pond net over entire pond and cut the foliage off plants in top and cover that also, then place the straw over that and put a tarp over that to insulate it more so that the waterfall won't tend to freeze. We don't have cold for long..but when we do, it's below freezing for a few days at a time.

I've got the pictures in email form if you want me to send them that way then please PM me with your email and I'll gladly send the pics I do have from 2008.

 

[TLWR]

Pond was drained today so we could get rid of the algae. Pump box and filter pieces were put in a bin of water that had been sitting out for a few days, so chlorine free. Any blocks from the pond were put in there too. Then I cleaned the pump hose in the filter box and we removed filter materials into another dechlorinated bin. Drained everything (watered the garden and then the yard), rinse out what we could of the liner to remove as much algae as we could and added more dechlorinator and filled it back up.
I think we'll limit their swim time for a few days so we can hopefully keep the algae from taking over again and be easier to see the duck poop to clean the pond.

Hopefully we have enough bacteria, and didn't kill it all off today, to keep the pond algae free. I added more enzyme/bacteria stuff and tossed the surviving plants back in (dog tried to eat them first, then the ducks ate them a few days later, only about half look like they will be fine, a few are gone and a few still look like they could croak. So have to come up with a way to get the plants into the pond and sun, but away from the ducks.


So, 2.5 weeks of the ducks using it a decent amount daily before it was gross to us. Ducks didn't care and they wouldn't go in their pool if it was too disgusting. But the algae was bothering us/DH.

 

[MichikoSaur]

aww I love Great Danes, gentle giants!
ohh and good luck on your pond. Lucky Ducks! (pun intended ;p) haha

 

[Big Dreamer]

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For the plants get a little floaty noodle cut them in half or however big the plants are make them into circles and tie them together so it makes a ring of floatyness and then attached hardwire on the top in a fashion that makes a dome, Like cut wire into strips and then make a birdge thing and then do it again in the other direction until you have it mostly or all covered put plants into it and let it float plants are protected from the top and still get sunlight...if you get waht im sayin...

 

[AngelzFyre]

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For the plants get a little floaty noodle cut them in half or however big the plants are make them into circles and tie them together so it makes a ring of floatyness and then attached hardwire on the top in a fashion that makes a dome, Like cut wire into strips and then make a birdge thing and then do it again in the other direction until you have it mostly or all covered put plants into it and let it float plants are protected from the top and still get sunlight...if you get waht im sayin...

I did somewhat the same thing that you mentioned with the noodles but I used hula hoops. I zip tied them together in the form of a flower, one in the center and 5 around that one and then put the plants in the middle of them. I put pond netting over AND under them and zip tied it. This was to keep the koi from demolishing the water hyacinth and roots and it worked perfectly. Also kept the plants from getting sucked into the skimmer.
Even though you got most of the algae out, you'll still more than likely get another algae bloom until the pond has time to balance itself. No matter what enzymes or bacteria you put in, it will still need to cycle and it will also depend on how much the ducks poop in there and how much sun it gets to make the algae grow more.

. Just a fact of life with a pond.
Mine is over 4 yrs old now and I still battle the algae every year until it balances but my fish are healthy and growing and spawning so even if I can't always SEE them...I'm happy! LOL

 

[tdgill]

do those UV algae lights really work? I have a couple of friends fighting algae (knock on wood, I just let it go until its balanced and clear) and they have a lot more sun on their ponds than I do. Also bigger fish loads. I have 7 goldies in an 85 gallon. In mostly shade, no plants.

 

[TLWR]

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I figure we'll have at least one more bloom until the pond is fully cycled, especially with the amount of time the ducks spend in there. They seem to realize the water is cooler than the air and hang out much of the day in there. It is mostly in the shade, though it does get bits of sun during the day and early evening gets a bit more over more of the pond. I think I'll figure out a way to block off a corner of the pond and make that the plant corner, but need to be sure they can't get to them from the bottom or from the pond when they are in there.
I figure as long as the ducks were still happy to go in and clean themselves (if the pool got gross before, they'd just float for a little bit and hop out and not clean themselves or just avoid it entirely), it was still good, but DH was getting very annoyed by all the algae.

I'd like to order more ducklings, but not until I'm sure we aren't going to be draining the pond every two weeks, so hopefully the biologicals get their butts in gear pretty soon!

 

[gregnlinda]

Hi! I'm new to ducks and wanted to say I love your pond design! We're getting our first ducklings this week, 4 Welsh harlequins. Can you give me an idea of how much pond space per duck is recommended? I'll be using a small kiddie pool to start, but will be putting a more permanent one in where we plan to enlarge our garden space. Love all the photos, too!

 

[jnkir7]

im building my own filter , i want to use charcoal would it be alright to use the kind for cooking or should i buy the actual aquariun kind, janie