Building a pond - step by step - mostly complete post71

[animalpro24]

First of all I think your pond is genius! And second your dogs are Beautiful!!

 

[TLWR]

The little poop, aka Ally, has figured out how to get up on the top board by the filter box and steal the plants... And put them in the pond and chow down on them.


Started out with 16. Dog stole them all one night and I rescued them in the morning and they were all fine. The ducks were interested and then left them alone.
Then one day they decided, mmm, we like these and chowed down and I was left with about 10.
I went out one afternoon this week and picked 2 up from the ground. The other day I noticed the bits of one in the pond and another the next day. Today, as I was draining and cleaning, it seemed like we were getting thin on the plants we were down to maybe 7 or 8 of them
Got home tonight and had to search for the ducks (easy - they were in the pond at 10pm). DH saw more plant bits in the pond. We are down to 5 plants now.
Today - she flew up out of the pond onto the back top board by the filter. Tonight, we decided this must be how they are eating the plants - she hops up there to get them and shares. How kind of her LOL

 

[AngelzFyre]

Quote:
Buy either the activated aquarium charcoal or use lava rocks. Cooking charcoal is not activated with oxygen and wouldn't serve the same purpose and most of it has additives to make it burn easier that would be toxic to your fish and plants. Also if it's not activated it's not as porous and wouldn't lend itself to letting the natural bacteria grow and multiply like the aquarium charcoal or lava rock.
They are processed differently and the activated charcoal is at a much higher temp to make it harder and more porous for the purpose of filtering.
Agricultural or cooking charcoal would absorb the water and degrade much faster and contaminate the pond.

 

[KrazyKZ08]

wow this is amazing! i'm definately going to save this post to favorites and use it as a cheat sheet when i try to build one lol!! of course I don't think i could come up with one half as nice! but how do you set up the drain into the plumbing? and i was also thinking maybe you could use a large gravel vacuum to siphon the poop off the bottom so its easier to maintain?

its midnight and all i want to do is go ouside and start digging!!!!

 

[tdgill]

angelzfire...I LOVE YOUR AVATAR!

if that is your dog, what an adorable one!

 

[AngelzFyre]

Quote:
Thanks!!!!!! Yes he is one of my dogs, I got him and his brother, both Border Collie mixes, from a rescue and have had them 2 years as of yesterday

They are the funniest duo ever...except for their demolition digging in their yard! It looks like a war zone by the end of each day, but they love it. They only dig when it's hot out and they want to get cooler in the dirt, so at least we can fill in their "work" and give them something to do the next day! LOL

Appreciate the compliment!

 

[animalsRawesome]

Awsome job on your pond!

 

[galgo98]

TLWR- My duck pond is still in the planning stages, but I am definitely going to add a skippy filter. About the same time I was wondering about keeping the plants in the filter safe, you posted that your ducks found the plants. My ducks have already destroyed all of the hostas around a small existing pond. Have you come up with a solution to the plants since they are a key part of the filtration?? I am trying to make the duck pond as "natural" as possible, so building a concrete fort around the filter may look a little unnatural.... (My husband's answer is to put concrete blocks around anything we don't want the ducks to eat...

) I was thinking fine netting over the top of the filter which might not be too obvious??

BTW, we have really enjoyed watching the progress and completion of your pond. I can't believe how quickly you got all that work done! You go girl!!

 

[TLWR]

I gave up on the plants for now. But if I try them again, now that I know they figured out they can just hop up on the edge of the pond and snack out of the filter... I'd build a box with netting (or something similar and light) to go over it to keep busy little ducklets out of my plants!

The hostas around the pond they just walk on and are doing ok so far.

 

[tdgill]

I thought hostas WERE for the birds! lol. mine seem to think so. And they come back so nice and tender green. I chopped a sad looking bunch down and threw them into my youngster chickens run and they had fun scratching through them. I had to look them up to make sure they were edible too. Just keep splitting them and transplanting them.... I LOVE hosta and don't mind sharing