Creating a pond?

[Fishkeeper]

Very nice! Do I see a goldfish in there? If there are fish, I'd add water plants to help keep things cleaner for them. Potted reeds too durable to be eaten, or plants on the bottom where the ducks can't reach very well.

 

[BReeder!]

Very nice! Do I see a goldfish in there? If there are fish, I'd add water plants to help keep things cleaner for them. Potted reeds too durable to be eaten, or plants on the bottom where the ducks can't reach very well.

Yes, there are fish in there - 8 of them. We HAD a water lily in there. It survived last winter, but it took the ducks about a week to devour every lily pad. There are several plants that are growing in the rocks at the edge of the pond that have roots in the water. Grasses seem to be doing very well in particular. I don't want to add under water plants because tge fish will eat them (waste of money) or the tiger options will send roots into the gravel bed and clog our under gravel filtration. The water quality had been great though. We had a bloom of green hair algae (I believe that's what it was) after adding the ducks, but I let it grow and then pulled it out twice. Now it's under control. I am fairly certain that there was a spike in ammonia from the added biomass (duck poop and feed) followed by nitrate and nitrite (typical nitrogen cycle) so the various bacteria that process the waste needed to catch up. The algae bloom only lasted about two weeks, after which the pond's natural cycles caught up.

 

[McChics]

I love that pond you built. This is the struggle now. I have two large and one small kiddie pools. About once a week I take a drop in pump and pump and fill - otherwise the green blooms are awful. Ducks get out with a shad of green on them! I collect rain water for other purposes which makes it essentially free to fill them - but we are in a dry spell and my water tanks are low/empty - meaning lots of city water into those pools only to watch it turn brown/black - then green right before your eyes! I've found a quick scrub around the rim before refilling keeps them a little cleaner a little longer. I want to buy the Tractor Supply tank, but the 8' is a monster...and 6' almost seems too small for the effort I have to make to install it.

 

[PirateGirl]

I rarely just dump my kiddie pool. Water can be pumped, or hauled by buckets, to water other plants, trees, garden areas, etc. In terms of a pond, I'm not sure if you are thinking of digging a large "natural" pond on your property that would be spring fed or creek fed. If this is the case you will need to discuss plans with your local water board and they can guide you. There are all kinds of rules and regs regarding diverting ground water and subsequently there are specialists that can guide you in doing it. If you are looking at some sort of small pre-formed plastic landscaping type pond, depending on the number of ducks you have, you will likely need a good filtration system because it won't be big enough to maintain a balanced ecosystem with the amount of duck waste that goes into it. Without a filter, you would then be looking at the same draining/dumping issue you currently have. I'm sorry, I realized after writing all that, I haven't offered much of a solution, so much as raised a lot of questions. Hopefully you get more good feedback on here.