DIY Thread - Let's see your "Inventions".

[hennible]

Thanks for the link.
Darn raccoon anyway... I don't have those fur balls up here thankfully.... I have bush rats.

 

[cabinchicky]

Thank you Perchiegirl and Primrosemom!! I have bungies on it now but was curious as how other ppl do secure them. I have a tarp covering about 1/4 of my run top and half way down the side now and it lifts now and then with the wind but it's as tight as I could get it. I plan to move it down on the west side of run to make a wind break before the snow flies.

 

[seminolewind]

With winter coming, I used to save up feed bags and use thumb tacks to put them over windows or openings.

 

[LindaB220]

Great idea!

I love this idea too.

 

[seminolewind]

I got sick of dumping my duck pool every three days so I made a duck pond filter.
It's a small pond pump, submersible, you can find them at Home Depot for $60 and up. The pump sits in the pool and it's outlet hose runs into the bottom of a 9 gallon bucket with a spout. The hose is held in place with 3-4 inches of pea gravel, followed by layer after layer of washable furnace filter cut to size and topped off with 3-4 inches more pea gravel. The bucket sits above the pool and is tilted so the clean water goes where I want it. The trick apparently is waiting for bacteria to take up residence in the media, and it will brake the organics down while the rocks etc filter large debris.
Ugly but seems to work, 3 days to build up bacteria colony apparently. Working well, one issue to solve is when the ducks get rowdy they sometimes bump the pump and I have to unplug it and start it up again, not a big deal.




These are the filter layers full of duck gunk. I hose these and the pea gravel out every 10 days or less and reassemble the filter. Another benefit of the fountain style of my filter are the oxygen and movement of the water which encourages more gunk to get into the filter.

Filtered pool

Unfiltered pool water in both pools is 3 days old. Happy to say it's been working well and I'd like to build a bigger one in the future for a bigger pond. I didn't dump the pond water for over a month, it took that long for the bottom to get sludgy. The little submersible pump sits on the bottom and sucks up sludge very well.
Once in a while when the filter gets overloaded, the pump stops running, or the flow of water is not enough to get the water back into the pool so it ends up emptying.... Should've made it bigger.

Hennible, I LOVE that idea. Does your pump get clogged?

I have geese, yes messy too. I would think that the carbon will remove some toxins. I wonder if adding a bit of bleach is possible? I mean we do drink chlorinated water. Maybe a bit more is okay.

 

[dheltzel]

Don't add any bleach if you have carbon in there - chlorine is very quickly adsorbed by the carbon and it will "clog" it and prevent it from getting anything else. Actually, carbon is probably close to useless in those filters. Water changes are much more cost effective than either carbon or zeolite (sometimes sold as "white carbon", it removes ammonia).

When building a bucket type filter, consider adding a drain with a hose to wherever you can dump the water. The do a water change, open the drain and let the pump move the water out, then refill the pond while cleaning the filter.

 

[KingKongChicken]

I got sick of dumping my duck pool every three days so I made a duck pond filter.
It's a small pond pump, submersible, you can find them at Home Depot for $60 and up. The pump sits in the pool and it's outlet hose runs into the bottom of a 9 gallon bucket with a spout. The hose is held in place with 3-4 inches of pea gravel, followed by layer after layer of washable furnace filter cut to size and topped off with 3-4 inches more pea gravel. The bucket sits above the pool and is tilted so the clean water goes where I want it. The trick apparently is waiting for bacteria to take up residence in the media, and it will brake the organics down while the rocks etc filter large debris.
Ugly but seems to work, 3 days to build up bacteria colony apparently. Working well, one issue to solve is when the ducks get rowdy they sometimes bump the pump and I have to unplug it and start it up again, not a big deal.




These are the filter layers full of duck gunk. I hose these and the pea gravel out every 10 days or less and reassemble the filter. Another benefit of the fountain style of my filter are the oxygen and movement of the water which encourages more gunk to get into the filter.

Filtered pool

Unfiltered pool water in both pools is 3 days old. Happy to say it's been working well and I'd like to build a bigger one in the future for a bigger pond. I didn't dump the pond water for over a month, it took that long for the bottom to get sludgy. The little submersible pump sits on the bottom and sucks up sludge very well.
Once in a while when the filter gets overloaded, the pump stops running, or the flow of water is not enough to get the water back into the pool so it ends up emptying.... Should've made it bigger.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/852527/types-of-fish-in-a-duck-pond
Maybe you can get some sucker fish or minnows in there to help eat that sludge.

or maybe not

I second doing the ducks first & seeing how clean you can keep the water (clean as in ammonia/nitrites not dirt). You will need a MAJOR filter system, preferably a lot of duck resistant aquatic plants, & at least weekly water changes to keep fish alive in that size pond. Your best bet will be regular comet goldfish (aka feeder fish). Plecos (aka sucker fish) are actually pretty sensitive to ammonia, which is normal for scaleless fish species. They are also a tropical fish so won't generally overwinter (yes, I know, there is an exception for everything). Plecos, contrary to popular belief, don't eat waste. They eat vegetable matter including most types of algae, dead fish, & the fish food your other fish get. Live plants will really help with ammonia, the faster growing (like water hyacinth) the better but ducks are hard on plants.

You'll have to share pictures of what you end up with!

 

[hennible]

Hennible, I LOVE that idea.  Does your pump get clogged?

I have geese, yes messy too.  I would think that the carbon will remove some toxins.  I wonder if adding a bit of bleach is possible?  I mean we do drink chlorinated water.  Maybe a bit  more is okay.

It gets clogged, sometimes it's the "cage" around the pump, sometime my bucket filter, occasionally the hose.
I too have wondered about a little bleach, also something to slow down the algae would be nice.
As dhelzle mentioned to us though if I add charcoal I guess bleach is out.
King Kong chicken, the ducks had tadpole for maybe a day ( hundreds )... The ate them so darn fast. I'd love to add fish but mostly just as snacks for the ducks.
My ideal duck pound would be base on Aquaponics... A working Eco system taking care of all the poo etc naturally.... Maybe raise some tilapia too, if the ducks don't eat them all.

 

[hennible]

Oops sorry about the spelling mistakes....

 

[KingKongChicken]

It gets clogged, sometimes it's the "cage" around the pump, sometime my bucket filter, occasionally the hose.
I too have wondered about a little bleach, also something to slow down the algae would be nice.
As dhelzle mentioned to us though if I add charcoal I guess bleach is out.
King Kong chicken, the ducks had tadpole for maybe a day ( hundreds )... The ate them so darn fast. I'd love to add fish but mostly just as snacks for the ducks.
My ideal duck pound would be base on Aquaponics... A working Eco system taking care of all the poo etc naturally.... Maybe raise some tilapia too, if the ducks don't eat them all.

http://www.aquaticbiologists.com/bacteria--enzymes/clean-pond-bacteria-block
This seems like a good place to start but I would do some extensive research before using any beneficail bacteria or enzymes to be assured there will be no harsh affects on your ducks before using anything.

edit
I dont have much experience with Aquaponics
But i am experienced in hydroponics and know if you want a working Eco system taking care of all the poo etc naturally.
One of the most important things to have besides a filter is plenty of oxygen in the water for the beneficial bacteria and enzymes to break down the poo and urea