Hi, I'm KT. I live in the Mojave and have four ducks; Mr.Bean, Honey Dumpling, Spider Man & Monsieur Candie (I needed a villain name ok).
I need to figure out a setup where my ducks have at least a semi decent sized kiddie pool without ending up with our house, or car, or just another piece of the yard going into a sinkhole.
The soil out here is a type of high desert silt. It's got the consistency of baby powder, it's high in salts, sometimes a bit sandy in places. Houses fall into sinkholes & people loose one half their favorite pair of boots to missteps after a decent rain out here. When the ground gets any decent amount it becomes quicksand in places. Like actual quicksand. This is a concern with the ducks, tho not so much for them, but overall.
We have basically given up a portion of the yard to just absorbing the water from dumping their smaller pool for a couple weeks now, and it has held up to that, but now I've got them a bigger run and a bigger pool and I honestly don't know what the ramifications of dumping that much water every other to every day is going to be.
I need a solution, and I know I can use the siphon method with a hose to direct the water to other places for the time being, but I'd like a way to not have to dump that much water. I've seen one sweet container based bog filtration system for a small duck pool that actually worked, tho that was accomplished in the UK, not the Mojave desert. ... And there is basically zip on the internet regarding using bog filtration for ponds in the desert, so either is uses more water than changing out the water in a system every 1-3 days, &/or it uses more energy than other systems, &/or the aquatic plants necessary just can't withstand the sun and dry heat out here. I can't figure out which mixture of those it is.
Anyone else dealt with creating a water system that works for ducks in desert regions?
As for the chickens that will be added to the ducks I am not so worried about it at the moment.
I need to figure out a setup where my ducks have at least a semi decent sized kiddie pool without ending up with our house, or car, or just another piece of the yard going into a sinkhole.
The soil out here is a type of high desert silt. It's got the consistency of baby powder, it's high in salts, sometimes a bit sandy in places. Houses fall into sinkholes & people loose one half their favorite pair of boots to missteps after a decent rain out here. When the ground gets any decent amount it becomes quicksand in places. Like actual quicksand. This is a concern with the ducks, tho not so much for them, but overall.
We have basically given up a portion of the yard to just absorbing the water from dumping their smaller pool for a couple weeks now, and it has held up to that, but now I've got them a bigger run and a bigger pool and I honestly don't know what the ramifications of dumping that much water every other to every day is going to be.
I need a solution, and I know I can use the siphon method with a hose to direct the water to other places for the time being, but I'd like a way to not have to dump that much water. I've seen one sweet container based bog filtration system for a small duck pool that actually worked, tho that was accomplished in the UK, not the Mojave desert. ... And there is basically zip on the internet regarding using bog filtration for ponds in the desert, so either is uses more water than changing out the water in a system every 1-3 days, &/or it uses more energy than other systems, &/or the aquatic plants necessary just can't withstand the sun and dry heat out here. I can't figure out which mixture of those it is.
Anyone else dealt with creating a water system that works for ducks in desert regions?
As for the chickens that will be added to the ducks I am not so worried about it at the moment.
Hello KT and welcome to BYC, You found an Awesome poultry Forum to be a part of with many great knowledgeable members who are more then willing to jump in and help you with any questions you may have. 
Glad you joined.
Oh I forgot . You could also use a 2" shower drain if you elevate the pool and plug it with a drain plug drain it to a recirculating pump attached to your filter . Depends on how much you want to spend .
I forgot to add you need a shade cloth to go over your water to help prevent evaporation and some shade for your ducks . Sorry for the after thought .
