HELP!!! something to keep water clean...(and pics of our 'waterpigs')

[mandylovespets]

Cool thanks buddy!!! I'll check it out!!! Nighty night!!!

 

[DuckLady]

If you only have a few ducks, you can get a small kiddie pool for under $10. We keep several around and when we dump them, we dump on an area needing water. Then we move the pools around. That way the water doesn't go to waste. Those large tanks are great, but there should be a way for the ducks to get out or they can get waterlogged and chilled and drown.

Yours are big kids and very sweet, too!

 

[Faded Intimacy]

Have you ever figured out what to do with the water? My best advice is to buy a Pond filter (Go to Petsmart.com). They have ones that are basically boxes that just sit on the bottom. That'll help keep the water clean for longer periods of time.

 

[DuckLady]

We use the water for the garden.
Along with the kiddie pools, we have 2 350 gallon ponds. We use a pond pump and a hose to water the veggies in the summer. We figure we have to water the garden anyway. May as well put the ducks to work first making manure tea. They get to play in the water and we get fertilizer water. It is a win-win situation!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Quote:
Terrie, when do we get to see pics of the watering holes / pools?

 

[1acrefarm]

I bet duck water would be a great fish water substitute for an aquaponics system. I would imagine it would take a few more beds to filter the duck water than fish water.

 

[cjeanean]

I'm thinking of an aquarium pump/filter, because the thing I'm using is only like 100 gallons, and all I need is something to keep the water moving so moquitos don't breed and something to filter the water at least a little. I don't know if there are waterfowl safe water clarifiers that I can put in there, or what. Just something simple and cheap is the goal. Thanks!

 

[Omniskies]

We have a large stock tank that we keep feeder goldfish in. They're more hardy than koi and winter over pretty easily. Any of them that don't make it over the winter can be replaced for a quarter.

Also, we've caught creek minnows and tossed them in the stock tank. It's deep and murky enough that they can stay safe from prying ducks. Again, if they're eaten they're pretty easy to replace.

Algae and duck crap are both eaten by the fish, then all you have to worry about is their waste. This spring we're taking some murky pond plants and shoving them down at the bottom. Hopefully they'll grow faster than the ducks and dive and eat them. In the end we're wanting to have a nice little miniature ecosystem for play. Then we have a few small tubs that are filled with fresh water for drinking.

Hope that helps. Especially since I have a bad feeling ducks are a bit too dirty for a filtered pump to be effective.

 

[deeszoo]

I am thinking the duck water would smell a lot more than the fish water. Yuck! I love my ducks and geese, but their poop does NOT smell good!

DeAnna

 

[chickenlisa]

We use a large kiddie pool with the slide in it- my ducks love to slide down the slide-very funny to watch. Anyway, in the summer, it got very dirty fast, but grew green and filled with Algae almost as fast. I started adding a gallon of vinegar to the new water after we drained/emptied it out and scrubbed it down and refilled it. The vinegar doesn't hurt the ducks-it is such a weak concentration by the time the pool is filled up again. But it somehow prevents the algae from growing. The water still gets dirty, but we can handle it much better now.

I didn't have to add any over the winter, but I do need to figure out how to keep all that water from freezing solid...we get cold winters, but I hate the ducks not having water to swim in then. anyone know a solution to that?
Lisa