How often do you change pool water?

[bernie131]

I have 3 ducks and wondered how often I should change the pool water? I have been doing it weekly, it makes such a mess but they love it when I change the water, the mud puddles left and the fresh water.

 

[Sagey_7878]

Change it accordingly to when it becomes too dirty.

 

[ValerieJ]

I don't have ducks, and have no idea. I just know how I am. I would change it daily. My neighbor changes it every two days and it always looks too dirty to me. LOL I'm a germaphobe.

 

[BantyChooks]

Not until it looks scummy or too dirty to see the bottom. I have to bail it out by hand. It's a time-consuming process and hard on the back, so I do it as little as possible. Besides, they have smaller bowls they swim in anyway, even if I do keep it clean. Brat ducks.

 

[Geggs]

Hi bernie and all. We have just under 3 acres. I have 5 geese, 2 ducks, 3 chickens. The ducks have a waterer which is the smaller black cement trough from a big box store with an inverted 7 gallon water jug tipped into it onto a couple of blocks so it gurgles water out as they drink. The jug itself and a couple of blocks prevent them from climbing in this but leave plenty of room to drink and dip their heads. They also have a "swimming pool" which is a poly water trough about 4 feet long, 2 feet wide and a foot deep and very sturdy. I made them a little ramp on one side, and I put one of those retaining wall type blocks [not the huge ones, but bigger than a brick] on the other end so they have something to help launch themselves to get out. Now that it's October and the weather is cooler, I change the water in both of these on Mondays and Thursdays. In Summer, it's every other day. I have to scoop out a couple of buckets of water from the trough before I can tip it, then I rinse it and fill it with a hose. The fill time is about 12 minutes. I have a chair out there, and I just sit and check my email on my phone while it's filling. The geese usually come over and chat for a while, then go play in the fresh water and bite the hose and flap and squawk and dip and dive etc. I love watching them. This is our first year with them. Not sure what we'll do this Winter as it gets -30F here. I just bought another trough with a drain hole in it and will try making it a frame filled with some kind of insulation. Maybe that foam stuff. If I set the trough on a layer of that and then fill in around it with foam too, with a hose leading out of the drain hole and a ball valve, and insulate that too, and have a cover on it during the coldest weather, I'm hoping that will do it. we'll see. I've read that they do not "REALLY" need a pond at all. But they sure love it!
Originally, I changed the water every day, but that was just too much to manage. Either the water fowl had to go, or I had to scale down. [I have found the chickens easier, but the waterfowl are very fun, and my lady duck has started laying!] So far, the scaling down has worked great. If a person wanted to change it every time it looked dirty, you'd have to do it every couple of hours....
Good Luck!

 

[Mylied]

My 3 have a kiddie pool and I change it every day. Even then there's a good couple inches of mud in it. Dirty dirty ducks.

 

[Steven Bussell]

I have a 50 gallon pond. I never change the water. I do have to add 10 gallons or so a day because they splash it out.
But I have almost a 200 gallons filter system running 24 hours a day.
I clean the filter cloth once or twice a day because I want super clear water for them

 

[PirateGirl]

Approximately once a week.
They also get fresh bucket of water daily. I have moved their pools so they don’t have 24/7 access to it anymore. It’s helped with the overall stink and mess in their small run.

 

[bernie131]

Approximately once a week.
They also get fresh bucket of water daily. I have moved their pools so they don’t have 24/7 access to it anymore. It’s helped with the overall stink and mess in their small run.

That is what I do. Change their water daily in their little mini pools then once a week in the kiddie pool. It usually takes about 3-4 days before I can't see the bottom. I find if I move the pool and there is grass around the pool instead of mud then it stays clean longer,

 

[FathertoFeathers]

I have seven ducks and three pools. I usually change my pools every two or three days but sometimes longer. It really depends on how dirty it is. If I can still see the bottom I leave it.