How often/how well do you clean ducks' pool?

[CelticOaksFarm]

Summer: small and medium pools are cleaned daily. Large are every other day, but as placed under trees to keep them from growing green too quickly.

Winter: small and medium cleaned every other, Large every 3

Oxine and a waterbucket scrub brush are the tools of choice

 

[destinduck]

I do mine every 3-4 days Sometimes less or more.Depends how busy I am really. I dont mind green in the water but I dont like the red color it will get on occasion.That Only happens in the summer. But yea if youcan do it every day of couse that is the best of all

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

yeah that red tone is disturbing to see. LOL was shocking the first time we saw it, and made me start cleaning them daily.

 

[destinduck]

Yea if that appears with some of the more expensive ones like buffles or hoodies its the slow death march.

 

[larkflying]

We dump the ponds out every day, and refill them -- we also use well water which is nice, but leaves a rusty color sometimes if left too long. Often the geese or ducks will have most of the water out before we even dump it. I'm going to grab some more of the smaller sized kiddie ponds -- we did get one large one this year, but it is so large that we have to bail before we dump it if it is full. Going to put that one away in the fall and get it out next summer.

During the winter, on non freezing days, we use the ponds and buckets. If the weather gets close to freezing overnight, we won't fill the ponds and will just use the buckets. Last winter, when it unexpectedly froze, the geese would sneak into their ponds overnight, play in the almost freezing water, and then after they got out their wings would freeze shut. Gave me a start the first morning when I saw one trying to flap its wings and it couldn't. It thawed out pretty quickly in the sunlight, but ever since then we try to leave the pond empty if it will freeze. The goose seemed annoyed at the inconvenience more than anything else. Good thing goose feathers are such good insulation!

 

[blondiebee181]

Yeah in Boise it freezes almost every night starting in late October, so they might have to say goodbye to the pool for the winter and I'll just keep their small water bucket defrosted so they can keep their little nosies clean.

 

[furbabymum]

I have a pond pond. I'm hoping just once a year. Hard to say. Working on biological filtration and such. Please let it work!

 

[LightningTFarm]

I have an in ground backyard water feature. For a while I was using my small pump for the waterfall attached to a longer hose to water my garden (I conveniently moved my garden plot closer this year). My husband surprised me with a heavy duty sump pump a few weeks back so now I use that, sucks all the crud right out. I generally do a full draining and scrub down twice a year, first thaw and after all the leaves are gone and molts are over. Upon occasion the water would get a bit green before I had my new pump, but not anymore.

Do you have any problem with the sump pump getting fouled by feathers and poop and stuff? I have been emptying my medium-sized kiddie pool using a drill pump and buckets, bu the drill pumps seem to last only one empying before going to pot. I was thinking of getting a stronger pump and looked at sump pumps at TSC the other day. So, I'm very interested in your experience using one.

 

[cskotek]

I have aboutish 26 ducks and I have one large and one small kiddie pool. I always keep the small one clean but I clean the large one when I have the time. Sometimes everyday and at the very least of once a week. The one week I was very exhausted and working alot and when I cleaned it just over a week, The smell was horrible and I vowed to myself not to let it get that bad. Ever. Again... And I also have well water but havent had that "red" color, it gets more algae and brown then anything else. And when I do clean the large one I use this old plastic duster that has a longer pole that can adjust but at somepoint it must have been melted by heat or break cleaner got on it becuase the one side is super hard and the other side dosent have that fluffliness to it anymore but it isnt hard. But it works excellent for cleaning the pools and the cages. I havent used cleaner on the insides of the pools but the outside I had to because of the mud stains.

 

[nickie]

I have an in ground backyard water feature. For a while I was using my small pump for the waterfall attached to a longer hose to water my garden (I conveniently moved my garden plot closer this year). My husband surprised me with a heavy duty sump pump a few weeks back so now I use that, sucks all the crud right out. I generally do a full draining and scrub down twice a year, first thaw and after all the leaves are gone and molts are over. Upon occasion the water would get a bit green before I had my new pump, but not anymore.

Do you have any problem with the sump pump getting fouled by feathers and poop and stuff?  I have been emptying my medium-sized kiddie pool using a drill pump and buckets, bu the drill pumps seem to last only one empying before going to pot.  I was thinking of getting a stronger pump and looked at sump pumps at TSC the other day.  So, I'm very interested in your experience using one.

My husband, bless him, went for the more expensive one that can pass larger debris. I use the thing to water my garden almost daily and there are no trees near the pond. I run a small waterfall pump 24/7 for circulation and airation. After mowing I run a skimmer net over the top to pick up the majority of the grass bits to save my small pump mostly. During molt I skim the feathers as well as throw the big pump in a 2 gal bucket with holes drilled randomly around it to save the innards of my high dollar life saver.

If it helps, he got it at home depot for around $90. We have a cistern that needs repair so it wasn't just for my pond. It's a high output deal with a pumping height of 30 feet (I think, but may be wrong).