Pond design- No Pump

[Chickenfruit]

Greetings!
I'm currently the owner of three chickens and recently I've started looking into getting a few ducks.
Soon, the water issue popped up and I've been thinking about pond designs ever since.
I was looking for something low-maintenance and low-cost. I don't really like the idea of a kiddie pool, I cringe when I think about throwing away so much water.
So, filtering it was. Then came the pump issue, the place I'm gonna have the pond in doesn't have access to electricity. Oh well, sure there are other ways?

Turns out, not so much in my price range.
So I thought about 2 designs.
#1. A 200 gallon pond at lower level than the two 50 gallon barrels filled with plants and gravel for filtering. These barrels have a small hole at the bottom that will slowly drain the water back to the pond. The barrels would take many hours to empty, I would hand fill them once or twice a day so the water won't stop flowing.

#2. I made a simple sketch of this one:

Basic concept is the main pond is higher and deeper than the growbeds, water flows to the growbeds through gravity and is siphoned back into the pond. Even though the growbeds are lower, the pond is deeper and so the siphon would still flow to a lower point.
This one wouldn't need human hand to function (in theory)

Will these designs work? Am I missing something here?

 

[TheYLWFlock]

I have never tried or even thought/heard of that idea... very creative on your part! We have a 200 gallon pond at the bottom of a slope and we cycle to water through a water fall/stream system, but I’m not sure how it works. I’d have to ask my dad, but as far as I know... we don’t use any power cords..

 

[Chickenfruit]

Thanks hehe! I had to go through a lot of thinking and researching for this. Still do.
I would really appreciate if you asked him, sounds very interesting, any help is welcome!

 

[chickens really]

@blayt90
He has an interesting set up for his pond...

 

[TheYLWFlock]

Ok I’ll shoot him a quick text and see if I can find the blueprints/design he drew up before making it. We haven’t started it up yet, as it is not quite warm enough and there are still some finishing touches we need to add. (My dad is in the Middle East for 10 days so it might be hard to reach him, but I’ll try my best!)

Here are some pictures of the pond/stream:

 

[Chickenfruit]

Thank you, I'll be sure to check it out

 

[TheYLWFlock]

No problem! I myself am not exactly sure how it works, as that whole garden was my dad’s project and he knows best!

Good luck with your pond and your future ducks!

 

[PirateGirl]

This is the piece that you are missing based on my real world experience with ducks so far, that hopefully with some more thought, you can overcome. In your design, based on your picture, the dirty pond water flows/siphons off the top, however, in my duck pools and buckets, most of the gross dirty sludge etc. settles down near the bottom of the container and the top bit of water is relatively clean by comparison.

Also in real life ducks will splash/slosh out a lot of water, as in gallons of it, so any drains/siphons/hoses must be low enough to still function at a lower water level.

I'm brainstorming as well here. I purposely situated the ducks near the garden and like to use their dirty water for my garden to reuse it and also fertilize, win/win. I've been thinking of ways to siphon directly to some sort of drip irrigation or something in the garden. The water is great for plants and great for the lawn, so it doesn't get wasted, especially if you live in a dry climate, however there are certainly more efficient ways to do things.

 

[1 acre willows]

Look up Heron's fountain...... the Greeks were already playing around with this sort of thing

 

[Chickenfruit]

This is the piece that you are missing based on my real world experience with ducks so far, that hopefully with some more thought, you can overcome. In your design, based on your picture, the dirty pond water flows/siphons off the top, however, in my duck pools and buckets, most of the gross dirty sludge etc. settles down near the bottom of the container and the top bit of water is relatively clean by comparison.

Also in real life ducks will splash/slosh out a lot of water, as in gallons of it, so any drains/siphons/hoses must be low enough to still function at a lower water level.

I'm brainstorming as well here. I purposely situated the ducks near the garden and like to use their dirty water for my garden to reuse it and also fertilize, win/win. I've been thinking of ways to siphon directly to some sort of drip irrigation or something in the garden. The water is great for plants and great for the lawn, so it doesn't get wasted, especially if you live in a dry climate, however there are certainly more efficient ways to do things.

You've given me more things to think about.
My goal here is not to have crystal clear water, but something fairly clean that won't smell and won't be just a poop container.

In my current design, the filtered water flows back to the -bottom- of the pond. I was thinking maybe that would be enough to stir the muck-push it up to the top?
The splashing I was planning to overcome by covering the sides of the pond with wood so any splashing drip back into the pond