Pond space opinions

[Miss Lydia]

Have we seen pics?

 

[Vyctoria]

Have we seen pics?

Of my setup or theirs?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yours

 

[Vyctoria]

Yours

Well, this was the original. Of course, this was when I had just expanded their pen, so now there isn't any grass (in the process of growing some again, finally). But we ran this all of last summer and used a stock tank heater to keep it going through most of the winter. This summer I got a much bigger pump, switched out the slate stones for river rocks, and we are hoping to get the last piece today so that we can finish adding in a small bog filter. So it will run from the bio-filter to the bog filter and then back to the pond. It's not anything incredible and sometimes I wish I had gone much bigger (especially since I just added more ducks to the mix), but it beats cleaning a kiddie pool. I don't have the time to run a hose out to their pen every day. I like this particular form though because the middle is roughly 18 inches deep so they can dive, but the corners have ledges where they can wade around in it.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

I don't know about the ground space, but I would say it's probably smart to go bigger. I used to have a kiddie pool and I hated it. I had to dump it almost twice a day and only so many ducks could fit at once and it drove them nuts. I also found that when my drake tried to breed my hens, they were pushed under the water. It's actually seems safer for them to breed in deeper water.

I have a 220 gallon pre-form and I love it. I'm still tweaking the filtration system, but you'll always have to pump it out occasionally. At this point I'm doing it once a week until I have my pump back up and running, but when my bio-filter is going I can actually let it go almost 3 weeks or so. It still gets green, which is why I'm currently adding a bog filter as well to eat up nutrients. And now with my big pond all of my ducks fit at once and they can even dive under if they choose.

Nice setup and your ducks look quite pleased. I ended up with a 50 gallon preformed for now. Better than a kiddie pool in water volume and depth at 20 inches.

I'm torn between going bigger in their yard or adding a second larger pond in the backyard. So until I figure that out this one will do. I'm leaning toward maybe 500 gallons with a big waterfall near the seating area of the yard since that's where I mostly enjoy the water birds anyway.