The Duck-ponics Experiment - Raising minnows

[CoopCrazy]

This is an awesome post. Ihave been looking into Auqaponics for some time now. Never would have thought of Duckponics. I love it and gives me more reasons to get ducks. LOL I will definently be keeping up with this posty.

 

[Wifezilla]

Ahhh...the duck people are spelling it DUCKPONIX. I was spelling it duckponics. I bet a find a whole lot more information if I google duckponix.

I can't let my ducks see that goose pond...they will demand an upgrade!

Beardedchick, I think one of the plants I snagged the other day was watercress. I will have to get another sample of it and see if I can grow...protected....away from Lana!

 

[CoopCrazy]

I wonder if you can make a wire basket to enclose it atleast til it gets set in good.

 

[Wifezilla]

Yes, I think so. Or a covered container outside the pond. I don't want to take up swimming space...it's not really that big.

 

[mominoz]

http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm

I would like to do something like this too, here is an interesting filter I found --he said he tried the lava rock and other media and why they don't work as well , etc.

 

[Wifezilla]

Here is what I have so far. The water feature is the old chimenea.

No, I haven't hid tubes or anything yet since I am still moving things around. The big decorative pot is plastic and it was on sale for $19. Not sure what medium I am going to put in it yet...I have to give that some thought.

I bought a T connector so I could run half the water through the chimenea and the other half through the big pot, but my son managed to lose it already.

I went ahead and build a modified skippy filter out of a pond plant container, some old quilt batting and some green scrubby pads. It is kind of half skippy filter half file basket filter. I wont know if it is helping for a couple of weeks.

I also went and got more plants from the local pond. I will post photos in a bit to see if you can help me identify them.

 

[kwack]

Wifezilla - YOU ROCK!

 

[Wifezilla]

Glad you like it

So far my expenses have been

$50 pond liner and pump (used)
$8 tubing
$3 plant basket that got turned in to a filter
$2 green scrubby pads
$19 plastic planter
_______
$82 total

The rocks around the pond came from the front yard. They were in a path that had become overgrown with daylillies. I dug them up and planted greens in that spot instead. The rocks went to the pond.

Since I paid the neighbor a little at a time, it was a painless expenditure.

Now for the plants...

Any idea what we are???

Is this watercress?

Watercress just younger shoots or a different plant species?

This one has some frostbite on the outer leaves. Not only was this growing in the water, it was growing on the shore. The other plants were growing in the water only.

 

[Wifezilla]

I posted my plant pics on the gardening forum. So far the only one I think we have nailed is the bottom one. It is a type of primrose.

Here are the latest photos...

Main water feature with primrose in the top bowl (I bought some flowering ones from Home Depot to go with my "wild caught" one).

Some ground cover the ducks don't eat in a pot positioned to catch some overspray. A cotton wick was added to keep the soil moist (it faces to the back). The rocks around the plant were added to keep Lana and Chrissy from digging up the dirt and filter feeding it in to the pond. Chrissy was very disappointed to find those ricks in there.

I think this $20 Walmart plastic pot will end up being the duckweed container. I cut a piece of "hog's hair" furnace filter to provide an additional layer of filtering as well as provide a potential base if I decide to plant something else in there.

Hog's hair filter and some pond plants. The ducks haven't found these yet

1/2" hole I drilled for the water input.

The whole shebangbang. I still have cords and hoses to hide, but it is coming along nicely. That purple stuff on the surface is some cabbage I threw in there for the goobers this morning.

I split the hose coming off the pump so half goes in to the water feature and half in to the pot. I finally drilled a hole in the bottom of the chimenea and have the hose running up through that, through the bottom of the bowl on top where it bubbles through pea gravel to keep the primrose moist. Excess flows down through a second hole in the bowl (the old pot was just too big).

Even without installing my plants, I can say for sure that a simple homemade filter works fantastic. No need to spend between $40 and $100 for a cheap, poorly designed store bought one.

My modified skippy filter is a plant basket lined with quilt batting and some green scrubby pads. I think the whole thing cost less than $5. The water is surprisingly clear despite ducks playing in the water several times a day. Since I installed the hog's hair filter, it is even clearer then before. I think that large pot with just the hog's head filter could work too. Even that was only $24. WAY less than a crappy pond filter.

I have noticed that anything with the word "pond" attached to it seems to be way over priced. Total rip off in fact.

As soon as the duckweed gets here I will add that to the system, see how it works out and then try to add people food plants after that.

Even without the plant elements, I already have a clear, attractive, functioning pond for the ducks.

 

[obsessed]

Is duck water toxic? Is that why you are doing this?

Up til now, I just assumed that I would dump the duck water into the grass or bucks into the garden like a tea. Should I not do this?

I am confused. What am I supposed to do with ducky water?