The Duck-ponics Experiment - Raising minnows

[Wifezilla]

Duck water isn't necessarily toxic, it is just loaded with poo. Well, poo is just fertilizer. I am finding ways to keep the water nice looking, pull the nutrients (aka POO) out of the water, and grow food for the ducks at the same time.

As far as putting it plants, yeah, you can do that, but I don't want to empty a 500 gallon pond every time it gets dirty...which would be about 2 days maximum with my flock

 

[Wifezilla]

The duckweed I ordered arrived. In pretty good shape considering. It is cold and crappy out right now so I put most of the duckweed in my fishbowl full of pond water. Anything that stuck to the inside of the bag got rinsed in to the big plastic container out in the pond.

Speaking of my big container, I had some issues yesterday. I somehow developed a pressure differential between the water feature end and the container end. The container end was pushing through more water. More than the outflow could handle. I tried enlarging the hole and at first I thought that was working. But this morning when I went outside the pond was about empty. I guess it kept overflowing all night. When I tried to make the hole bigger apparently I just made it jagged so now it dribbles

I used an organic flow regulator* in the container hose so now the flow is a little less. Of course, I had to move the container closer to the pond so the outflow could reach since it wasn't shooting out as far. And it still dribbles. I bought what I thought was silicone to repair the dribble but I got some fiberglass repair stuff by mistake.

Oh well. It's a tad annoying but it really is only minor tinkering.

*I shoved a pebble in the end of the tube

 

[redhen]

Wifezilla, have you ever heard of Barley Straw? i guess its been used for hundreds of years for helping keep ponds clean naturally...it either comes ina bundle that floats and doubles as a natural straw planter(you just add your pond plants to the center of the bundle and let it float in the pond..)..or it comes in Barley "flakes"...i guess the flakes work in half the time as the straw bundles...it says that one bag treats up to 2000 gallons and lasts approx. 3 months...and it provides a natural food for pond fish also...

i think i'm going to try these this summer when i put in my pond...although ducks are just SO darn dirty! its going to be very hard to keep their water clean...

 

[Wifezilla]

I had heard it mentioned on a few sites. Some praised it, others said it sucked. It might be worth a try.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
and with ducks it may not work at all... ooh well...back to the drawing board....

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Quote:
I used that in our fish pond, I don't think they would work effectively though for Ducks!!

 

[redhen]

Quote:
I used that in our fish pond, I don't think they would work effectively though for Ducks!!

Darn! what can i do then? i cant/wont have nasty pond water for them to swim in...but i cant/wont fill a big pond every 2 days either...UGH! what DO people do?

 

[BeardedChick]

I want to use either a stock tank or an old clawfooted tub (if I can find one) for my ducks - and refill it every other day or so. The old water can go out into my big flower garden & on the fruit trees. Not sure yet if I need a pump or if I can make it work using gravity or possibly a siphonject into my drip irrigation (if I can filter it well enough).

My roses and daylilies will love duck gunk. I bet tomato plants will love it, too.

 

[Wifezilla]

Redhen,

check back a few posts for the link to the skippy filter.

***

I got an answer to my question "Will my goofy ducks eat duckweed" today.

I put a handful of duckweed in their water bowl this morning. They CHOWED DOWN.

The stuff I put in my container is doing good despite the cold. I will keep the rest inside until AFTER our blizzard that is supposed to hit Thursday. Hopefully it wont be an Albuquerque low!!

 

[redhen]

Thanks, i will