What To Use For A Duck Pond And How To Keep It Clean??????

[Gret123]

I'm also interested in how to drain larger pond. Right now I have a baby pool but I want to dig something but I really need to know how to maintain it easily

Hello, i have a small pond and a small pool for my ducks. I am new to the duck world but i keep thinking ill have my husband dig a big hole with the backhoe and have this wonderful pond. But everything i read makes me think that is not neccesary. I dump the pool and pond every 2 days and refill. It takes me bout 20 mins and we are good to go. I just wanted to say im not going any bigger because this is really the easiest way i have found. Good luck.!!

 

[DuckyDonna]

Hello, i have a small pond and a small pool for my ducks. I am new to the duck world but i keep thinking ill have my husband dig a big hole with the backhoe and have this wonderful pond. But everything i read makes me think that is not neccesary. I dump the pool and pond every 2 days and refill. It takes me bout 20 mins and we are good to go. I just wanted to say im not going any bigger because this is really the easiest way i have found. Good luck.!!

I agree!

 

[peltierk]

We use a kiddie pool and put a kitchen drain in it. When the stopper is removed, it drains down a pipe we attached that leads right to my veggie garden. Once it all drains, I rinse it and all the muck washes into the garden too. It does take some doing to remove the debris from the drain so it runs smoothly, but I just put on some gloves and pick out the feathers and such that clog the drain.

 

[Rickibm]

Many have seen our pond project on other threads on this site but we used a baby pool for the first few months and then I was talking with our landscape friend and he decided to build us a pond as my bride has breast cancer and he thought this would also be therapeutic. All and all we ended up with a 600 gallon pond with two waterfalls and a combined skimmer and bottom vacuum filter. We seem to have no issues with keeping it cleam but we only have two Pekin's at this time. We will be inoculating the pond with Microbe-Lift/PL from Ecological Laboratories to set up a natural bio-system to keep it clean too. In phase III there will be a gravity drain installed that will have a hose nozzle at the end for easy drainage and cleaning (likley semi-annually) and we clean the filters weekly by simply hosing them off and hosing off the pea gravel that is the secondary filter (takes about 20 min total). Good luck with your project!

Hi, just ran across your post which provided us with additional info since we are about to build a duck pond for 3 ducks. What type of equipment did you use for waterfalls and filter equipment? How is pond holding up? Thanks

 

[Thom-thum]

This thread has been seriously helpful.

We used to keep 3 Indian runners using a Belfast sink that we pumped out every couple of days. Stored the dirty water in big barrel to water the plants - worked fine, but lots of mucky manual labour!

We moved house and now have more space.
We have a 1250 litre preformed liner, and have just ordered this pump and filter kit:
https://www.swelluk.com/swell-pressure-filter-premium-20000-and-filter-pump-13000/

it’s mega overkill for the size of the pond, but I figure the quicker it can filter the water, the less likely it will get a chance to clog up? Wishful thinking maybe. It has a UV filter too which should help with the green water.

I’ve not seen anyone else recommend a pressured filter like this - is there a reason? Have I just gone down a totally stupid route? I’m a mega noob. Just want to do it right this time. Less time cleaning, more time laughing at how much runner ducks need arms...

 

[smithmal]

YES and very beneficial as its packed with nutrients. I use the duck pond water to establish grass from seed that was grown in fill dirt. The grass took very quickly when duck pond water was added.

I'd say it depends on the vegetable. I wouldn't plant low lying vegetables that could be exposed to the muck that you are pumping into the garden (like lettuces) as they could get contaminated with duck fecal matter. Vegetables that grow on tall vines (like tomatoes, cucumbers, etc) would be okay as they would be off the ground.

 

[smithmal]

Depends on how many ducks. I have 5 ducks in a 6 x 8 pond and the poo was too much for the quickset pool filter. This was the solution for me.

1- I bought a waterfall PCV bucket/filter that pulls water from the bottom of the pond where the poo settles.
2- The pump sucks in the poo and sends it through the waterfall filter.
3- Once a week I stop the pump and detach the supply hose from the back of the waterfall filter.... all the mucky poo mud comes out the bottom of the filter and I use the garden hose to backwash it.

This has worked well for me now. The water is clear and the ducks seem to love the pond 10x more.

Waterfall Filter $45.00 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024EFZAA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Filter Media:
$12.88 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFIUU74/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Filter Pump:
$99.00 https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Pond-W..._rd_wg=gZhBU&refRID=67YQF0ZDY774JHYFFWFG&th=1

Good luck and keep us in the loop QUACK!!!

Interested to hear how this is going for you. Do you have issues with the submersible pump clogging up? How often do you clean the pump and/or have to empty the pond to clean the muck that the pump doesn't take care of?

Thanks!

 

[Sugarbean1966]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to figure out what I should use as a duck pond. Last year I had 6 then 5 Cayugas and I used this kiddie pool..

Unfortunately I lost the remaining 5 ducks

and the pool has cracked. I now have eight 6 week old khakis and next week will be getting 5 more Çayugas and 5 Pekins (not even hatched yet). A friend has offered to give me a pool like my blue one but its round. I am going to attempt to repair the crack in my original pool.. We'll see how that goes. So last year with the 6 then 5 ducks, my pool had to be drained every 3-4 days. I will have lots more ducks soon and would rather not waste that water if I can help it.
I found these on Craigslist for a really good price..

They are brand new and the guy has 2 of them. My property is pretty level but we recently purchased an older backhoe so making a hill shouldn't be a problem. I was thinking to purchase one or both basins and install them uphill from my garden so when I drain the pool (or pools) I can water the garden. I would of course put a drain in the pool(s) and pipe the water so it runs into the garden but not in a way that drowns my plants.
My main concern with buying this basin is that it is only 11 inches deep. I'd hate to buy it because it's a good deal, spend all of the time and effort to install it, then regret it and want something deeper. For that, I could use the kiddie pools (both have drains) temporarily, then get a deeper pond. The rest of the basin seems to be a decent size, roughly 7 1/2' x 5 1/2', even if I had 2 of them, that should be enough surface area, it's just the depth that concerns me.
Anybody have any thoughts in this? What would you all do? I'd hate to rush into anything because I've got spring fever, but I don't want to miss out on a great deal if it could work well for my ducks.

What was this brand or type of pool? I know it’s old.