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

[Scott Barr]

Oh, sorry to hear about your wife, hope she like the pond! And wow! That is one beautiful pond, as is your ducks! I love how you did the rocks, did you order those? But what exactly is a skimmer and a vacuum filter?
Thanks,

Thanks for the comment about Dawn, we appreciate it.

The skimmer keeps the surface of the water clean by drawing leaves or other stuff into it. The bottom filter is a vacuum device that sits below the rocks and draws in stuff that settles to the bottom of the pond. Pump moves about 5000 gallons an hour so it stays very clean.

 

[Scott Barr]

We built a pond for our 4 geese. First we excavated a 8' diameter hole 2 1/2 feet deep with a shallow area 1 foot wide on one side. We installed a rubber pond liner and put sone flat granite rocks around the edge to define the edge. Beyond the rocks we covered any remaining pond liner with river stone. I have a pump that I pump water from a brook on my property. I run the water daily to clean the pond. I do not have a drain I use an overflow with another piece of pond liner that guides the overflow water to an area where it goes back into the ground. We have very sandy soil here so there is no problem with water standing. The river stones surrounding the pond keep it cleaner as the geese do not have a chance to load it with muck. The only time it is very dirty is when the geese are molting and feathers get all over the surface. The goose in the last picture is standing in the shallow part. The overflow was put at the edge of the pond shown at the top of the second picture. It is a shallow trench lined with pond liner with a large flat rock that the water flows out under and down the lined trench. I got the pond liner used but in excellent condition on craigslist.

Really nice looking pond ... We spoil our birds!

 

[myechostories]

Thanks for the comment about Dawn, we appreciate it.
The skimmer keeps the surface of the water clean by drawing leaves or other stuff into it. The bottom filter is a vacuum device that sits below the rocks and draws in stuff that settles to the bottom of the pond. Pump moves about 5000 gallons an hour so it stays very clean.

Your welcome, .
All that sounds very fancy, is it hard to install? I've researched pond vacuums, which appear to be the same thing as pool vacuums, so maybe after i drain it i could suck up the muck from the bottom? That sounds so much easier but i'm a noob, so who knows lol!

 

[myechostories]

We built a pond for our 4 geese. First we excavated a 8' diameter hole 2 1/2 feet deep with a shallow area 1 foot wide on one side. We installed a rubber pond liner and put sone flat granite rocks around the edge to define the edge. Beyond the rocks we covered any remaining pond liner with river stone. I have a pump that I pump water from a brook on my property. I run the water daily to clean the pond. I do not have a drain I use an overflow with another piece of pond liner that guides the overflow water to an area where it goes back into the ground. We have very sandy soil here so there is no problem with water standing. The river stones surrounding the pond keep it cleaner as the geese do not have a chance to load it with muck. The only time it is very dirty is when the geese are molting and feathers get all over the surface. The goose in the last picture is standing in the shallow part. The overflow was put at the edge of the pond shown at the top of the second picture. It is a shallow trench lined with pond liner with a large flat rock that the water flows out under and down the lined trench. I got the pond liner used but in excellent condition on craigslist.

What a beautiful pond! Where did you get the river stones at?d Did you purchase them in bulk? And another issue i've ran into is how to keep the grass from growing through the rocks? How did you accomplish this?
Tomorrow i will go out and take some pics for you guys to see!

 

[GardenerGal]

I sank a 225 gallon, heavy, 18" deep, pre-formed garden pool, into the ground 18 years ago and it has functioned well as a swimming pool for my ducks and geese. As was noted, ducks like to dabble mud and guck into their ponds, and you have to keep removing it. I use a heavy duty plastic rake that has short tines on it (it's the kind of rake used to rake leaves away around bushy shrubs - the short tines don't get snagged in the low-hanging branches. I use it like a scoop (curved-tine-side up) and just scoop out the guck and slop it in a corner. I do that once each season except after the pond freezes.

Every couple weeks I stick a hose in the pool, way down deep, and flush the pool out good. And I top the pool off every day, either by dumping a 5 gallon bucket of fresh water in or by sticking the hose in for a few minutes. This is especially important during dry spells since a lot of water evaporates and gets splashed out, and you don't want the poop and guck to concentrate.

The ducks and geese can tell when I've cleaned their pool -- they always jump in and splash around like little kids. They really look like they enjoy it. If the water is a little dirty they still swim but they look extra enthusiastic and zip around and dive, etc. when the water is freshly cleaned.

 

[GardenerGal]

Brookliner,
That is just a fantastic, beautiful pool! Nice job!!!

I did wonder about the rocks tho'. Doesn't it hurt your geese's feet? I'd worry about them bruising themselves because of their weight on those stones, plus a risk of bumblefoot. I am always sweeping my waterfowl pen to get rid of stones that surface!

 

[Brookliner]

In answer to myechostories & GardenerGal, I got the stones in bags at "Lowes" (I got bags as it was easier to haul bags to the pond site than if I had bought bulk rocks). The bags were called "River Stones". I chose them since they were mostly rounded on the top and bottom and looked like they would be easiest on their feet. They don't seem to mind walking on them.

 

[GardenerGal]

Thanks, Brookliner. I think I will try river stones from Lowes or Home Depot. The round surfaces probably make all the difference and having the stones packed close also helps (if the geese step on a single stone, it's harder on their feet than a "carpet" of stones that distribute body weight more evenly). I'd like to have something around my waterfowl pool so the ducks and geese don't dabble mud into the water so much, but I shyed away from stones because I was worried about foot injuries..

 

[ChickInDelight]

I have baby pools and a toboggan that are dumped daily - unless I am home - then several times per day. I am fortunate to live where we have real ponds, so I now only use the baby pools periodically. I have sometimes considered adding a drain because the large pools are difficult for me to empty. The sides are becoming funny from me stepping on them to empty, but I am pretty impressed at my $5 and $10 kiddie pools, now about a year old.

 

[heatherscreations1969]

The ducks and geese can tell when I've cleaned their pool -- they always jump in and splash around like little kids. They really look like they enjoy it. If the water is a little dirty they still swim but they look extra enthusiastic and zip around and dive, etc. when the water is freshly cleaned.

Lol, my ducks won't touch the pond for 2 days after I clean it.....it's like Oh no...where did our mucky water go!

*hugs* Heather x