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

[ArcticFowl]

I have a 360 gallon plastic stock tank for my 10 ducks and 2 geese I pump it out once a week and shop vac the much out its a pain and takes a while but I am in the process of trying a pool filter pump that uses sand to filter havent gotten it to work properly yet as my ducks sure do muck it up pretty quickly..

I am going to try the pond vacuum here soon

 

[Scott Barr]

While we have an elaborate pond, the bottom filter which moves about 1000 gallons an hour combined with the skimmer which moves about 3-4,000 gallons an hour seem to take care of our needs. I simply clean the filter mesh every other week and use Microbe - Lift/PL to keep a safe bacterial environment. The pond is 600 gallons ...

 

[new2ducks]

What a beautiful picture! The ducks in the pond and the cow...just love it, and it looks so peaceful! It's been dry here in colorado I have more weeds than grass...lol

 

[TTeddy]

For those people who dump their water every day, some twice a day I have read.
I don't know about where you are, but here there is a water shortage and I would just feel reeeaaally bad, that I wasted so much water!

The same goes for a lot of pond threads that I have been reading (not just this one). I'm just amazed how much water is wasted.

And then there are some duck owners who have gone out of their comfort zone and constructed some **** great designs that don't use a lot of water. It's not expensive if done right. These threads need to be highlighted some how.
There are ways to a cheaper alternative. Just takes some initiative, time and planning. To me, if you don't have these and whatever else it takes, do you deserve to keep them?.

Before anyone builds or constructs their pond, I urge you to read ALL the posts about ponds (do a search at the top) and find one that suits your flock and space and saves water.

If you don't have a water shortage where you are, you should still not waste it!

Water is liquid gold. Let's not waste it!

Cheers

 

[ranlan]

When I change the water out of my duck pond, I dip it out, put it on my potted plants, great fertilizer and I was going to water them anyway! So I don't see that as wasting water, just preusing it!

 

[bundls10]

Would be ribber liner strong enough for ducks claws?

 

[pinkj009]

Question for anyone who has a pond with a liner or big tubs. I'll be constructing a pond this next week or so. I've already ordered the liner.
Will the ducks have any trouble getting out? Do I need to slope the sides? Build in a step?

 

[smonkeySK]

This is where I'm up to.
Top pond is 1250 litres, bottom pond is 750 litres
Both are preformed plastic with a planter tray between!
80 litre filter at back of pic (dustbin) and pre filter in bottom pond. Still need a trickle tower for biological filtration and will have to dig up to swap pipe for larger diameter as I want to go gravity fed.
Current setup keeps water fairly clear but it's early days and I'm expecting green water problems!

To answer the post above - I used to nanny them by putting bricks on the ledges so that they only had to step out; however after watching my mallard hop out of a 60cm hole and my Campbell jump out of something about half as deep I tend not to worry too much.
That said I still have the bricks in...

 

[smonkeySK]

Would be ribber liner strong enough for ducks claws?

The problem isn't so much the claws as it is all the goodies they drag into the pond- I've found sharp slate and brick plus the odd bit of glass....

However most koi keepers tend to go with liner sandwiched between layers of concrete to ensure the liner integrity is maintained.

I would advise anyone thinking of building a pond to do plenty of research into koi pond construction and especially filtration via google - there's loads of info out there; the more I read, the more I wish I'd done differently.
Koi are very dirty, but because they are so inbred they need a pristine environment or their immune system cannot cope.
Ducks are even dirtier but can cope with a bit of grime (I don't think they are happy without it in fact!).
A pump and filter that can run a koi setup will be more than adequate but will likely need a little more maintenance once the ducks get involved

 

[pinkj009]

Well, it's nothing fancy, but this is what I did. I built my pond up. It slopes slightly, 10 inches to about 12. I put in a drain at the "deep end". So I dont have a pump/filtration system. But it can be drained as needed.
I understand that wouldn't work in many cases. My pond is very near a creek that is dry 90% percent of the time. So when then pond is drained the water has somewhere to go. And its only about 250 gallons.
Its only been a few days, but the water is remarkably clear considering the time they spend in there. (And its just 2 pekins -for now) My biggest problem has been chasing my ducks out to put them up at night.