WHO owns this watergarden anyway???

[fishnet1971]

Ok, so I have this 10 X 15 X 3 ft. deep watergarden at my house that I put in 6 years ago. nice liner, fieldstone borders , 5 year old gold fish that I take out every winter and keep in a tank in the house and put back in in the spring after I have cleaned the pond, pump, etc. Well it was getting old, liner getting cracky,etc. I figured with the new Pekins this year i had a GOOOOOODDDD chance of them getting in there once they found it. I went out and bought a new heavy duty liner, releveled the edges, tore out all the rock, waterfall, filter,etc. I spent 8 hours on Friday pulling everything out, redug the sided, intalling new liner. Sat. i spen the entire day cleaning stuff, reinstalling the rock, putting in a little stairway into the pond so they wouldnt hurt themselves on the rock IF they found said water, got rid of the waterfall IN CASE they did find it. Didnt want any rocks to fall on them by chance.

I went to the garage for a few minutes to get the new filter stuff, came around the corner, and WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my eyeballs fell out of my head, i dropped the filter, and i ran to the 'waterin hole'. in went Huey right off the ledge of a rock. SPLASH there goes Duey - off the same rock non the less. I though I could get to Louise before she went in. at least let her saunter in like a lady on the steps i constructed for her. Nope. she goes head first off the rocks as well. They were happy as a duck could be. making an absolute MESS of my watergarden. my plants were pulled out of the pots in no time. mud flying, bathing ducks flapping happy wings... oh well, i had to just sit down and chuckle. I knew it was going to happen, I guess I just didnt think it would happen so soon.

When the finally DID get out, they didnt use the stairs i made for them either... bunch of hoodlums......

 

[TLWR]

LOL

Mine made their own way out for a while until it finally clicked in their little brains the way in was also the easy way out.

 

[Denninmi]

Yeah, ducks and ornamental watergardens actually are NOT a good mixture. Give the ducks their own kiddie pool, they'll be just as happy.

Even a couple of ducks on a fairly good sized watergarden will trash the plants in an hour, and if they're in there for a couple of days, their droppings could pollute enough to poison the fish (depends on your filter system, etc) and they will definitely ruin the plants and foul the water (once again, depends on your system).

I'd personally keep them out.

 

[fishnet1971]

I got them their own kiddie pool already. they love that one too. I am thinking of giving the fish away and just letting them have at it. The plants in it are only local cat tails and our marsh plants. I dont have any money in them, just time digiing them up and stuff. I have an ok filter system, nice pump with a large and small filter on it. I am sure I can find the amonia reducing stuff for it, but I dont really want to use any chemicals in the pond. scared it would hurt the ducks.

 

[TLWR]

If you aren't keeping the fish, don't worry about ammonia - the ducks don't care.

My pond/filter is just starting and building up bacteria... hopefully it builds faster as the ducks have camped out in the pond for much of the last 2 days, so lots of pooping going on in there. Water is no longer as clear

 

[gryeyes]

I have this insane and totally unrealistic hope my ducks will just use their big 300 gallon stock tank when I move to my new location, and stay OUT of the goldfish ponds I'm going to move from here. Here, it's a raised pond, with retaining walls around 'em, because the ground is too hard to dig out. The ducks do not climb the concrete retaining bricks to get into those ponds, HERE.

At the new place, I think I can actually dig down and put the ponds level, but that means the ducks can saunter right into them... I may have to put up a fence so they ONLY get access to their stock tank. Or a kiddie pool. But not the ponds.

Again, I am just trying to plan ahead but your post showed me the error of my thoughts. Hmmm. Hmmmm.

(Wish we had pictures of ducks in the pond enjoying themselves, though!)