Ducks

Part II: How to Build a DIY Backyard Pond with Biofilter

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Last year, we wrote a DIY backyard pond article that has become quite popular. We built the pond for our backyard ducks, but the concept could be used to build a backyard pond for anyone. In fact, it would be way easier to have a pond without a flock of ducks constantly in it, molting feathers and, er, using it as a giant toilet.

Our DIY backyard pond on a cold winter day.

Our DIY backyard pond on a cold winter day. You can get step-by-step instructions which include a detailed materials list here.

A recent commenter on that article, “smithmal,” asked some great follow-up questions about our backyard pond system. Rather than try to answer all of their questions in the comments, we decided to break out the answers into their own article. Thanks for your questions, smithmal!

Questions & Answers About Our Backyard DIY Pond System

1. How is your system working so far? If you were starting from scratch over again, is there anything that you would change?

After four and a half years (we built it in Jan 2014), our duck pond continues to work great — especially considering that there are 6 ducks sharing the same ~1,200 gallon pond with two fish. That’s a lot of poo to process. Hindsight changes?

  1. As our original article noted, we did decide to add a second filter pond + smaller pump + secondary waterfall to our original system to help filter out more of the biosolids and increase aeration.
  2. We also added ball valves to our filter pond plumbing so that the filter pond water didn’t suck back down into the main pond during cleaning when the pumps are turned off (more on that below).

Looking back, I don’t think we’d make any significant changes to our pond system beyond those two additions, given our space and budgetary constraints.

I largely have The Tyrant to thank for how well things turned out since she has a strong biology and research background, and she did the bulk of the mental lifting on this project. I’m more the brute labor who screams “meat” or “water” when I need to refuel.

Our girls love their backyard pond and spend hours swimming and playing in it each day. DIY backyard pond article - answers to questions

Our girls love their backyard pond and spend hours swimming and playing in it each day.

2. Can you provide a brief description of how you clean your biofilter bogs?

Have you ever seen the show Dirty Jobs? If cleaning our pond biofilters was a salaried position, we would definitely warrant a visit from Mike Rowe. Since we don’t pay ourselves for this activity, we’ve thankfully managed to avoid the fanfare and TV show fame. 🙂

As our original pond article details, you can use any number of things for a filter medium: sponges, steel wool pads, hog’s fur filters, etc. The filter medium serves two primary roles:

  1. To provide a place with lots of surface area for the de-nitrifying, water-cleaning bacteria to take up residence, and
  2. To capture the “muck” as it comes flowing through the system.

You’d never see as many ducks and fish continuously using the same small water source in nature as we have in our backyard pond. If we just had a couple fish, we’d probably never have to clean our filter media. But once you start adding ducks to the equation, that means regular, manual filter cleaning is something you’d need to plan for.

We’ve gotten in the practice of cleaning our filters ~quarterly. I should also note that we use this water quality test kit, and even when our water looks relatively gross (murky, brownish, greenish), it still tests really well, which has surprised us. To clean our pond biofilters, we do the following:

  1. Unplug our pumps to turn them off;
  2. Immediately turn the ball valves on our plumbing system so that the filter pond water does not suck back down into the main pond;
  3. Take all the sponge material out, put it in a wheel barrow, then rinse the sponges out and use the “muck water” on the perennial fruit & nut trees in our garden (we don’t recommend applying this water on any plants you’ll be directly eating anytime soon);
  4. Bucket or pump out the muck water in our empty pond filter before returning the filter material to the empty container;
  5. Turn the pumps back on and add a bit of water to the pond via a drinking safe hose to bring the water back up to level.

*While we have the pumps turned off, we quickly unclip them from their pipes, remove them from the pond, pop them open, and give them a good cleaning. It takes one person about 5 minutes to clean both pumps.

3. Do you get sediment forming at the bottom of your pond and if so, do you need to clean out your pond? I’m wondering whether a swirl pool between the pond and the skippy would remove large particles and reduce the bioload on your skippy filters?

The only time we get much buildup in the bottom of our pond is in the fall when the huge oak tree in our backyard drops half of its leaves into the pond. Unfortunately, that means that I have to hop in to the pond a couple times each year to pull the leaves out by hand or by net. Thankfully, the pond is only about thigh deep (I’m 6’1″). If it weren’t for the oak tree, I don’t think there’d be significant buildup of debris in the pond.

What about a swirl pool? We’re not aquaponics experts, so it might be worth someone else giving this a shot. I’m not sure how that would work though, given that our pumps are situated in the bottom of the main pool and they aren’t able to pump up large debris/particles.

4. In addition to your skippy (microbe) filter, have you thought about filtering your water through an hydroponic system? The plants you use could provide additional filtering and landscaping to your pond. Also, some of the plants you grow could be given back to your ducks as an additional source of nutrients.

Yes! We’d love to use the water from our pond to feed plants in a hydroponic system. Problem is every edible plant we put anywhere near the pond gets immediately eaten by a flock of feathered terror-birds, aka ducks. Also, we don’t have the space in our back yard or the inclination to set up an elaborate aquaponics structure, so we grow food with the water in a less technologically sophisticated way… As mentioned above, when we clean the filter ponds, we use that water in our garden.

They might look cute to you, but these vicious Welsh Harlequin ducks strike fear and terror into the heart of vegetable patches. DIY backyard pond article - answers to questions.

They might look cute to you, but these vicious Welsh Harlequin ducks strike fear and terror into the heart of vegetable patches.

We also have designated “duck gardens” where we grow plants that our ducks love – chickweed, chicory, lettuce, etc. We’ll use some of the pond filter water on those beds as well, to keep that virtuous cycle on repeat.

5. I see that you keep your pool open year round. What happens to your microbe population during the winter time? Do you need to re-populate it in the spring again?

My guess is that water microbes work similarly to soil microbes. Each season sees different species active, and the warm months are when the widest range of species are most active. Just because warm weather bacteria are dormant in the winter doesn’t mean they won’t perk right back up when water temps return to a favorable range though. Nevertheless, we have two factors working against us in our system as we try to “team” with our microbes:

  1. Significant pressure on our pond from duck and fish waste relative to the size of the pond and the number of beneficial microbes that can reside there;
  2. We clean our filter medium, so we’re likely getting rid of a significant portion of our microbes.

That means we do add beneficial microbes back to our pond a few times per year, usually after a cleaning.

  • Cool weather transition bacteria – to help break down pond debris in the late fall as we head into winter, we use this pond bacteria;
  • Winter pond bacteria – Throughout the winter, we’ll use this cold water pond bacteria;
  • Warm weather transition –  We use this pond bacteria in early spring (mid to late April in our Zone 7B) as soon as the pond starts to warm up;
  • Summer pond bacteria – during the warm months we use this warm water pond bacteria.

Do we have to use all of these pond bacterias to keep the system in balance? We don’t know but we don’t really want to risk it since our ducks’ health is at stake. We’d rather pay a little upfront to keep things in good order rather than pay for a sick duck later. It’s a bit like using a compost tea as a foliar spray in your garden to prevent pathogenic microorganisms from gaining a foothold – prevention/maintenance is always much easier and less costly than fixing a sick or broken biological system.

6. Can you explain where your pumps are placed. Are they both in the skippy filtering pools? How long do you think your pumps will last since they are dealing with pumping water with heavy bioloads in them?

This image shows the pump placements and filters they pump to (sorry the images appear small – you can click to enlarge).

backyard pond plans showing pump placement

Our pond setup showing the pumps (in the water), plumbing and respective filters that they pump to. (click the image to view a larger version)

  • Our large primary pond pump, the Laguna Max-Flo 2900, is situated at the lowest point in the center of the large end of the pool. We have it propped up off the bottom of the pool on top of a large flat rock to reduce the likelihood of it getting clogged with leaves/debris.
  • Our smaller secondary pond pump, the Laguna Max-Flo 900 which we added when we put in our second filter pond, is on the opposite side of the main pond (the small side). Each pump is plumbed to pump water out from the bottom of the pond, up and into the BOTTOM of its designated filter pond. Then the water filters up through the filter media in the bog and out of the top of the bog pond down a waterfall and back into the main pool.

7. Would you consider shooting a video of your pond system and narrating each section of your pool. A video would help out a lot with visualizing how your pool and biofilters work together.

Sure! We’re not great at video editing and have severe time constraints right now since we’re also starting a farm, but we’ll try to get some pond videos posted over the next quarter. Hope this helps and let us know if you have more questions. Same goes for anyone else with new questions!

More Questions?

Shoot – we’re here to help! Add them to the comments section below.

how to build a diy backyard pond with biofilter - the ultimate step by step guide!

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33 Comments

  • Reply
    Brigette
    June 8, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    Thank you so much!!!’
    I have two geese and am trying to convince my son to build them a pond. This will be so helpful. Cross your fingers for me!

    • Reply
      Susan von Frank
      June 10, 2023 at 6:49 am

      Fingers crossed – good luck with your goose pond!

  • Reply
    April aka "Duck Mom"
    February 22, 2023 at 8:12 am

    I’m so impressed by all of this…WOW. Any thoughts on a fountain. I’m looking the the Laguna pumps and they make a model w/ a fountain. Would you ever consider this or have any thoughts on if the ducks would like it? Would it help at all with aerating/oxygenating?

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      February 22, 2023 at 11:04 am

      Hi and thanks, April! I don’t think the Laguna pump with a fountain was available when we made our pond, but that does sound interesting. Yes, a fountain would help with aeration. However, potential downsides: 1) I’m not sure how much water loss it would cause due to evaporation in the summer. 2) I’m also not sure how sensitive the intake would be to debris (feathers, leaves, etc), which could be a pain if you have to regularly clean it out. Since we haven’t tried this type of pump ourselves, we can’t really provide a recommendation one way or another. If you do give it a try, please report back to let us know how it works!

  • Reply
    Willow
    February 18, 2023 at 10:37 pm

    I have geese, but they sound very similar! I wish I had seen your article last year before we wasted so much money. One issue I didn’t see addressed… our geese managed to nearly chew through the heavy duty pump cord before we caught it in the nick of time. We wanted to add a bubbler to aerate (mosquito problem) but we know they will just eat that and the cord too! We are thinking of placing the pump in a container outside of the pond, connected to a drain at the bottom of the pond. We are hoping that not only will they leave the cord alone, but it may be easier to access for cleaning. Can you see any reason that may not work? Any thoughts on hiding aerators and the attached cords from these precious cord eating creatures?

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      February 20, 2023 at 2:22 pm

      Oh no! I’ve forgotten how much geese love to chew through things like cords. That could be a really problem with a hot wire. Yikes! Thankfully, our ducks have no interest in our backyard pond cords, nor would their bite be powerful enough to chew through them.

      Ok, so you’ve got two possible solutions, as you’ve outlined: Option 1) Protect the cords, or Option 2) Reconfigure things to make the cords inaccessible. Thinking about our setup, I’d be nervous doing a drain at the bottom of the pond due to potential clogs and access issues if it were located there. You could build some sort of elevated pond with steps and a platform, but that seems like a lot of extra work. Instead, I’d advise trying to figure out a solution under option 1 wherein you protect the cords from your geese. For instance, you could run thin PVC lines then run the wire inside it (black PVC if you want to hide it or make it more aesthetically pleasing). You wouldn’t need to worry about gluing the joints together so you could quickly take it apart if needed.

      There are probably other solutions, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Hope this helps and best of luck!

  • Reply
    H
    August 11, 2021 at 2:43 pm

    This is super helpful! We are in the process of designing a pond, modeled after your instructions. Thank you so much. One quick question – how are the wood chips holding up? Have you found any issues with bumblefoot? Also, do you just rake the woodchips/leaves clean every so often or does the natural ecosystem you have created just kick in? Thank you again for all of your help. Love this!!!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      August 12, 2021 at 1:22 pm

      Our ducks do get bumblefoot on occasion, but: 1) they usually heal on their own without intervention required, and 2) they do a lot of foraging throughout other areas of our yard, so it’s hard to say exactly where the initial cut/scrape happened and/or whether it was caused by mulch. One thing we’ve started doing over the past few years is getting “triple ground” mulch, which is more expensive but very finely chopped. If you walk on it barefoot, it’s quite comfortable, so we assume the same is true for flippered feet.

      As far as how the wood chips/mulch work around our duck pond, the answer is great! They’re almost all carbon and duck poop is high in nitrogen, so the two are well-matched for making rich soil. The mulch does a wonderful job of absorbing duck poo, so there’s never any foul (or fowl) smells around our pond. It also keeps the area from getting muddy and mucky, which drastically reduces the likelihood of parasites and pathogens.

      About once per year (usually in the early spring), we apply a new 3-6″ layer of triple ground mulch to the area, and that breaks down into perfect garden-quality soil by the following spring, e.g. it lasts about one year. As the mulch decomposes, the volume decreases substantially so you can just top up with new mulch without it spilling over into your pool if you want to. However, we like to dig out that soil and use it like compost around our fruit and nut trees, garden beds, etc.

      Hope this helps!

  • Reply
    Kerensa
    July 21, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    Wonderful information!! Do you ever have an issue with algae? We are battling a bloom in our lined pond and curious what you use to combat green algae that is safe for ducks. Thanks!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      July 23, 2021 at 7:16 am

      Hi Kerensa! High nitrogen and nutrient levels (caused by duck poo) cause algae blooms, which makes the water turn green. The cold and warm water/weather beneficial aquatic/pond bacteria solutions mentioned and linked in this article go a long way towards keeping algae blooms from happening. They can also help to put an end to an algae bloom that’s in process. The one you’d want to use this time of year is Eco Labs 971047 10PLG4 Microbe Lift PL Bacteria – https://amzn.to/2HqDWJh. Start there since it’s the easiest solution and you should see results within 10-14 days. If you still have a problem, you may need to do a good pond cleaning, especially cleaning out the filter pond and pads (then inoculating with pond bacteria after cleaning). Hope this helps and let us know if you have any questions – and how the Microbe Lift pond bacteria worked for you if you use it!

  • Reply
    Sylvia
    June 30, 2021 at 10:43 pm

    Thanks for your answer Aaron
    Well I am in a rather colder climate: southern New Hampshire, zone 5a, so I sure would be using the de-icer for more than a couple of weeks per winter, lol!!!
    I’m also wondering if we could use something else than plastic tarp, plastic sheets, plastic everything, after all nowadays we know that an “all plastic” approach is not the best… even if for some things we don’t have a choice (like plumbing)
    Would it be possible to use very heavy clayish soil to line the pond? does this exist? or would it be too expensive? would you have any ideas?
    Just a thought… (I try to be as eco-conscious as possible)

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      July 1, 2021 at 7:22 am

      I believe it is possible to use different methods to at least partially seal your pond floor and walls without using EPDM rubber liner. Some natural ponds use heavy machinery (or lots of manual labor) to severely tamp down the soil, compacting it to the point that it acts almost like concrete. That’s a heck of a lot of work, but perhaps something you’d want to consider. There are potential downsides to that method, however. One: there’s inevitably going to be slow, steady water loss. Over years, those losses are likely going to be considerable. Two: if there are ducks in the pond, that means there’s going to be lots of duck waste in the pond. The Skippy biofilter + beneficial pond bacteria can go a long way towards remediating those biosolids. During annual cleanings, you can also remove the excess and put it in compost, around fruit and nut trees, etc. However, without a pond filter in place in your pond, there is likely to also be a slow, steady stream of pollution (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc + fecal bacteria) leaching into the subsoil and nearby waterways. All this to say there’s not a perfect solution here when it comes to ecological considerations, only tradeoffs.

  • Reply
    Miranda
    June 18, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Love the step by step and am in the process of mapping out our pond installation. We have 8 ducks and will assume to have more in the future as I’m pretty sure we have a few drakes in the mix (they’re only a few weeks old right now so hard to tell)
    Pond is going to be a slightly larger scale (6′ x 16′ and 3-3.5′ deep at bottom level) and between 1800-2000 gallons.
    I have a couple questions
    1) did you decide to flow your 2 filters into each other due to space or function? We’re mapping out spacing and are considering having 2 larger scale filter set ups but with 2 independent waterfalls instead of flowing into each other , wondering if this will reduce the effectiveness of the filtering or if yours was just set up this way due to space?
    2) I noted you have fish and sorry if I missed it, wondering what breed of fish you have along with your ducks, we’ve read Tilapia can work well with ducks along with carp and other bottom feeders but hoping for more insight into what will work, we’d like to add some fish especially since our pond will be deeper and we’re in Canada with colder winters so water movement will help.
    3) Do you or have you considered adding anything else to assist with natural cleansing of the pond (i.e. aquatic plants, mussels, tadpoles etc)?
    4) How does your surrounding area hold up to the water etc, you stated you use mulch, just wondering how much water is retained there, do the ducks pick at it etc. Our pond will be in an enclosed large run that is shared with our chickens and guineas so want to keep muck to a minimum (i know famous last words with ducks) so we’re considering a flagstone/gravel surround or gravel only etc

    Thanks and thanks for the great post!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      June 18, 2021 at 11:58 am

      Hi Miranda! Glad our DIY pond guide was helpful for you. Answers to your questions below:

      1. For clarity and for the sake of anyone else reading, each of our filter ponds has its own pump. The second filter has a slightly smaller Laguna pump and we’re currently using lava rock and gravel + pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) in that pond. The primary filter pond has the Matala filters in it. Frankly, the Matala filter pond works far better and we’ll eventually use those filters in the secondary pond. We have to fence our ducks out of the filter ponds because: 1) they’re ducks and want to get into anything and everything, and 2) they LOVE eating the pickerelweed. Although using pickerelweed is a good way to close the loop by recycling duck “nutrients” and cleaning the pond, the roots grow all the way down into the piping, eventually causing the pump to back up and cut off. 

      Filtered water from our second filter pond flows down via waterfall to our primary filter pond which then goes back into the main pond via two waterfalls. The second filter pond was not something we planned for at first, so our final setup was more a matter of using existing infrastructure, rocks, and materials we already had, rather than buying a bunch of new stuff. When we built our original pond, we also didn’t have Matala filters. If we had had Matala filters, our system may have worked perfectly fine as-is without need for a secondary pond to assist in filtering out solids. Bottom line: there’s no single *right* way to design your filter pond(s) and waterfalls. Keep it as simple as possible to start with and modify/iterate as you get feedback from experience.  

      2. We went to Petco and got about 10 small feeder fish for $0.50/each, species unknown. We put them in the duck pond and the ducks promptly ate all of them – or so we thought. A few of them made it and grew larger over the course of 5 years. Unfortunately, I managed to accidentally kill all our fish this year during our first pond cleanout in two years. I was in a super-rush while our toddler was napping. The municipal water I refilled the pond with had enough chlorine to kill the fish. I should have gotten potassium metabisulfite tablets to remove the chlorine. 

      We’re NOT fish experts, as you may have ascertained. However, I’m pretty sure tilapia would be a challenge in Canada since they need warm water. Carp might be a better fit from a cold standpoint, but they get huge and need vegetation in their diet. You’d need a fish species that eats waste, not plant material, and could survive cold winters. Not sure what that would be and/or whether it would produce as much waste/nitrogen/pollution as it removes from your pond system. My guess is that you’d be better off with more filter pond and no fish, if your primary aim is better water quality.     

      3. Ducks will eat and/or destroy pretty much any plant you put in their pond that they have access to. One semi-exception we’ve found so far is a yellow flag iris, that’s considered an invasive species. We grow it in pots in the pond – they rip it a bit, but apparently don’t like the flavor and thus leave it pretty well alone. Alternative: you can use fencing around your filter pond and put plants like pickerelweed in. If the pond is in a covered run, those plants probably won’t get enough light. As mentioned earlier, their roots can also cause plumbing clogs as they mature. Perhaps you could also plumb your filter pond to be outside of your duck run, in which case you could grow whatever plants you like, so long as their roots didn’t clog your pump.  
      Something we found interesting: all the unexpected wildlife that showed up in our pond: dragonflies and dragonfly larvae, frogs and tadpoles (which our ducks eat), mayfly larvae, aquatic snails, aquatic worms (cleaners, not parasites), and more. We even had a small snapping turtle show up somehow, despite the whole area being fenced (our ducks allerted us to the intruder). These critters probably do a ton of work keeping our duck pond water quality in check, but we haven’t been intentional in introducing them or managing them.   

      4. The only water that escapes our pond is when: a) we have really heavy rains that cause an overflow, or b) our ducks break through our filter pond defenses, muck things up, and cause our waterfall to overflow out of the side. When our ducks jump out of the pond, there’s a small amount of water that comes out on them and their feathers, but not enough to impact the pond level. Our back yard and pond area gets a top up of triple ground mulch at least once per year. All this to say that the area around their pond is not at all mucky. If you put your pond in their run, you’ll want to use something heavier like mulch or pebbles (not pine shavings or anything light) to prevent your ducks from getting too much stuff in their pond that could clog your filters. Or I suppose you could build your pond more elevated above ground level to prevent that type of bedding from getting in your pond. We like triple ground mulch because it’s carbon-rich and helps absorb and lock up the nitrogen-rich waste, eventually decomposing into soil which feeds all the perennial fruiting plants in the yard (peaches, persimmons, thornless caneberries, etc). 

      Hope this info helps and best of luck on building your pond!

  • Reply
    Sylvia
    June 14, 2021 at 7:43 pm

    This is really impressive and very beautiful! It makes me dream about building one too
    You stated the building budget is between one or two thousand dollars, I find it rather reasonable
    But I’m curious how much are the running costs, after all the pumps work with electric power, as well as the de-icer in winter (1250 watts, gasp!!!)
    Plus of course maintenance or replacement of all these devices if/when they stop working
    How much can we expect to pay per year? maybe it was in one of your answers but I couldn’t read all of them
    Thanks!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      June 15, 2021 at 1:28 pm

      Hi Sylvia! Great question. I wish we could tell you the exact energy costs of the pond pump, but we just don’t know. I can say that Laguna pumps are known as the most energy efficient pumps on the market (they utilize Watts energy saving technology), and we didn’t notice any appreciable difference in our overall energy costs after installing our pond.

      As for the pond de-icer, that’s only something we use occasionally during REALLY cold snaps where the pond freezes over. Since we live in a mild climate (Zone 7b), that might mean we use a de-icer for a few weeks each year. This past winter, we didn’t have to use our pond de-icer at all, so $0 energy costs! There *may* be better, more energy-efficient pond de-icing technologies out there that we don’t know about.

      We did have to replace one of our Laguna pumps after 5 years, but that was due to my negligence, not normal wear and tear on the pump. During the fall, we have a large oak that dumps huge quantities of leaves into the pond. I’m normally good about cleaning them out once a week or so when they’re falling (plus cleaning the pump whenever the flow decreases), but I got lazy one year and we suffered the consequences with a burned out pump. (Molting ducks didn’t help.)

      It’s super easy to turn off and clean out a Laguna pond pump, as you can see here in this video/article (takes about 5 minutes for a bad clog): https://www.tyrantfarms.com/video-how-to-clean-a-laguna-max-flo-pump-in-your-backyard-pond/. Hope this info helps and feel free to ask any other questions you have.

  • Reply
    Nicole
    May 3, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    Do you ever have problems with algae in your pond? We just built our pond modeled after yours and used the bacteria you recommended. It’s been a few weeks and after a few hot, sunny days, the pond is green with algae. I don’t know if the bacteria haven’t had enough time to take care of the problem or if we need to add other things to get rid of the algae?

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      May 4, 2021 at 7:44 am

      Hi Nicole! It would be really strange for water straight from the tap to already have an algae bloom. That usually requires a good bit of nitrogen and/or other nutrient buildup. We just did our “annual” cleaning on our pond yesterday where we completely clean out the filter ponds, filter pads, clean leaves and debris off the bottom, and do a water changeout. I put “annual” in quotations because we actually haven’t done it in two years due to having a baby last year and just not having any time to spare. Our pond water was starting to have an algae bloom and the water was turning green with the nutrient buildup and onset of hot weather (it’s in the 80s here now).

      How many ducks do you have in your pond? Regardless, it’s possible that either:
      a) the chemical compounds in your municipal water killed the bacteria you put in your pond, or
      b) the bacteria just hasn’t had time to fully establish and start working.

      The bacteria kicking in is not an instant thing; it seems like it takes a week or so before you start seeing a noticeable difference in water quality. Recommendation: wait another week and if your pond water hasn’t started to clear up, add another round of pond bacteria. By that point, the bacteria-killing compounds in the municipal water will have long since dissipated or degraded, and you’ll have given the first round of bacteria ample time to start working. So whether it’s problem a or b, you’ll have your bases covered.

      Hope this helps and please check back in to let us know how things turn out!

  • Reply
    Melissa
    April 10, 2021 at 7:24 am

    Hello, thank you so much for sharing this information. I plan to follow these instructions to build a pond for my 3 ducks this summer. Do you think a 100 gallon bio filter would accomplish what your 2 50 gallon filters do? We don’t have the space for 2 bio filters. Thank you!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      April 10, 2021 at 9:10 am

      Hi Melissa! Yes, you should be fine with a total of 100 gallons of filter pond. Actually, you should be more than fine given that you’ll only have 3 ducks using the pond, but it’s always better to have more capacity than you need because you never know how many ducks you’ll have in the future. Best of luck with your pond and let us know if you have questions as you get going!

  • Reply
    Edward Blank
    March 24, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    Thank you for your detailed instructions…could you tell me how many layers of the Filter media/pads: Matala Filter Media Pads – (Green) and Matala Filter Media Pads – (Grey). did you use?

    Pastor Ed

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      March 24, 2021 at 5:27 pm

      Hi Ed! Not sure the exact number of layers but we only used two total pads (they’re large). We started by cutting out a form from each color (green and grey) that fit snuggly into our filter pond – so two deep there. The remaining pad material was then cut into smaller pieces, which were stacked. Guesstimate is that the total combined thickness of layers is somewhere in the ~8-12″ range.

  • Reply
    Brian LeDonne
    January 16, 2021 at 9:14 am

    Question – when the water rises in the pond bog filter and looks like it pours out/over and creates the waterfall…Can you please explain how the water is directed down the waterfall into the main pond?

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      January 16, 2021 at 12:02 pm

      Hi Brian! We cut a rectangular section out of the filter pond lip, and use use pond glue + piece of pond liner to created an overhang so the water pours out of the filter pond and over the rock below it, which is where the waterfall begins. Please let us know if you have any other questions, and best of luck!

  • Reply
    Melissa
    November 12, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    I have a flock of 16 ducks, so almost 3x your flock size. Does that mean I need to triple my pond in order to keep the ecosystem & biofilters working properly?

    I need to build something quickly because although I have a couple kiddie pools (which they enjoy), the ducks inevitably end up in my person swimming pool, which is about to cause a divorce. LOL. (Note: we also have a 1 acre fish pond, about 1000 feet away, but the ducks are scared of it) Thanks for your help!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      November 13, 2020 at 11:18 am

      Hi Melissa! You’ll probably be fine building a 2x larger pond, but if you have the space and resources, it certainly can’t hurt to go larger. Funny that your ducks are afraid of your actual pond! We once brought our beloved pet duck, Svetlana, to the family lake house and she was absolutely terrified of the giant lake. Perhaps it was the size and all the other wildlife present. Maybe that’s how a hunter-gather human would react if you dropped them in the middle of New York City. Who’s to know the mind of a duck. One thing to be mindful of is the potential for snapping turtles to come out of your real pond and take up residence in your artificial pond. Even though we have a 6′ fence all around our backyard, a small snapper somehow got in and decided our duck pond would be its new home. Our ducks stopped using the pond for a few days and would stand next to it looking in and honking – that’s the only way we knew there was a snapping turtle there since it blended in so well. We caught the bugger in a net and re-homed it a few miles away in a swamp. Anyway, good luck mending your marriage while accommodating the needs of your ducks. 😛

  • Reply
    Julie
    September 27, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    Hi! My husband and I rescued a duck with a broken leg and a friend for him then due to the touch and go situation got two more friends just in case. Thank God for your site! Also thank you 🙂 question, we just built a pond but since we live in NE Ohio we will be getting lots of snow and below freezing days. How do you keep your pond from freezing? Thanks!!

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      September 29, 2020 at 3:20 pm

      Hi Julie! Sounds like you’ve taken on quite a project! Ducks + pond in NE Ohio. We’re in a temperate/mild climate region down here in Upstate South Carolina. The coldest temps we ever get are single digits, but we do get frequent sub-freezing day and night temps throughout the cold months. We keep our pond from icing over two ways:
      1) Moving water – Water running through the pipes will not freeze unless it gets REALLY cold. Our pipes didn’t freeze when it hit 5F. We have two waterfalls in our system, and that also helps keep the water surface from freezing.
      2) Mentioned in our “how to build a pond” article, but we have a pond de-icer we use during cold spells that does the rest of the work for us. Here’s the Amazon link in case that’s something you want to get: https://amzn.to/2Ghzotl. The de-icer might not be effective at keeping the surface ice-free in your cold climate, but it will at least keep an opening in the ice to allow gasses to escape the water which will preserve water quality throughout the winter.

      There may be some sort of pond heater you could get but we’d be stepping outside of our knowledge/experience zone in recommending anything in that department. Regardless, best of luck to you and your new duck family!

  • Reply
    Linda Weaving
    August 4, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    Have you considered a reed bed system and could such a system work instead of or in addition to the skippy pond? My garden is very ornamental and I wouldn’t want to have the pipes visible. I also plan for a 1metre waterfall, so would that do the job of your two waterfalls? Could the pond size be scaled down? What would be the volume you’d recommend for a couple of miniature ducks?

    • Reply
      Aaron von Frank
      August 11, 2020 at 3:41 pm

      Hi Linda! Responses to your questions:

      1. You could use a reed bed system, but a) it would likely require a lot more room than a skippy biofilter system, and b) you’d have to fence it off or somehow keep your ducks out. Ducks will eat or destroy pretty much any plant you put in the water with them. The only plant we’ve managed to grow in the pond with our ducks is a marsh iris inside a pot with rocks to keep them from pulling out the bulbs.

      2. You could very easily cover/obscure your pipes with rocks, pond liner, plants, etc. We didn’t do a great job with that.

      3. The waterfalls are more for aerating/oxygenating the water than cleaning, although they do do a bit of cleaning. A 1 meter waterfall should be fine and you could scale down the overall size of the pond and still be fine there as well. There’s no hard-and-fast rule on square feet of pond per duck, but we’d recommend going as large as you’re able. Two miniature ducks don’t need a huge pond (you could do half our size or smaller), but they’ll be happier with more water and the water quality will be easier to maintain. Hope this helps!

  • Reply
    Renee
    January 17, 2019 at 2:44 pm

    Just wondering if there’s a reason you have the 2nd filter fall into the first? Or can I just put the 2nd filter in a different area and make my 2nd waterfall that way.
    Thanks for all this. I can’t wait just getting started.

  • Reply
    Rodrigo Pellegrini
    January 17, 2019 at 2:44 pm

    This is amazing, i’m a duck evangelist as well and i will follow your guidance and try to build a pond myself.

  • Reply
    smithmal
    April 24, 2018 at 12:53 am

    Wow!!! Thank you very much for answering all of my questions so thoroughly. I really appreciate it. Glad to hear that your system has been up and running for three years. I think that is a good enough time period to be able to provide a realistic review of your system. Most videos/blogs I’ve seen/read provide feedback right after a pond has been built rather than waiting/returning after a couple seasons which I think provide a much more realistic overview of a working system.

    I’m definitely interested in putting in a system like this. The only thing that I’m still exploring is whether to use a submersible pump or an external pump. I’m thinking about maybe using an external pump as it would be easier to access for cleaning and provide a longer working life since as it would have to deal with pumping water with as much biomass since the water could be pre-filtered before entering the pump. They are however more expensive.

    Thanks for listing all the microbes you use with your skippy filter. I’m a little confused about when and how you introduce each variety of bacteria to your biofilter. Could you expand on this?

    In terms of pumping out the water in your biofilters, have you thought about building a drum reservior with a spigot and attaching a dry vac to it? I use this type of system for collecting the rinse when cleaning duck sand and then adding the rinse to my fruit trees. I think it would work great in your system as well (see vid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCjFh8I4rPU&t=2s

    Whenever you get the time, a video of your system providing an design overview and maintenance would be much appreciated.

    Thanks again!

    smithmal .

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