I lied, it's another duck pond post.
I have nine ducks (Six mallards, three pekins) and I'm always looking for ways to better my pond functionality. I've been running my current pond for about four months now, and ducks for about eight months. Before the pond I tried out the kiddy pool approach most people seem to go, and absolutely detested it. My "pond" is a 300 gallon trough from tractor supply that I buried into the ground, attached to it I have radial flow settler as a desperate attempt to eliminate some of the suspended solids (it's sort of works, the issues is that when they go through to pump they get chopped up into finer solids) before overflowing into a "bog in a barrel" biofilter which overflows back into the pond. The pump itself is run off a 100aH 12v battery which is charged during the day via solar. I want to upgrade this eventually to have a second battery so that I can feel confident that my pump will run overnight without depleting the battery before the sun comes up (I don't use my LOAD port on the solar charge controller, instead I have a fuse box and cutoff switches.)
Anyways, the point of this is to ask if anyone might have suggestions on better pumps (I don't have the option of 110/120v pumps as my pond is too far from the house), or alternative pond setups for water circulation, and to ask how can I determine how safe my pond water is? I haven't had issues with ducks becoming sick or anything, but the water is always dirty looking, it doesn't smell but with the limited amount of testing I've done it does have higher than desired ammonia levels (although not enough to stink like sulfur/rotten eggs) and I intend to eventually address this by expanding the entire system to add plants that'll soak up the nitrates and ammonia.
Here is the pump I am using currently, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0898QYRNT/. I have used the much more expensive RULE pumps before this and have burned both of them out. The first one I'm not sure why it burnt out, but the second one was because I was experimenting with not using a mesh bag and hoping my bucket with holes I sit it in would filter prevent any feathers from going through which it did, except for string algae which built up over a couple of days, and when I turned my pump on the next morning the intake was plugged with string algae and it burnt itself out trying to start.
Here are some pictures of my setup, please don't mind the mess, the entire area is a constant work in progress. I need to level the ground and I think put mulch down, and get some more bricks to build up around the rest of the pond itself. The puddles are green because my pond's pump was out for a week and I just emptied the entire thing two days ago.
I have nine ducks (Six mallards, three pekins) and I'm always looking for ways to better my pond functionality. I've been running my current pond for about four months now, and ducks for about eight months. Before the pond I tried out the kiddy pool approach most people seem to go, and absolutely detested it. My "pond" is a 300 gallon trough from tractor supply that I buried into the ground, attached to it I have radial flow settler as a desperate attempt to eliminate some of the suspended solids (it's sort of works, the issues is that when they go through to pump they get chopped up into finer solids) before overflowing into a "bog in a barrel" biofilter which overflows back into the pond. The pump itself is run off a 100aH 12v battery which is charged during the day via solar. I want to upgrade this eventually to have a second battery so that I can feel confident that my pump will run overnight without depleting the battery before the sun comes up (I don't use my LOAD port on the solar charge controller, instead I have a fuse box and cutoff switches.)
Anyways, the point of this is to ask if anyone might have suggestions on better pumps (I don't have the option of 110/120v pumps as my pond is too far from the house), or alternative pond setups for water circulation, and to ask how can I determine how safe my pond water is? I haven't had issues with ducks becoming sick or anything, but the water is always dirty looking, it doesn't smell but with the limited amount of testing I've done it does have higher than desired ammonia levels (although not enough to stink like sulfur/rotten eggs) and I intend to eventually address this by expanding the entire system to add plants that'll soak up the nitrates and ammonia.
Here is the pump I am using currently, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0898QYRNT/. I have used the much more expensive RULE pumps before this and have burned both of them out. The first one I'm not sure why it burnt out, but the second one was because I was experimenting with not using a mesh bag and hoping my bucket with holes I sit it in would filter prevent any feathers from going through which it did, except for string algae which built up over a couple of days, and when I turned my pump on the next morning the intake was plugged with string algae and it burnt itself out trying to start.
Here are some pictures of my setup, please don't mind the mess, the entire area is a constant work in progress. I need to level the ground and I think put mulch down, and get some more bricks to build up around the rest of the pond itself. The puddles are green because my pond's pump was out for a week and I just emptied the entire thing two days ago.
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