Comments on: Adventures in Building a Biofilter Duck Pond

By: Emily Uebergang

Emily Uebergang — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:50:28 +0000

Thanks Marilyn and appreciate you sharing that. I have a soft spot for OAEC. It’s where I did my PDC 🙂

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:44:26 +0000

Hi, Emily and Kelly – get the “Garden Koi Pond with Biofiltration System” document from this site, to see what Emily is describing: https://oaec.org/our-work/projects-and-partnerships/water-institute/publications/

By: EmilyU

EmilyU — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 03:01:00 +0000

It gravity feeds from the far left of the pond that the ducks can’t access. This acts as a primary biofilter (since there’s rocks and plants in there). There is a stone wall between the main pond and that one which you can’t see that allows water to filter through. Then there’s a pipe that runs to the outside of the enclosure into the first upper tub which is the first of the external biofilters. So you could consider this the ‘top’. Sorry I don’t have more detailed instructions but I hope that helps!

By: Emily Uebergang

Emily Uebergang — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 21:38:57 +0000

Hi Kelly. It feeds in from the top. The first tub is connected by a pipe to the internal pond where the system feeds from. Each tub is at a lower level to the previous with a pipe connecting. At the end, there’s a buried bin where the pump is kept to then pump the water back into the pond. Sorry I don’t have more detailed instructions available at this point in time. If I get around to drawing a diagram I will let you know.

By: Kellyszoo

Kellyszoo — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 17:23:00 +0000

At what level does is it gravity fed from the pond? The top, middle or bottom of the pond? I love this idea, do you have more detailed instructions on how you did this?

By: Niocle Martin

Niocle Martin — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 07:41:00 +0000

May be the reason is changing in environment. In my greenery enclosure pond, when
I supplanted old liner with Pondpro2000 I got numerous new and positive
changes close to my pond with freshness of water the winged animals.

By: EmilyU

EmilyU — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 19:30:00 +0000

Hi Melissa – Sorry for the late reply! The water was being gravity-fed from the pond into the 3 external bio-filter tubs (again, all positioned so the water can trickle in from one to the other thanks to gravity). From there, it entered the ‘pump tub’, where it was pumped back into the pond. So you understand correctly. Unfortunately with ducks, sludge buildup is inevitable in an artificial pond set up like this, so routine cleaning is necessary (yep – draining completely and cleaning the tarp). Hope this helps!

By: Melissa Keyser

Melissa Keyser — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:51:00 +0000

I know this is an old post, but hoping you’ll still get this. How did the water enter the first biofilter? Was there a pump taking the (dirty) pond water? I think I understand that the other biofilters are gravity fed from one another, and then the final bin pumped the water back into the pond. How do they handle the sludge at the bottom?

By: Permaculture Biofilter Duck Pond (Update) One Year Later - The Urban Ecolife

Permaculture Biofilter Duck Pond (Update) One Year Later - The Urban Ecolife — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 10:22:24 +0000

[…] Duck Pond. You can read more about those adventures in building the Biofilter Duck Pond in this blog post. It was a big learning experience for all of us and one I was thrilled to be part of. I […]

By: EmilyU

EmilyU — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 20:50:00 +0000

It makes total sense, right?!