This is one post I am so excited to share with you! If you remember, last year I had the privilege of helping one of my dear friends and her husband build a Biofilter 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 recently had the pleasure of visiting them a whole year later and gees, was I in for a surprise!
When I left last year, we hadn’t yet planted anything but we were able to test the filter and it worked a charm. One year later, my friends have an abundance of plants thriving and the system is filtering clear water back into the pond. The whole ecosystem is in glorious form. I am so in LOVE with what they’ve done I couldn’t NOT share this success story of the first of its kind that I’ve ever seen.
This first picture is looking into the duck pen with the entrance door in the middle. They incorporated outdoor and indoor gardens as part of the set up, being conscious of plant selection based on the amount of sunlight they get during the day.
From inside, the water is clear and you can see to the bottom (when the ducks aren’t splashing about!). On the far right, you can see the first separate biofilter garden which they’ve kept fenced off from the animals so they don’t mess with the system and to keep the gravel bed in place. The water feeds through the first rock wall, passing through it’s first round of biofiltration, before being gravity fed through a pipe to the three external biofilter gardens.
The right garden in this photo are the three outdoor biofilter gardens separated into three large tubs. If you recall from the ‘before’ photos at the start, this is where we dug the tubs into the ground which are now filled with rocks and papyrus. These are being used (very successfully) as the filtration plants.
A close up of the three biofilter tubs and plants doing their thing. The large rocks keep the ducks and geese out and create atheistic appeal.
In the above picture, you’ll see the final bucket that contains the pump and on the right, inside the pen, it feeds back into the duck pond. The eventual dream is to have a pretty little waterfall/rock feature here the water returns to the pond…. but the pretty things can wait.
One of the geese enjoying the clean water and the little makeshift waterfall. It sounds beautiful siting outside listening to the running water so no complaints here.
So there you have it! Doesn’t it just look marvelous?! The whole set up is certainly not a budget operation but for the animal enthusiast who wants to incorporate more holistic thinking into their designs, it fulfills many purposes (exceeding my expectations!). This is the first time I’ve seen a Biofilter Duck Pond in action to this scale. It was awesome being able to contribute to the project and return a ear later to see the operation fully functioning. I hope this has helped provide you with some inspiration and motivation for your own DIY projects. The beautiful thing about a biofilter set up, is that it can be scaled up or down. The Koi Fish Pond being the most common variation.
So what do you think?! Have you undertaken anything similar at home?
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