It’s every bird lover’s dream to have a pond where ducks can live in your backyard. But maintaining a duck pond isn’t as straightforward as adding water and leaving it alone. Proper maintenance is the difference between a beautiful backyard feature and a smelly puddle.
Choosing the right pond and knowing how to keep a duck pond clean can make your backyard a beautiful place to spend time.
Duck Pond Cleaning Frequency
So, just how often do you need to clean a duck pond? While natural ponds tend to come with an ecosystem that aids in cleaning, it’s best to clean a duck pond even lightly once a week.
This weekly check-in allows you to inspect the pond, check for any other maintenance issues, and ensure the ducks swim in safe water.
Why It’s Important to Clean Your Duck Pond
Ducks not only swim in the pond, but they also leave waste behind. Waste buildup affects the chemistry of the water, allowing for changes to the PH levels, and facilitating algae growth. While the algae itself isn’t necessarily bothersome to the ducks, it can reduce their swimming area and cause breathing problems for other animals in the water.
Keeping the balance of the ecosystem helps maintain your ducks’ health. The additional waste from the ducks causes a reduction in oxygen in the water, making it harder to maintain balance for all of your animals.
Types of Duck Ponds
There are natural and artificial duck ponds, each with different cleaning requirements.
A natural duck pond has its own natural cleaning ecosystem but requires maintenance as well. Natural ponds are not manufactured and often have other animals living inside.
Artificial ponds are manufactured and can look natural, though they are different. These ponds come in almost any size depending on how large you want the pond, and you have more control over the ecosystem and what animals reside there.
Cleaning Natural Duck Ponds
If your natural duck pond is large enough, it’s best to plant flora that includes native aquatic plants. The plants add beauty to the area and help oxygenate the water to maintain PH balance and other life in the pond.
Adding native fish is another excellent way to maintain the natural pond because the fish provide food for the ducks, and they take care of mosquitoes and other unwanted insects. They move through the water, helping keep the water oxygen-rich and fresh, too.
If you need help adding oxygen to the water, fountains or oxygenators are excellent additions. Fountains can be another decorative add-on, or you can choose oxygenators that add oxygen below the surface and are harder to see, so they don’t disrupt the natural appearance.
Aquatic plants
It is essential to note whether a plant is native to your area before adding it to the ecosystem, as some alien plants can wreak havoc on the natural habitat. Some plants to look into for your natural pond include:
- Duckweeds
- Common water hyacinth
- Coontail
- Pickerelweed
- Cattail
- Potamogeton
- Lily blooms
- Wild rice
- Wild Celery
- Smartweed
Pond Animals
As with plants, choosing animals native to your area helps maintain balance within your pond’s ecosystem. Because the ducks will eat the other animals, choose breeds that reproduce quickly. Some excellent pond wildlife options include:
- Tilapia
- Catfish
- Minnows
- Crappie
- Bluegill
- Bullfrogs
- Crayfish
Cleaning Artificial Duck Ponds
Artificial ponds require more maintenance and cleaning, as they often lack the natural flora and fauna to self-clean in the same way as a natural pond. Keep in mind, the larger the pond, the harder it is to clean. Choose a size within your comfort zone for maintenance.
You can always add plants and other animals to an artificial duck pond, but you’ll want to be mindful of the size limitations and not overstock the pond. Doing so causes problems for the ducks and the ecosystem. The same plants and animals listed above will work, too.
One of the easiest ways to clean an artificial duck pond is to install a drain so you can partially empty the pond once a month and add fresh water. Installing a drain is easier with a smaller pond but can be set up in a large pond.
Other Tips and Tricks
1. Add Microbes to the Pond
Duck waste is full of ammonia, which is harmful to them and other aquatic life. Adding enzymes such as Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas helps the ammonia convert to nitrogen, which is not harmful to the animals.
2. Use Barley Straw
Barley straw is available as a material that floats in the water or as an enzyme added to the pond. It prevents the growth of algae, which then keeps the pond cleaner. The straw is easy to swap out as needed and should be too big to be filtered out.
3. Freshwater Scavengers
Adding critters such as tadpoles, freshwater mussels and clams, or snails helps keep the pond clean because these types of animals like to eat duck waste. They help prevent the growth of algae and ammonia buildup in the water. They are also an additional source of food for your ducks, serving a dual purpose.
4. Filtration Systems
Manufactured, or artificial ponds, benefit from a filtration system that runs the wastewater through a filter and regularly returns fresh water to the pond. Adding a filtration system also is an opportunity to use a beautiful fountain to add to the visual appeal of the pond but still be helpful and practical.
5. Chlorine in Artificial Ponds
Chlorine is not harmful to ducks in small amounts, and while you shouldn’t use it regularly, you can use it in a pond where your ducks are sick. It kills pathogens in the water and ensures the pond isn’t a source of transmission of any disease from one duck to another.
Alongside the chlorine option, you can use bleach in small amounts for cleaning the duck pond, but again, you don’t want to do it in any significant amount. Bleach and chlorinated bleach will kill bacteria within the pond.
When in doubt, if you can fully drain your pond, you can clean it with bleach and allow it to air dry before adding in the fresh batch of water for the ducks. Bleach and chlorine will evaporate, and then it is entirely harmless for your ducks.
Using a Pump in Your Duck Pond
Pumps are a great way to filter the water in your duck pond. As previously mentioned, pumps can be fountain style, which is a more visually appealing option to clean, oxygenate, and then return water to the pond. A fountain is a great way to add to the beauty of your pond.
Pumps can also be hidden from view, making them simply functional, not decorative. The most important consideration for a pump, though, is whether it is strong enough to handle the amount of waste in your pond. A small pond doesn’t need a large pump, but as the pond grows, so must the pump.
You also want a pump with a trash guard to make sure it doesn’t suck leaves or other fish through as it filters the water and waste. Clogged pumps make ponds dirtier, and as a result, they become more complex and time-consuming to clean.
How to Keep Algae Out
While it is almost impossible to eliminate algae, keeping it from becoming abundant in your pond is essential to keeping the pond clean. There are a few tools you can use to reduce the algae growth within your duck pond:
- Bottom dwellers
- Barley straw
- Food-grade hydrogen peroxide
- Dig your pond 3 feet deep or more to prevent sunlight feeding algae
- Aquatic plants that clean the water
Some algae are perfectly natural and acceptable within your pond. It won’t hurt the ducks or any other part of the ecosystem in small amounts and even helps maintain the quality of life for the bottom feeders you might add.
Maintaining Your Duck Pond
Keeping your duck pond clean, well stocked with native plants and animals, and adding in a filtration system work together to ensure your pond is safe for ducks and doesn’t smell bad in your backyard.
The variety of ways to keep a duck pond clean are fantastic for folks with busy schedules who can’t always prioritize the duck pond among other household or farm chores. Natural ponds require minor maintenance, while you can create artificial ponds with extra cleaning features.
Choosing the perfect pond ecosystem for your backyard is a multifaceted undertaking, but once you settle into your pond, keeping it clean can be a simple and efficient process.