Duck pond with bog garden filter query

[AlyssaFish]

Your filter system may very well be too well designed. There may be plenty of poop from the ducks if you are cleaning the settling tank out every week. However, in doing so it may not be leaving enough nutrients in the pond to feed the plants especially as the plants get bigger. So bottom line is it may be a an overall nutrient issue.

You ever try cleaning out the settling tank every two weeks time to see what would happen with the plants or would your settlement tank be overflowing with duck poo at that point.

If it is an iron deficiency as AlyssaFish suggested, which yellowing in the plants is a sign of, then sticking steel wool in the planting medium will help with that rather than adding a fertilizer.

I did not know you could do that with steel wool! That's awesome!

 

[GBBUDD]

I have some grass that has blades that are yellow and in the last couple weeks the plants have been in over drive. any hair algae that was around disappeared over night. I looked carefuly at a couple blades and in time the blades went from yellow " fast growth" to green. so i believe jhn may have hit the nail on the head it may a lack of nutrients or too much of an other. lets not forget ducks are a pooping machine

 

[Lisak1]

I agree - you're filtering out too much of the good stuff! But you could also try thinning out the plants a bit and let them "catch up". You've got a lot growing in a small area.

 

[Jo70]

Hi, thank you I’ve just had a huge cull and thinned the plants

 

[smithmal]

What sort of checks are you doing with your water quality? I would suggest you do some pH and nitrate tests. Generally plants will get their nitrates from the breakdown of ammonia in the water from the duck pee. Most people install a biofilter which will convert their ammonia to nitrates which the plants will use as nutrients.

BTW, how do you keep your ducks from eating your bog plants?

Nice setup.

smithmal

 

[Jo70]

What sort of checks are you doing with your water quality? I would suggest you do some pH and nitrate tests. Generally plants will get their nitrates from the breakdown of ammonia in the water from the duck pee. Most people install a biofilter which will convert their ammonia to nitrates which the plants will use as nutrients.

BTW, how do you keep your ducks from eating your bog plants?

Nice setup.

smithmal

Thanks for your reply. I’ll be honest and say I wouldn’t know what levels to check for re nitrates.
What I did read up on is when the gravel base of the bog filter is running well, bacteria breaks down the poo. Bit like how our septic tank works (no main sewage here).
I’ve thinned the plants as suggested and cut some back and most are now greener. I wonder if as someone else suggested, that the bolted and grew too quickly.
The ducks can’t get to the bog garden. There is a small low fence on the low side of it and the side that faces the pond is too high, plus it has a small mesh fence along it. They can eat the over hang, but I don’t mind that.

 

[smithmal]

Thanks for your reply. I’ll be honest and say I wouldn’t know what levels to check for re nitrates.
What I did read up on is when the gravel base of the bog filter is running well, bacteria breaks down the poo. Bit like how our septic tank works (no main sewage here).
I’ve thinned the plants as suggested and cut some back and most are now greener. I wonder if as someone else suggested, that the bolted and grew too quickly.
The ducks can’t get to the bog garden. There is a small low fence on the low side of it and the side that faces the pond is too high, plus it has a small mesh fence along it. They can eat the over hang, but I don’t mind that.

There are dipstick kits to help you monitor your nitrate levels in your pond. How many ducks do you have? Generally people try to keep their nitrate levels below 200ppm in a hydroponic environment. At 250ppm or more you will start to see plant damage. Also the uptake of both ammonia and nitrates by the plants is driven by the pH. The more neutral the pH the better the plant can consume both ammonia and nitrate. Plants can consume nitrates 10 fold better than ammonia which is why its helpful to convert as much ammonia to nitrates as possible.

As you mentioned the gravel substrate in your bog does provide a substrate for bacteria/biofilms to colonize and convert the ammonia from the duck urine to to nitrates which will in turn be consumed by the bog plants. MIght be a good idea to purchase one of the kits to see how well your bog bacteria is doing their job and to also check on water pH. Ducks tend to absolutely destroy a water environment due to the levels of organic material they release into the water so the bigger the bog area the better. Here's a link that I found regarding using bog filters in duck ponds: https://www.atlanticwatergardens.com/blog/2019/06/18/bog-filtration-questions-answered/

 

[Jo70]

Thank you so much for such a fab reply. I will look for a kit now as I’m very intrigued. Just off to read the link too. Thank you, Jo

 

[Jhn]

Dipstick tests are notoriously inaccurate.... better to get an API Liquid test kit.

 

[smithmal]

Jo,

When did you build this pond and which pond pump did you choose to use? Your water looks incredibly clear which is very impressive.

 

[Jo70]

The testing kit just arrived. Found it very interesting.
Amonia is 0 - which is good
PH 7 - 7.5 - not too bad
Nitrate 0 - 0.25 again not way out
Phosphate - 2 which is high

Thank you for suggesting I do this. The phosphate is due to "decompsing organic matter" which makes sense with the ducks.