Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for that, didn't even think of it! Might have to look at a pre-filter before the water hits the grow beds. Maybe a UV filter would be enough? Hopefully the fish would be good still, because we would be cooking them

Hmm maybe get hold of tclyx, I really don't know enough about it. Ducks swim in lakes and we fish from lakes so it might not be a problem

A UV filter would also kill the nitrifying bacteria though so I would maybe use that as a last resort. Did you plan on the fowl being near or in the water? If not a good fence should do the trick.

Trying to cut down on fences
The nitrifying bacteria is in and around the rocks though, so zapping the water before it enters the growbeds shouldn't disturb that, right?

Still trying to work out what to do to avoid salmonella poisoning From what I can see from other lists, lots of people do put duck water onto their fruit trees and some veggies - but they try hard to avoid getting any splashes on stuff that will be eaten. Tclyx seems to run his duckponics only to keep the duck water clean - not for human consumption.

I have thought about just growing stuff that is cooked, or filtering the water some way before it gets to the grow beds. Unfortunately, for a clean aquaponics system, the ducks are here to stay, and they are loving the pond!

Having read a lot of the posts around here about UV clarification - I see that opinion is a bit divided. I think that the UV and some prefiltering should remove the salmonella - but it might also set back the biological filter. I have presumed that the good bacteria is already in the grow bed - so the fact that no bacteria is left in the water that get in the grow bed shouldn't matter. Am I totally wrong?

Other good news is that I found someone selling silver perch (over wintered), and have put 50 odd 6-10mm fish into the system. Still waiting on another pump, but the system is going well so far.

UV light is a surface sterilizer it won't penetrate the duck poo enough to make a difference but it will help with any salmonella in the water where the light can hit it (provided the exposure time is adequate).

One option for dealing with salmonella would be to only eat the produce cooked. Grow sweet corn, squash, beans, etc rather than lettuce. Cook kale, cabbage, spinach rather than eating them raw. Rhubarb is also great.