The other day I went out in the morning, drained and rinsed the ducks pool, and put the hose in it to fill.
That evening around dinner time I went, “FUCK!” and ran down to find three very happy ducks and turn off the hose.
So I added this automatic filler. Now when I rinse the pool it will fill to a couple of inches from the top and stop.
I stared at the pic for a minute scratching my head and wondering if there was a filter hiding in that float valve. Then I read your description lol.
Ducking autocucumber!
I’ve got pools like that for my ducks too. I’ve wasted a couple of m3 over the years by being forgetful. But not as much as those couple of nights where I’ve forgotten about the sprinkler watering the potatoes and pumpkins.
I’m working on some contraption, where I filter the water already in the pool while supplementing whatever has been lost.
Water is real cheap here, because most of the billed cost of water is getting the waste treated and we’re doing that ourselves, but still… I mean half the water is discarded when I go to refill and clean the tubs a couple of times a week. And if I could somehow collect the sludge from the ducks I reckon I would have a pretty decent fertilizer.
We’re on a well and onsite tertiary waste water treatment here so the water only costs us the cost of the electricity to pump it. I still try to conserve.
The automatic filler is nice. I can close the filler valve, open the drain valve, rinse the tank, close the drain valve, open the filler valve and walk away. Standing there to fill the tank was a pain in the tookus.
I still try to conserve.
I don’t understand the idea of something being cheap, so it’s somehow ok to be wasteful. Using city water for critters and produce when I’ve got a pond is already rubbing me wrong.
I might look into an automatic filler, too. I see the finger screws on the clamp. Do you leave it on or remove the valve when the pool is full? My ducks will gunk up anything that’s in duck accessible height.
I don’t understand the idea of something being cheap, so it’s somehow ok to be wasteful. Using city water for critters and produce when I’ve got a pond is already rubbing me wrong.
Especially with something like clean, safe water which is a finite resource. We try to waste as little as possible despite the fact that we pull it out of the ground for the cost of the electricity.
I might look into an automatic filler, too. I see the finger screws on the clamp. Do you leave it on or remove the valve when the pool is full? My ducks will gunk up anything that’s in duck accessible height.
That one stays on the tank. It’s a Miller Trough-o-Matic Stock Tank Float Valve. It’s well protected because it’s intended to be used on livestock tanks. When it is filling the water sprays on top of the float inside the housing which rinses everything out. I also give it a spray with the hose when I’m rinsing the pool.
Somelike this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pDWNGsojB84 but it seems too complicated, as in too much can go wrong. Personally I don’t like that barrel on the concrete blocks, it looks ready to fall over with the first autumn storm. There’s way too much tubing in the bottom of the pool for my taste.
Also I want to have circulation year around, so the tubs don’t freeze over. Filling and dragging two 20L buckets of hot water from the house each morning for a couple of months, to make sure the ducks have liquid water for the day, gets old fast.
