Socal tropical outdoor pond

I recently put a thread up about my dats and it was received positively- so I figured Id share my backyard pond- for the last 3 or 4 years I had a 150g cement mixing tub/pond that waterfalled into a preformed 150g pond- its what I had on hand and it worked good considering Id always had fish in the top that couldnt live with the lower pond fish-
>native bass, sunfish/very fancy fantails
>oscars, sunfish/ very fancy fantails
>convicts, sunfish/ gar, RTGG, oscars, sunfish
>silver arowana babies/gar, channel cats, oscars, sunfish


then in the beginning of the year I told a friend of mine(chesterthehero) that I had a piece of rubber roofing material from a job I had done, that could cover both ponds, and then some-
He kept on and on about WE could dig it out in a weekend- and it would be easy for US to do and all the fish WE could put in there- so finally I called and said I started- he lives 8 houses away! but still couldnt be found- to be honest I should have known because I cried wolf 3 times prior, each time saying I started digging and all three times he finally appeared when I said the digging was done-
Anyway he really seems to enjoy it, especially after all the digging that ME and ME did on it- its good that hes that comfortable just kicking back and finally being able to enjoy the fruits of MY labors
the ground here is like cement and the only thing that helped was putting the fish all in one pond and flipping the other over for the night- the next day it was quick sand which is tough to shovel- but eventually the fish were in a pond, but the pond was a few feet away and above grade- before the liner went down, I put carpet down first with styrofoam building insulation next then the liner- it turned out to be a pretty decent size over 11'x over 5'x 18"- 24"
after I filled it and swam around for an hour,I grudgingly got out to put the fish in- originally it was their old water from the 2nd pond, along with, all the old filters, substrate, driftwood, and plants- so in went 3x 12" albino oscars, 3x 12"-18" channel cats,my sunfish that I had since the begining, a rhinocerus pleco, an albino pleco, an orange spot, and one more semi fancy pleco- theres a jack dempsey... oh yeah from inside came my 24" jardini-







as for the filter- I have drilled 1 1/2" pvc running to the end of the pond with rocks over it- as the intake which is sucked(heheh) up from a pool pump that was on like a 24' or so people swimming pool- it then goes into the tower which is roughly the size of a 5 gallon pail thats filled 1st with deer netting and then 3 colanders of pillow batting stacked with a spacer between each-then into one of those plastic low drawers for under a bed drilled and filled with scrubbers and that thing sits on its twin but this one has lava rocks filling it- there is a small UV up there- it all flows through the planted/barley straw zone through some screens and matting and back in- and that whole filter is one of the original 150g ponds!

Thanks to our less sucky winters, the setups from past years has been only 2 300 watt heaters- and the only insulation was the earth around the lower pond- the upper pond was above grade and surrounded by rocks and boulders only- plus the waterfall did nothing to conserve the heat- I havent had a loss due to temperature- the closest being last winter one of the heaters went out- and it was cold the night before- two big oscars were belly up and solid so I picked them out by hand (the water was co-o-o-ld) and as I was walking them to their grave at the worm farm, I felt a twitch in my hand so I ran them inside and got them in a sump which is where the heaters are and the other fish arent and within 5 minutes they both had come to, and within 10 they wanted out and into the display, which is of course where they went-
But this year the pond is more than double the size it was prior, has much more gph turn over and a taller falls when exiting the filter which is uninsulated,but, the whole pond is well insulated- and I think it was Dr Joe that recommended a black painters tarp just blow the surface for a solar effect- Im going to do that- plus go a step further and do it out of black bubble wrap for the installation properties, that plus tune the pump down for less heat transfer- maybe redirected back to the pond for circulation and aeration under the tarp

Well I guess it had to happen eventually... My two foot jardini must have been overhead bug hunting, but this time he didnt land back in the water- I found him that night, all gross and ants on him- so he got buried in the worm farm-
I had tried penning him in, but after putting up 4 different fences and taking down 4 fences, each for different reasons-
>wicker blinds for window covering was 1st
-not rigid enough for some of the larger gaps between posts and didnt go all the way around
>bird and deer netting
- would have caught him and held him like a fishing net, either in the air or back in the drink- hed be screwed
>individual bamboo shoots
- at some point would have impaled one of us
> 1" wide, flat strap hurricane style fence
- looked like I had 2 lanes closed for road construction
I was kicking myself for a while, but I decided to nut-up and come up with some kind of solution- I have an arowana in each of the tanks inside- sonI guess I need one in the pond too....

Muske;3481661; said:

That sucks....

As for netting, use the bamboo to hold it above the water a foot or so. Easy to remov for maint. and doesn't look terrible.

For heating, I would look at a passive solar unit. I have a buddy that heats his pool with a small pump and black garden hose running along his driveway. Dr. Joe has a PVC unit that can be attached to the roof of a shed or other structure. Same re-cirulating idea. The tarp may get fish trapped on top and won't help with any gas exchanges. Maybe have to turn off the filter dropping into the pond. Keep a small cirulatory pump in the filter to maintain BB, and a seperate one in the pond. Everything could be set on timers and run only at night when temps. drop. No heat loss from the splashing water and the fish will still have a smaller pump in the main pond for cirulation.

Click to expand...

Muske- I think having the net a foot up would be a prime height to snare a big arowana-
Youre probably right about the tarp catching the fish on top- but I would like something to hold the heat down- I remember going out to the ponds that this one replaced on cold mornings to see a thick fog over the ponds, and I always thought it was such a waste of heat- I think the farther the cover is from the water, the more heat is transfered away-
I love the passive solar idea and the search for black hose, pipe, and tubing has begun
Oh I also picked up two more aros yesterday from one of my MFK pares- and if they dont start getting along in the tank better than they are now, the pond will have at least one new arowana and at least one new fence