Considering a Tropical Pond

[ScatMan]

good luck with the heater!! you guys still in a drought? i hope not.

please let us know how you like that advantage filter! i didn't convert my pool yet but i will in the spring and i'm pretty sure i'll be getting one of those too. what size did you get? do you lose any beads when you backwash?

 

[Duncan6618]

good luck with the heater!! you guys still in a drought? i hope not.

please let us know how you like that advantage filter! i didn't convert my pool yet but i will in the spring and i'm pretty sure i'll be getting one of those too. what size did you get? do you lose any beads when you backwash?

Yes we've still been in a drought but not as bad as last year. We just got 5" of rain about a week ago so that has helped alot.

I got the Advantage 15 bead filter. I've been using for a few months and it's great. You don't lose any beads when you backwash and the blower helps get alot of the gunk out without using alot of water. Also since the beads float alot of the gunk builds up on the bottom of the filter and there a bottom drain to get that out easily.

 

[Duncan6618]

I have been short on time but have managed to get my super duper heater halfway done. I hope to get it finished up in the next day or two.

 

[Abruskin]

I forgot about this thread.

I've done a few things this summer. First, I got rid of the sand filter and replaced it with an Advantage Bead Pond filter. It is much easier to keep clean. Even with the permabeads the sand filter just required too much water to backwash the filter enough to get it clean. Second, I put up a 16'x16' shade sail to try and keep the water a little cooler during the summer.

I'm a little bored with koi & goldfish though so I am bound and determined to go tropical. Solar won't provide enough heat & gas/electric heaters would be too expensive. So I'm going to try and make a wood burning pool heater. I found some commercial ones that would get the job done but they are pretty expensive so I just ordered this stainless steel heat exchanger (it's a 76' 3/4" pipe)

I'll post pics once I get things rolling. I think it's going to work but wish me luck.

Pardon me if you already said, but what kind of tropicals do you plan on keeping?


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[Duncan6618]

I haven't really decided what tropicals I will stock. I have an albino giant gourami in there now that was picking on my other fish in my aquarium. So I tossed him in the pond this summer. I'll see if I can get him through the winter before I decide what else to put in.

 

[Abruskin]

That's so sweet. I wish I could do this with my pool but my parents would probably kill me haha


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[Duncan6618]

Heater is finished. Alll I need now is to plumb it up and wait for some cold weather.

I siliconed the ends of a piece of corrugated plastic so it would float. I can float a bunch of these on the water during any really cold spells to cut down on heat loss.

The fake alligators are to hopefully keep away herons. I lost a number of koi last winter to a blue heron that decided to visit.

 

[Skittle]

Nice work ime a fake heron at the side of the pond works great too, try it if youre still havin heron problems


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[Duncan6618]

I have a fake heron too, I need to put it out soon. The herons don't seem to show up until winter...migrating I guess.

 

[Duncan6618]

So we had an early cold front on friday that has had daytime temps in the 50's & 60's and night time temps in the low 40's. The water was 79F when the cold front rolled in and I was able to easily maintain the temp at 74F over the past 4 days without burning too much wood. It is supposed to warm up the rest of the week into the 80's, this is our typical winter cold fronts where it is cold for 3-4 days and then warms up until the next front comes in. So I'm pretty optimistic that I will be able to keep the water temp in the 70's throughout winter and make this a tropical pond.

I snapped some pics after it was dark so they're not the best quality...

My heater in operation

These are the corrugated plastic pond insulators I made. The wind kept making them stack on top of each other so I siliconed some pieces of nylon drywall corner bead on them to stop that. I think when I get the pond better insulated I'll be able to keep the pond warm even when we get stronger cold fronts.

And my channel cat was swimming around waiting for his nighttime feeding so I snapped a couple of pics. He's a bit over 2' long now.