Wintering tropical fish in Arizona?

[duanes]

I thought you were talking about a pond of substantial volume. When there is lots of water, temps hold steady, but with tiny puddles of 100 gallons or less, the fluctuations can be drastic, especially if the water feature gets any sun.
I had a 55 gal tank in Milwaukee that would easily overheat when sun took it out of shadows (easily reaching 90'F), but when I used a 1500 gal pond as a sump, the temps held steady enough to keep fish.
Below is the tank, and with only a few hours of sun per day, became quite choked with algae.

below the tank, where water is pumped up from the pond below to the tank, to keep temps steady.

 

[Fishpony]

The pond dimension 10 x 4 x 3, with around 900 gallons in water volume. The pond will be in direct sunlight. If the water becomes too cold for my tropical fish, I was thinking about having a 55 gallon tub (It will be in the shade) with a pair of heaters to keep them in, until the water is warm enough to transfer them back into the main pond. Average winter temp is mid 50s.

 

[skjl47]

The pond dimension 10 x 4 x 3, with around 900 gallons in water volume. The pond will be in direct sunlight. If the water becomes too cold for my tropical fish, I was thinking about having a 55 gallon tub (It will be in the shade) with a pair of heaters to keep them in, until the water is warm enough to transfer them back into the main pond. Average winter temp is mid 50s.

Hello; I have been following this thread. I do not know what the volume most outdoor ponds may be, but 900 gallons does not sound like a large one. As pointed out in a previous post this amount of water seems likely to be subject to temperature fluctuations being outdoors. Will it be in ground or above ground?

I may be missing something with regard to the 55 gallon tub. That size (55 gallons) is a common sized aquarium and it seems as though such could be kept indoors. I also wonder about how effective and at what cost running two heaters outdoors might be?

Average temp sounds reasonable enough. Do you have any idea of what a common stretch of low temps might be in days and max lows?

 

[Fishpony]

Hello; I have been following this thread. I do not know what the volume most outdoor ponds may be, but 900 gallons does not sound like a large one. As pointed out in a previous post this amount of water seems likely to be subject to temperature fluctuations being outdoors. Will it be in ground or above ground?

I may be missing something with regard to the 55 gallon tub. That size (55 gallons) is a common sized aquarium and it seems as though such could be kept indoors. I also wonder about how effective and at what cost running two heaters outdoors might be?

Average temp sounds reasonable enough. Do you have any idea of what a common stretch of low temps might be in days and max lows?

The pond will be a hybrid, 1 foot below ground, and using concrete blocks to raise the pond 2 feet above ground. I will most likely be using a greenhouse covering as a cover for the pond. I know that one heater was good enough to let me raise a small saltwater set up outside, so I imagine just keeping 2, as one would serve as a failsafe.
I don't know that low temp, but max low that was recorded was 16 degrees in 1950, which probably/thankfully changed.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Since part of the pond is above ground u could add some soil to the side for more efficient tempature retention

 

[Fishpony]

Since part of the pond is above ground u could add some soil to the side for more efficient tempature retention

Since the concrete blocks I plan to use are the kinds use to create fences in my area, I was thinking of filling some of the hollow areas with concrete for added support, and then using expanding foam for the rest, of the areas. I might uses soil since it is cheaper and I'll have some left over from digging the 1 foot deep area.