with your stock list that pump wont be enough. on the 55 gallon drum issue, build a stand so the edge of it hangs over the pond, and cut a slit in it. fill it with media and pump you water in the top. cut the slit about half way up the side, if the water level rises above the slit make it bigger. fill it up with media to just below the slit. go to your local bait shop and ask them to save all old line for you. they take old line off of peoples reels and spool new on. makes a great bio media, and its free. plus it will stay below the level of the water, but not all settle to the bottom so the water will flow around it all. use some sort of filtration pre pump for mechanical that you can rinse out. i use a bucket with holes drilled in the side drop the pump in, then have net bags full of netting that i shove down into the bucket around the pump. you are going to want around a 1200 gph atleast. fill it with feeders (30-40) for a month and your filter should cycle in time to put your fish in. do a large water change and add your fish. the feeders should help your fish accomodate to there new home quite well. if you were to dig a hole and sink that tub where only a couple inches stuck out it would help to keep the heat stable and keep it from freezing over in the winter.
425 Gallon Pond/Outside Tank Build
- Thread starter crmarti
- Start date
perfect, thank you for all of the details and help. i doubt i will get t obuild hte 5 5gallon drum this weekend but i went out and bought some supplies to make a smaller gravity feed filter. i am not certain on the plans right now but i have a 1 inch pvc pipe i am going to cut into rings, some filter floss material and some air filter pads i bought to use as media, it will be a rather bootleg filter for now but it should do for now. i also aquired 4 huge goldfish today and caught more mosquito fish to help it cycle. i also put 150 more pounds of pool filter sand in there to plant all of the plants that i got from the same woman that gave me the goldfish. i got 4 diferent roots of lily pads and planted them with many other plants the woman let me get out of her pond. i will post pictures tommorw after the water has cleared up from the new sand and all the planting. and perfect, any idea what type of pump i could get that will push 1200gph for pretty cheap
$40 barracuda utility pump got mine at menards (like lowes) they keep them with the sump pumps. a mag drive would be optimum but a plastic vortex pump would work for pond on a budget.
that substrate is a great media too, get a couple power heads to circulate water and point them down to flow the water across the bottom. sand is actually the absolute best bio media out there.
looks beautiful! lol jk 
but it would make a good pond if you dug a hole around it and put it in
but it would make a good pond if you dug a hole around it and put it in
dont listen to him, he's just jealous he doesnt have the initiative to create something out of nothing. i commend you for taking what you got and making something awsome.
haha preciate it perfect. i was sleeping so i needed someone to stick up for me. it might not be the prettiest thing but its gonna be fun to have thats for sure. i have a smaller pump with suction cups on it that i can use as a powerhead for hte mean time and it should work for movin gwater along hte sand. how much gph id that pump? i looked at lowes and home depot but it was like 80 bucks for anything close to 500 gph like the one i have. i got it on ebay for 34. the wweather sucks today but if the rain lets up i will try to take some pictures to get an update on evrything. so do you think that my media will work fine?
ok i went out in the elements to take some pics with my phone. to preface these pictures, there is pollen all over my tank b/c the last two weeks have been pollen season and i have not been in town. so until the rain lets up there is going to be pollen on the top but anyways here are the pictures
