Considering a Tropical Pond

[Duncan6618]

Here are some pics as of today.
I have almost finished staining the deck.

I'm trying out some flowers in the floating planter. Something that started with a d (I really need to learn about plants). So far they're doing alright.

This is a plastic fake rock well pump cover I got at Lowe's. I drilled some holes in it to make a hide out for the plecos I added. I just need to find a way to weight it down since it is somewhat bouyant.

And a couple shots of the fish.You can see two pacu I added in February when the water was in the low 60's. They handled that just fine and have grown quite a bit in a very short time. Supposedly they can tolerate temporary drops down to 45F once they are around 2 years old. This was an unusually cold winter and the lowest temp the water got was 50F so I'll see how they do next winter. The koi are growing quite fast too. Once I'm happier with the filtration I'd like to get some nicer ones.

 

[kendragon]

Wow that is a great pool conversion. It looks great. I can see a lot of hard work put into this one. Love the deck too.

 

[troutking]

dayumm now i need to do something like that to my pool lol. how much did everything cost u?

 

[Muske]

Weigh it down by drilling smaller holes near the bottom, zip-tie bricks to it. (the 3 hole jobbers) The bricks will also prop it up a little so waste will not get trapped in the cave.

 

[Duncan6618]

Weigh it down by drilling smaller holes near the bottom, zip-tie bricks to it. (the 3 hole jobbers) The bricks will also prop it up a little so waste will not get trapped in the cave.

Thanks for the idea! The plecos thank you too.

If you look close at the area around the rock you can see where the plecos have been cleaning the plaster. It's weird, every night they go to the same areas to feed.

My other weekend addition to the pond.

 

[Matt724]

Looks great! glad this got revived, been subscribed since the start. Ever think about adding a fountain, or waterfall system?

 

[Duncan6618]

Ever think about adding a fountain, or waterfall system?

I would like to eventually build a waterfall from the bog filters to the pool instead of just using tubing. It's at the bottom of the list of things to do though.

 

[Tramonte172]

That looks great. Your choice of fish is smarter than most of ours would be.

 

[Duncan6618]

Yeah! Replacement media for the sand filter has arrived. Now to find time to get the sand out of the filter. Why does it have to be 95 degrees already!

 

[Matt724]

^ that's a lot of media there. You probably already know this, but you should only replace about 1/2 of the media at a time because you don't want to get rid of all the BB. And on another note, idk if you are willing to try it, but I read in a TFH article that red mangroves suck up nitrates at amazing rates. I was going to try them myself, but i'm moving off to college in a few months so I chose not to. If you could get some good sized mangroves growing in there, that water will be crystal clear in no time.