Well as with many things in life I am having second thoughts, this time about my pond. (Click link in sig to see it)
I just really don't care for it. It kind of takes the fun out of fish keeping. It's kind of like having a tiny lake or something. The fish can retreat away and if I am blessed with their presence I get to see the top of them, weeee... Also they get spooked much easier because they can't see me coming like they can in a tank.
Anyone else have this sort of feeling after building a pond?
I can no longer photograph any of these fish because the water is never perfectly still (Not an issue in a tank since you're photographing through Glass/Acrylic but with a pond you're photographing it through the water surface) and even if I could it would again be an overhead shot only. This is a big problem for me... I really like taking photographs of the fish and didn't realize how much photo ability is lost with the pond.
I could fix some of these issues with a viewing window but I just don't think it would be worth the work. I would be limited then to that small viewing window and knowing my luck it would leak anyway, so I doubt I'd try.
So now you can see my dilemma... The pond itself looks cool but the fish inside may as well not even be there. I can't see them for squat. I did think about it before hand but instead of wondering how it would be I decided to just build it and see how I liked it, thus far - not so much. Now I see why people stick to keeping Koi in ponds, they look pretty cool from the top and will come to the top to feed. A pond full of Bichirs and Cichlids - not so much really.
Here are what the options I've come up with.
1. Use the pond as a stand/sump and stick a 6' tank on top of it. This way I can put some fish in the tank and actually enjoy them. Some of the bigger ones would have to stay in the pond/sump though - which I don't like.
2. Take the pond out all together and build a rack system for a few tanks. I have a 7'x4' foot print to work with. So I could do a 180g++ on the bottom and a couple medium/smaller tanks up top...
3. Take the pond out and replace it with a stand then just do one monster tank, around 300 or so gallons... Problem is I am limited to 7', so unless I find a 6x3 or 7x3 this isn't gonna happen.
4. Light it on fire, see what happens?
5. ???
So yea, any thoughts?
I just really don't care for it. It kind of takes the fun out of fish keeping. It's kind of like having a tiny lake or something. The fish can retreat away and if I am blessed with their presence I get to see the top of them, weeee... Also they get spooked much easier because they can't see me coming like they can in a tank.
Anyone else have this sort of feeling after building a pond?
I can no longer photograph any of these fish because the water is never perfectly still (Not an issue in a tank since you're photographing through Glass/Acrylic but with a pond you're photographing it through the water surface) and even if I could it would again be an overhead shot only. This is a big problem for me... I really like taking photographs of the fish and didn't realize how much photo ability is lost with the pond.
I could fix some of these issues with a viewing window but I just don't think it would be worth the work. I would be limited then to that small viewing window and knowing my luck it would leak anyway, so I doubt I'd try.
So now you can see my dilemma... The pond itself looks cool but the fish inside may as well not even be there. I can't see them for squat. I did think about it before hand but instead of wondering how it would be I decided to just build it and see how I liked it, thus far - not so much. Now I see why people stick to keeping Koi in ponds, they look pretty cool from the top and will come to the top to feed. A pond full of Bichirs and Cichlids - not so much really.
Here are what the options I've come up with.
1. Use the pond as a stand/sump and stick a 6' tank on top of it. This way I can put some fish in the tank and actually enjoy them. Some of the bigger ones would have to stay in the pond/sump though - which I don't like.
2. Take the pond out all together and build a rack system for a few tanks. I have a 7'x4' foot print to work with. So I could do a 180g++ on the bottom and a couple medium/smaller tanks up top...
3. Take the pond out and replace it with a stand then just do one monster tank, around 300 or so gallons... Problem is I am limited to 7', so unless I find a 6x3 or 7x3 this isn't gonna happen.
4. Light it on fire, see what happens?
5. ???
So yea, any thoughts?
