A Pond of Prevention...

[fshfrk]

Portable green house BRILLIANT!!!! That will help big time! Can't wait to see this come Dec,Jan & Feb. You will need a heater whats your plan on that? I know you have a plan.

[Geost]

DD, Thai is correct the concern is too fast of a temp swing during day and night; water temp swings of 10F within hours can/ will kill tropical fish like trophs/petros if they are not acclimated to it. The deeper/larger volume will slow down this temperature effect (evaporatetive cooling), summer should not be an issue. The green house will also minimize this effect and during the colder months should keep the water temp (not the surface temp) at around 50 to 70 (based on ground temperatures) depending on where you live. Anyways you will still need a heater to maintain water temps ranging 75 to 85F 24/7 for the fish to thrive.

In any case, if you have a good efficient heater and green house, it is possible to keep them year round in ponds. Great project..

[Oldsgirl]

After the hurricane, I threw my big pacus out in my pond, because I figured it was their best chance of surviving (the largest one was dead when I returend to my house after 2 days w no power). I really liked having them in there, so I left them- but over the winter it got too cold for them. My pond is above ground, 8'x8'x36" (made of landscape timbers- SUPER easy!) and it's built into the covered deck just a few feet from the house. I think the lowest it got was 50*, but that's obviously too cold for anything non-goldfish/koi.

The greenhouse idea is interesting. I've been wanting to build a larger pond out in my yard for a while- I'm curious to see how yours does w the greenhouse helping the temp stay steady.

[ddaquaria]

I need to keep researching about people doing salt water ponds. So far all the winter goodies have been coming from them.

Stay tuned ... Thus is not a quick project.

[ddaquaria]

Started at 9 and dug till 4 - took some breaks in-between.

I removed 2 of the lower tiers due to advice that tier 3 and 4 would allow raccoons and cats to perch and hunt at the pond. I also made it 36" from the 2nd tier in case of blue herons (which we do have around here - I live 10 minutes from a state park - we have a lot of animals around here - you just don't see them in the neighborhood often.)

The shape is like a skull measuring 9 x 7.5 x 3 feet in the main swimming section and 13 x 11 x 3.5 feet are the dimension at it's widest. It is between 1500 to 2000 gallons (quick calculation)

It least now I can comfortably take underwater photos in it. Getting out is going to be the hard part.

[Geost]

Great DD, herons are a menace but they are untouchable being protected and all. I forgot but are you planning to use a UV sterilizer as green water is easy to get in a pond environment? In addition, if you have time, please also post on trophs.com. Keep us posted on the progress.

[ddaquaria]

The skimmer that I got allows you to put in 2 UV lamps when you need them. It was one of the extras that made me decide on that particular skimmer.

[ddaquaria]

http://web.me.com/donalddavis/A_Pond_of_Prevention

[Geost]

Very cool progress! Will you be usinga EPDM liner? I would get the thickest you can afford and lay down old carpetting for underlayment and side walls.

[ddaquaria]

I decided to add a bog filter to the mix. It's like building a canister filter inside a hole. I'm planning to use it to help hide the waterfall filter as well as additional filtration in the pond. Things are coming together. Of couse rock selection is a pain in the rear. I load 1100 lbs of rock this past weekend and it was not enough to do just one tier of the pond. And it is a pain at I can decide on the color of the rock yet.

The goal is to have it up and running by end of July. That will give me a few months to try out some fish too.

[jarrodaden]

This thread makes my back hurt.

[Gene D]

Donald this is an impressive project. You have definitely done your homework and seem to have the answers to all the questions. Please keep updating I am interested to see how you keep and maintain these. I really want to see how this affects spawning.

[tbui1178]

This thread makes my back hurt.

+1

[Delock]

DD,

To prevent small animals and birds from invading your ponds. I would suggest going with something like this

http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/page_449_304/big_top_pond_cover.html

[ddaquaria]

Thanks D!

After a lot of reading, 40" deep should be enough to evade predators. That is 40" from the lowest shelf - so it's about 46-48" from the very top. I have not seen raccoons in this neighborhood, and my primary worry is herons (I've seen them in the creekbeds a few blocks from the house.)

The drawing above does have some representation to the portable greenhouse idea. Using plastic to hold in moisture...

So far I've made two mistakes. 1) I should have moved all the dirt away from the pond when I dug it out. I've spent the last couple of days moving it from the pond's edge and more towards the yard. 2) Bought rock last weekend, but I'm still not sold on the color. Of course this is why you shop around for 8¢-10¢ per lb.