Considering a Tropical Pond
- Thread starter Duncan6618
- Start date
I like the size of your pond. Anyway, If I were you, I'm going to put some Koi fish there and Sunnies as well 
If you want to make your pond more beautiful, use pond dye instead. As pond dyes can be used as maintenance for ponds to reduce the growth of algae in your pond plus it is environmentally friendly, so you don't have to worry about your fishes.
If you want to make your pond more beautiful, use pond dye instead. As pond dyes can be used as maintenance for ponds to reduce the growth of algae in your pond plus it is environmentally friendly, so you don't have to worry about your fishes.Damn I went from super excited to super sad I'm sorry to hear about your pond but yeah my grandma is in Oklahoma and has a huge pond we always fish in maybe 50' long and 55'wide and 10' deep and I went this summer and walked to the back field to find a dry lake bed with no water in site
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This is amazing! I'm wanting to do something similar but with an above-ground pool. How deep is your pond/pool?I ordered a floating pot just to see how they would look. I think I might get several of them and tie them off around the sides of the pool.
Oh, and I never posted a pic of the finished pool deck. I'm going to stain it in a couple months after the wood has dried out enough and then add some lattice to the pergola and then get vines growing over it.
With luck I'll have the bog filters running tomorrow. Just need to finish adding pea gravel and then plumb them up.
Will the catfish eat the smaller koi as the catfish gets bigger?So we had an early cold front on friday that has had daytime temps in the 50's & 60's and night time temps in the low 40's. The water was 79F when the cold front rolled in and I was able to easily maintain the temp at 74F over the past 4 days without burning too much wood. It is supposed to warm up the rest of the week into the 80's, this is our typical winter cold fronts where it is cold for 3-4 days and then warms up until the next front comes in. So I'm pretty optimistic that I will be able to keep the water temp in the 70's throughout winter and make this a tropical pond.
I snapped some pics after it was dark so they're not the best quality...
My heater in operation
These are the corrugated plastic pond insulators I made. The wind kept making them stack on top of each other so I siliconed some pieces of nylon drywall corner bead on them to stop that. I think when I get the pond better insulated I'll be able to keep the pond warm even when we get stronger cold fronts.
And my channel cat was swimming around waiting for his nighttime feeding so I snapped a couple of pics. He's a bit over 2' long now.
Wow, just read through this entire thread. Was so stocked to see how things were coming along, only to have my dreams for your dreams crushed. It's 7/28/2022 is there an update? Were you able to set the pond back up again after your huge drought? I feel like I've read a novel and someone stole my only copy right when things were getting really exciting. Please update. P.s. Was thinking about doing this same thing, only with Koi though, only difference is that my pool is above ground and 17,000 gallons (27 ft. x 4 ft.). Any tips/tricks/ or ideas you could throw my way? I live in East Tennessee so we do get the cold spells. Unfortunately I believe it would be too much upkeep to do a tropical pond here, especially in the winter months.
Love this thread.
We've set a little pond (8x15'x 5' deep) in-ground below the bthrm/shower window with a ~26" arowana - the green-gold they get with a little sunshine really is something. Apologies if I missed it - did you have any sort of jump-fence? I've yet to fill ours completely as my wife & I disagree on a fine boundary fence (with vines) vs horizontal overwater. The fish loves hunting dragonflies & I'm loath to hinder such sport
We're on a mountain & the bigger January rain events can get below 18C from time to time, thus the depth vs surface area. I bought a monster 800W heater that seems to keep the temp >21C throughout, but the power-bill's gets little scarry... this year's power-rates will make it terrifying, so thinking of options as covering is something of an aesthetic no-go, though I could argue overnights. The Rio Solimões apparently is only 22C at Manaus, and winter storms drop nearby shallower ponds well into the teens, so touch-wood the fish is more durable than we'd think. Thoughts?
Re. backwash: I've worked in & related to SCUBA all my life, so wonder if one could bore/seal an old BCD's Schrader/inflate valve upstream of the bead filter as 120PSI air/bubble-injection agitation to the media? Or are you already using the Advantage's 1HP blower for same?
I'd agree with previous comments/question on plants re. nitrates/filtration. Lilies not so much as they need mud-roots, but filamentous midwater or wood-anchoring would be good, as would floating as they can be removed by hand-full from time to time.
We've set a little pond (8x15'x 5' deep) in-ground below the bthrm/shower window with a ~26" arowana - the green-gold they get with a little sunshine really is something. Apologies if I missed it - did you have any sort of jump-fence? I've yet to fill ours completely as my wife & I disagree on a fine boundary fence (with vines) vs horizontal overwater. The fish loves hunting dragonflies & I'm loath to hinder such sport
We're on a mountain & the bigger January rain events can get below 18C from time to time, thus the depth vs surface area. I bought a monster 800W heater that seems to keep the temp >21C throughout, but the power-bill's gets little scarry... this year's power-rates will make it terrifying, so thinking of options as covering is something of an aesthetic no-go, though I could argue overnights. The Rio Solimões apparently is only 22C at Manaus, and winter storms drop nearby shallower ponds well into the teens, so touch-wood the fish is more durable than we'd think. Thoughts?
Re. backwash: I've worked in & related to SCUBA all my life, so wonder if one could bore/seal an old BCD's Schrader/inflate valve upstream of the bead filter as 120PSI air/bubble-injection agitation to the media? Or are you already using the Advantage's 1HP blower for same?
I'd agree with previous comments/question on plants re. nitrates/filtration. Lilies not so much as they need mud-roots, but filamentous midwater or wood-anchoring would be good, as would floating as they can be removed by hand-full from time to time.
