I've been told that fish can be kept in anything that holds water and can have a filter.
I've also read of numerous occasions where people use pools for economical pond substitutions, not to mention, a pond of my needed proportions is going to be costly and nearly impossible since our entire yard is heavily laced with tree roots (there's not alot of trees, though, it's just a combination of ours which are big and old, but mostly from our neighbors yards.
Anyway, a pool seems to be the way to go, but I'm aware that being above ground, there's a lack of insulation and heating would be a problem. But here in this part of Florida, I swear, I need to wear a leather jacket only like, twice, three times tops a year, and there will be maybe three weeks worth of "put a sheet over your plants" cold weather. My logic says a heater (I was looking at these) will take care of that issue.
But I have some questions to get the kinks worked out my master plan:
-material...would a steel/resin wall vs. the "softer" laminated PVC? is one safer than the other, or preferred? Would the pool need to be rinsed out-of-box or is filling it with water and treating it fine?
-cleaning/filtration...do I just put bags of carbon and bioballs inside the filter where like, chlorine would need to go? Or how does that work? And would the bottom still need to be vacuumed, like in the tank? Are there special, giant gravel-vacs?
-water levels...would rain water (small or alot) really screw up the pH, ammonia, nitites/nitrates, hardness, etc?
-fish in, coons/hawks/leaves out!...what's the best way to do this? I'd like light to still be able to get in there, and let's face it, if I can't go out and admire them, what's the point?! Would a leaf-net cover be fine, or should I have my dad build me some custom thing using chain-link, with a layer of finer mesh over it? Would the chain link hurt the fish if they hit against it, or would a leaf-net entangle them? Also, would I even have to worry about a hawk or raccoon trying to get an adult channel catfish, congo bichir, spotted gar, large pleco (right now I have a rhino pleco, but otherwise I'll probably get a common), or red-bellied pacu?
-little fish?...right now I have two small senegal bichirs, a purple gourami, snakeskin gourami, and small pictus cat (which is deformed and will unlikely reach adult size), and a spotted leaf fish...will these guys be okay in the pool, or is there such a thing as too big?
-am i sizing it right?...right now, the pool is for sure for my channel cat, pacu, and a common pleco. I'd love to keep my aforementioned little fish, but somehow, I'm not counting on keeping them in the pool. If I can get my hands on a congo bichir and maybeee a spotted gar, would a 12' x 42" pool be fine for atleast the channel cat/pacu/pleco combo, and would the bichir be atleast possible as well?
Thanks for your opinions! There's not alot of information available for going this route, and I'm constantly learning and open to everyone's thoughts and ideas (as long as you're not calling me an idiot ;P)
I've also read of numerous occasions where people use pools for economical pond substitutions, not to mention, a pond of my needed proportions is going to be costly and nearly impossible since our entire yard is heavily laced with tree roots (there's not alot of trees, though, it's just a combination of ours which are big and old, but mostly from our neighbors yards.
Anyway, a pool seems to be the way to go, but I'm aware that being above ground, there's a lack of insulation and heating would be a problem. But here in this part of Florida, I swear, I need to wear a leather jacket only like, twice, three times tops a year, and there will be maybe three weeks worth of "put a sheet over your plants" cold weather. My logic says a heater (I was looking at these) will take care of that issue.
But I have some questions to get the kinks worked out my master plan:
-material...would a steel/resin wall vs. the "softer" laminated PVC? is one safer than the other, or preferred? Would the pool need to be rinsed out-of-box or is filling it with water and treating it fine?
-cleaning/filtration...do I just put bags of carbon and bioballs inside the filter where like, chlorine would need to go? Or how does that work? And would the bottom still need to be vacuumed, like in the tank? Are there special, giant gravel-vacs?
-water levels...would rain water (small or alot) really screw up the pH, ammonia, nitites/nitrates, hardness, etc?
-fish in, coons/hawks/leaves out!...what's the best way to do this? I'd like light to still be able to get in there, and let's face it, if I can't go out and admire them, what's the point?! Would a leaf-net cover be fine, or should I have my dad build me some custom thing using chain-link, with a layer of finer mesh over it? Would the chain link hurt the fish if they hit against it, or would a leaf-net entangle them? Also, would I even have to worry about a hawk or raccoon trying to get an adult channel catfish, congo bichir, spotted gar, large pleco (right now I have a rhino pleco, but otherwise I'll probably get a common), or red-bellied pacu?
-little fish?...right now I have two small senegal bichirs, a purple gourami, snakeskin gourami, and small pictus cat (which is deformed and will unlikely reach adult size), and a spotted leaf fish...will these guys be okay in the pool, or is there such a thing as too big?
-am i sizing it right?...right now, the pool is for sure for my channel cat, pacu, and a common pleco. I'd love to keep my aforementioned little fish, but somehow, I'm not counting on keeping them in the pool. If I can get my hands on a congo bichir and maybeee a spotted gar, would a 12' x 42" pool be fine for atleast the channel cat/pacu/pleco combo, and would the bichir be atleast possible as well?
Thanks for your opinions! There's not alot of information available for going this route, and I'm constantly learning and open to everyone's thoughts and ideas (as long as you're not calling me an idiot ;P)
