I am warning you up front this is going to be a slow build thread because I am a pre-veterinary student 
and the college year just started so I am swamped with work. I don't know when I am going to have time to go get my wood. The other important stuff is ordered already so you know I wont abandon the project. I'm interested in getting an aquatic animal certification once I am a vet so I plan to keep a lot of fish as pets. My teacher who is a large animal veterinarian has a pet horse. I already have a 50 gal. tank up and running with some Mollies, zebra danios, red tailed black shark, and recently I added a pleco.
Construction wise i intend to follow this type of plan http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168929 I don't want to overbuild, my mother wants it easy to maintain or I may need to remove it from her house if needed when I move. Bottom will be a a sheet of plywood. I am *NOT* sure about what to use as underlayment with. Maybe old blankets from goodwill or something?
Dimensions:
8 feet length x 4 feet width x 3 feet depth. Its probably going to be 30 inches water depth I'm not going to fill it to the absolute brim. Then I'd have water overflowing as well as fish throwing it out. The pond doesn't have to fit through a door after assembly, Im assembling it in my room.
Here is the stuff i ordered for my pond so far. from Dr.s Foster Smith
Flexible Vinyl Tubing 1-1/4" ID Black 10'
EPDM Pond Liners 15' x 20'
TetraPond Water Garden Pump Model 1900
Remaining to get:
- One Plywood sheet 4x8 foot
- Mending Braces (Or maybe I should make some kind of wooden beams)
- Screws / might have at home
- Wood Glue / might have at home
- 2x8s or whatever I can get from home depot that is going to give me the desired depth at a college student price.
Location:
It will be in my bedroom covered partially by paint drip cloth (to cause condensation to take place on the inside of the cloth which will then drop back into the pond, rather than on the walls of my bedroom). Obviously it wont be entirely covered as there will need to be plenty of room for oxygen exchange.
Stocking-
I will put a pacu or two in it since someone is bound to ask about stocking. After research on this site I have decided they would grow to be large peaceful tropical fish that are cheap to feed, and would be fine in 700 gallons. I also understand they might grow to need a longer tank lengthwise. But they might not. They're really gonna have a happy life in there. Since my room is about 75 degrees year round i won't have to heat the pond. The pleco I have in my 50 gallon tank will go in there later as needed so he doesn't get stunted in the 50 gallon. But for a pleco I definitely need a plan to keep it from making a hole in the liner.
Filtration:
Will be plastic organizer drawers, top drawer full of polyester fiber then bottom of that drawer i will drill holes in, extra aquarium gravel center drawer under which will again be holes drilled, then in bottom drawer I will be using ceramic rings, some substrat pro, extra aquarium gravel, pretty much whatever biomedia i have around will get stuck in bottom drawer. No chemical filtration is planned, although it could be put in the bottom of the center drawer later. I'll be driving it by the 1,150 gph at 7 foot head pond pump that i have ordered, which will get me the sort of turnover i want, which is about 1.5 / hr. I'm a little concerned it might get clogged with fish poop but it comes with a large cage prefilter as well as a screen. I can probably make some in-pond prefilter to fit the cage which would need to be cleaned pretty often. Mechanical filtration is something I'm gonna have to think hard about.
I can probably get pics of the space it is going into this weekend.
and the college year just started so I am swamped with work. I don't know when I am going to have time to go get my wood. The other important stuff is ordered already so you know I wont abandon the project. I'm interested in getting an aquatic animal certification once I am a vet so I plan to keep a lot of fish as pets. My teacher who is a large animal veterinarian has a pet horse. I already have a 50 gal. tank up and running with some Mollies, zebra danios, red tailed black shark, and recently I added a pleco.Construction wise i intend to follow this type of plan http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168929 I don't want to overbuild, my mother wants it easy to maintain or I may need to remove it from her house if needed when I move. Bottom will be a a sheet of plywood. I am *NOT* sure about what to use as underlayment with. Maybe old blankets from goodwill or something?
Dimensions:
8 feet length x 4 feet width x 3 feet depth. Its probably going to be 30 inches water depth I'm not going to fill it to the absolute brim. Then I'd have water overflowing as well as fish throwing it out. The pond doesn't have to fit through a door after assembly, Im assembling it in my room.
Here is the stuff i ordered for my pond so far. from Dr.s Foster Smith
Flexible Vinyl Tubing 1-1/4" ID Black 10'
EPDM Pond Liners 15' x 20'
TetraPond Water Garden Pump Model 1900
Remaining to get:
- One Plywood sheet 4x8 foot
- Mending Braces (Or maybe I should make some kind of wooden beams)
- Screws / might have at home
- Wood Glue / might have at home
- 2x8s or whatever I can get from home depot that is going to give me the desired depth at a college student price.
Location:
It will be in my bedroom covered partially by paint drip cloth (to cause condensation to take place on the inside of the cloth which will then drop back into the pond, rather than on the walls of my bedroom). Obviously it wont be entirely covered as there will need to be plenty of room for oxygen exchange.
Stocking-
I will put a pacu or two in it since someone is bound to ask about stocking. After research on this site I have decided they would grow to be large peaceful tropical fish that are cheap to feed, and would be fine in 700 gallons. I also understand they might grow to need a longer tank lengthwise. But they might not. They're really gonna have a happy life in there. Since my room is about 75 degrees year round i won't have to heat the pond. The pleco I have in my 50 gallon tank will go in there later as needed so he doesn't get stunted in the 50 gallon. But for a pleco I definitely need a plan to keep it from making a hole in the liner.
Filtration:
Will be plastic organizer drawers, top drawer full of polyester fiber then bottom of that drawer i will drill holes in, extra aquarium gravel center drawer under which will again be holes drilled, then in bottom drawer I will be using ceramic rings, some substrat pro, extra aquarium gravel, pretty much whatever biomedia i have around will get stuck in bottom drawer. No chemical filtration is planned, although it could be put in the bottom of the center drawer later. I'll be driving it by the 1,150 gph at 7 foot head pond pump that i have ordered, which will get me the sort of turnover i want, which is about 1.5 / hr. I'm a little concerned it might get clogged with fish poop but it comes with a large cage prefilter as well as a screen. I can probably make some in-pond prefilter to fit the cage which would need to be cleaned pretty often. Mechanical filtration is something I'm gonna have to think hard about.
I can probably get pics of the space it is going into this weekend.
