I live in Alabama. I am building a above ground wooden pond outside 10x10x3 2000 gallons. I'm wanting to keep silver aro and rtc in it. I was looking for suggestions on heating and covering to hold the heat and fish. I am also open to any and all suggestions pertaining to what I'm trying to accomplish thanks
Aro pond
- Thread starter Nickchevy
- Start date
When you build it, fill the gaps between the framing with R30 foam insulation. In general how you heat it isn’t important because, due to the conservation of matter, one watt of power will always turn to 1 watt of heat. What you should focus on is trapping that heat and keeping your power bill down. Make sure to make some kind of lid/insulated cover because most of your losses will be out the top. That being said RTCS are pretty tolerant. I had 4 babies live in 55 degree water for 2 months when I was younger because I forgot to ever connect the heater
Simple as that, water not only conducts water very well but also keeps it. You do not any sort of large money swats to keep aros comfortable. They are hardy fishes to begin with
This is great info - I've been able to find annoyingly little re. the low-temp tolerances of fish.
My silver aro will start to outgrow this wall-build by the fall (only 17" wide) so I'll be breaking ground on a pond towards the end of summer. This house is on a mountain and winter days are 24~27C if the sun is shining, but 18~21 at night Dec-Jan-Feb with occasional drops to 14~16C. Not a million-miles from NickChevy, but without the cold & hot spikes.
So 55F air-temp for an occasional overnight should be fine, particularly if >50% of the water volume is underground and I float styrofoam on the surface and/or a tarp for chilled rain. I'll ask the importer about RTC!
What other sp. should be Ok in NickChevy's pond?
According to USF&W Cichla temensis die at 15~16C, which is why they didn't "take" in Texas in the '80s; however, this wouldn't seem to jibe with Fla's winter cold-snaps nor Blakewater's experience with RTC considering they come from the same streams. My clown loaches got quiet when the office tank got down to 21C in January, but nobody else seemed to notice. They were back to full mania by 23C. If they ever get into the pond I'll have to plump a dribble from the solar... doable, totally doable.
My silver aro will start to outgrow this wall-build by the fall (only 17" wide) so I'll be breaking ground on a pond towards the end of summer. This house is on a mountain and winter days are 24~27C if the sun is shining, but 18~21 at night Dec-Jan-Feb with occasional drops to 14~16C. Not a million-miles from NickChevy, but without the cold & hot spikes.
So 55F air-temp for an occasional overnight should be fine, particularly if >50% of the water volume is underground and I float styrofoam on the surface and/or a tarp for chilled rain. I'll ask the importer about RTC!
What other sp. should be Ok in NickChevy's pond?
According to USF&W Cichla temensis die at 15~16C, which is why they didn't "take" in Texas in the '80s; however, this wouldn't seem to jibe with Fla's winter cold-snaps nor Blakewater's experience with RTC considering they come from the same streams. My clown loaches got quiet when the office tank got down to 21C in January, but nobody else seemed to notice. They were back to full mania by 23C. If they ever get into the pond I'll have to plump a dribble from the solar... doable, totally doable.
