First Tropical Pond Build

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Here's a few picutures of my little progress in the past couple days. Haven't had much time to I haven't gotten very far.
You can see where I'm starting to dig out a thin area, then I'll widen it up again from there.
It will be like a large Figure-8 with two pools on each side, and eventually a bridge accross the center.
Unless I decide that I just want to dig that out into a large oval shape instead, I'll just have to see how it looks when I'm done digging

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Looking good. The green house should help keep the temperature of the pond up. The fire barrel is an interesting idea. Worth a shot make sure to take pictures. Fire is always cool. Are you just planning on camping out and throwing in a log every hour? A non electric alternative is a natural gas or propane pool heater. My parents had one on their pool and it was able to raise the temp by about 15 degrees. Natural gas is fairly cheap here, alot cheaper than electric.
 
We always have a burn barrel going through the winter for the cats. So this would just be another one for when the temps start dropping.
But when we have it going, we throw in one large log at a time and have the lid on the barrel open just enough for the fire to breath a little. So it'll normally burn for 12+ hours at a time and it puts off a ton of heat.
I figure once the temps in the greenhouse are up that they'll stay up though, but I've never done anything like this before so I'm not totally sure.
 
SO the problem I have with using a wood fired heating system is keeping a constant temperature in the pond. My parents have a wood fired radiator system in their cabin in northern WI. It does a crap job of keeping it a consistent temp. The reason is if the fire is to low it cannot properly heat, but the real problem is when the fire gets too hot. The water in the system gets super hot and you cannot shut off it from circulating to the radiators. It is a fail safe because if the water just sits and boils it will eventually explode the lines. So if the fire gets to hot and is super heating the water it needs to cycle in new water as a fail safe to prevent a steam explosion. The nature of a fire does not give off consistent heat which fish like. I think by the time you figure in all the fail safes to prevent cooking or freezing your fish it will cost way more in the long run. You could use an automated pellet stove my friend has one of those in his cabin and says it gives good consistent heat but I have 0 first hand experience with them.

I agree electricity will put you in the poor house heating this thing. That is why I thought a natural gas water heater might be the cheapest easiest way to approach this.

I would also find someone in your area who has a green house and ask them what the temps are like in the winter you might get lucky and not have to heat it at all. If the green house temps stay around 76-78 in winter you should be good depending on what you stock. Maybe even just add wood fired heat to the green house to heat the pond. If you raise the temp of the green house it will heat the pond and if it gets to hot you can have a automated thing that opens a window. I know this is not the ideal for you but maybe it should be looked at.
 
I definitely agree with not using the fire as a full source of heat, but I think itll be a good back-up to bring the temp up quickly if needed.
But really I think if I get the temps up one time that the greenhouse will keep them up.

But what I'm doing isn't an actual building. I'm doing a small hoop-house that can be put up during the winter and taken down in the summer. And it will probably only be 3-6' tall (3-6' off the water)
 
I quit digging.
I decided to just rent a tractor for 24 hours to dig out the rest of it, dig the long areas to run water and electricity out there, and to also do a few other chores around the property with it.
It'll cost $180 to rent but I think it's worth it.
This will either take place on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday depending on when my dad and I have time
 
Quick update. A few minutes ago we tried to start up the old pump so make sure it would work, and well........... It caught on fire.
So if anyone knows where I can buy a new pump CHEAP either local or online then please let me know

I'm 50 miles North of Houston Texas, so if you know of anything cheap in the area then please tell me, or if you know of any pond/pool websites that'll be good too. I'm going to start looking tonight

Can anyone let me know what a good price to aim for would be though?

Thanks
 
So now you can use the old pump to heat the pond :D
 
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