First Tropical Pond Build

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I read on a pond forum where somene used these pool solar covers (basically blue bubble wrap that sits directly on the ponds surface) and lost all of his fish. He thinks it was because with the bubble wrap directly on the pond's surface, there was no oxygen exchange and the fish suffocated. So if you plan to use a solar cover, make sure you have a stong air pump to oxygenate the water.

My idea was to keep a small air-pump running and have a couple pool-rings/inner-tubes or some other floating pool toy under the cover so that gas-exchange can still happen and itll hopefully create a green-house effect too
 
Its coming along nicely. Just a word of caution, I dont know if you were planning on putting the pacu in there too but if it were mine I wouldnt. I have 5 pacu and I didnt put them in my pond this summer because they chewed the liner in my 700 gallon indoor pond. They pretty much chew on anything including electrical wires and air lines. If they decided to chew the liner in the pond it would be very costly and time consuming to fix. Just a warning, it is up to but if I were you I would leave them in the aquarium.

Thanks for pointing that out... Never considered that before.
My pacus chewed a hole into an air-tube in the tank and now it just floats there lifelessly. I left it because they enjoy chewing on it.

They can only chew on wrinkles in the liner though I believe, and i plan to cover all the wrinkles with stone. Think this will solve the problem?
 
To many Pacu liner problem threads for me to trust one.

I heard they are very tasty though....
 
Look at VLDesign's tank http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...16005-My-new-2600-gallon-plywood-tank-project
He used a temperature controller which tells his circulation pump when to switch on and off. The pump was connected to a water heater which circulates warm water through coils in his sump. The coils act as a heater element for the tank. When it gets too hot the controller switches off the circulation pump.

So maybe you could use it the same way with your kindling heater, anyway you can download the build thread in his sig to get the juices flowing.
 
Look at VLDesign's tank http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...16005-My-new-2600-gallon-plywood-tank-project
He used a temperature controller which tells his circulation pump when to switch on and off. The pump was connected to a water heater which circulates warm water through coils in his sump. The coils act as a heater element for the tank. When it gets too hot the controller switches off the circulation pump.

So maybe you could use it the same way with your kindling heater, anyway you can download the build thread in his sig to get the juices flowing.

This is actually something I was considering. Not sure how Id set it up but I'm planning to build the whole system over the summer, hopefully
 
How bout setting up the circulation pump separately on the heater with the temperature controller to directly circulate pond water through the heater. So that way u still use your normal pump for filters and stuff and the circulation pump can then pump (when activated) the water from the heater to the sump or directly into the flow of the pond pump to disperse warmed water.

Only problem I see is that when the circulation pump switches off the next time it switches on again the water in the heater (that is now stagnant) may be too hot and cause a big temp spike. This could probably minimized by using a low flow circulation pump.
 
Well guys... The "Tropical" Pond build is over...
But the Pond Build itself isnt.

I'm going to get rid of the pacus, if thats even possible, and the pond will just be koi and native fish.
If anyone could help me find a good home for the pacus, I'd really appreciate that.
I'm in SE Texas (77351), about 50 Miles north of Houston, they're free if a good home can be provided for them.
I've called every single fish-store within 50 miles of me, and none of them will take them.
I'm open to any suggestions that aren't illegal and that aren't eating them also lol

Other than that... There's a frog who lives in the pond now... Just thought I'd throw that out there :)
 
Well guys... The "Tropical" Pond build is over...
But the Pond Build itself isnt.

I'm going to get rid of the pacus, if thats even possible, and the pond will just be koi and native fish.
If anyone could help me find a good home for the pacus, I'd really appreciate that.
I'm in SE Texas (77351), about 50 Miles north of Houston, they're free if a good home can be provided for them.
I've called every single fish-store within 50 miles of me, and none of them will take them.
I'm open to any suggestions that aren't illegal and that aren't eating them also lol

Other than that... There's a frog who lives in the pond now... Just thought I'd throw that out there :)

Good luck rehoming the Pacus. Don't you also have Siler Aros, TSNs and RTCs? Are you also trying to rehome them?
 
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