Hot Tub Pond Anyone?

[GermanRam]

I was sitting here reading about ponds on MFK and a crazy thought came to mind. You see a guy that I do home repairs for told me the other day that he had a nice hot tub that did'nt work and that he would give it to me if I would haul it off. He had put a thousand dollars in repairs but it only ran a few weeks.
Question is....
Is there anyone out there that has turned one of these things into a pond?
Did it work?
How did you filter it?
How did you heat it?
What did you have in it?
Did you have to cover it in the heat or cold or to keep birds out?

Any info on this nutty idea would be great. Thanks, Jay

 

[Dane]

I've thought about it since I used to sell and repair hot tubs and had some shells laying around. You can get caps for all the jets. I would consider using the filtration, heater, and pump system (if it used a smaller circ pump) that is already on the tubs. Keeping the heat in would be an issue. You can't really use a hot tub cover because it blocks all light.

 

[brandonN]

I wanted to do that to our hottub. I'd think that you would use everything the hottub has for heat/filtration. I think a giant sheet of plexiglass would work for a cover

 

[brandonN]

O and you could put any big fish in I'd think

 

[nolapete]

I'd plumb all the jets for returns from my pump(s) and use Uniseals on some large rubbermaid containers for sumps. You could even flip one upside down as a weather cover for your pumps. Just be sure to weight it down. The water would gravity feed through one end of the rubbermaid containers and be pumped out from the other end. Poret foam media would be used as dividers in the containers. I'd coat the inside of the shell with Rubber Coat/Pond Coat to give it UV protection and a long-lasting seal. Just use corrugated plastic roofing sheets to cover it when you're not looking at the fish.

 

[GermanRam]

I'd plumb all the jets for returns from my pump(s) and use Uniseals on some large rubbermaid containers for sumps. You could even flip one upside down as a weather cover for your pumps. Just be sure to weight it down. The water would gravity feed through one end of the rubbermaid containers and be pumped out from the other end. Poret foam media would be used as dividers in the containers. I'd coat the inside of the shell with Rubber Coat/Pond Coat to give it UV protection and a long-lasting seal. Just use corrugated plastic roofing sheets to cover it when you're not looking at the fish.

Sounds good, but what are Uniseals and Poret foam media?

 

[nolapete]

http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret Filter Foam.html

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/829/Uniseals/uniseal/0

 

[GermanRam]

bump

 

[xdragonxb0i]

i would use the hot tob everything. but add additional filtration.

Use the hot tub jets, like power heads. and you can use the hottub top at night, and take it off during the day

 

[kallmond]

Aesthetically it seems sort of lacking. My first impression would be "looks like a broken hot tub filled with fish." My second thought would be "Cool, what better use of a broken hot tub".. But the second is because I'm a fish-geek, and I think pretty much anything that holds water should be filled with fish. Non fish-geeks are going to think its really odd though.