indoor pond

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
lol, missed a few questions. I just moved yet again, I now own a house here in montana. The pond has been moved to the garage. The heater size when it was outside was 2 500w titanium heaters. With all the insulation they hardly every ran, even when the wind chills were -45 f. Now I have the top off in the garage and the big boy is doing fine. He has ate about 8 lbs. of pompano and shrimp in the past month. I am going to get him some white suckers when I get home from work to eat and chase for enrichment. The other catfish including the plecostumus that was in his tank with him all died while upgrading the pond. I had the two smaller hybrids in a seperate tub with the pleco while I was doin the upgrades. I had the big boy on a seperate circuit breaker and one night when it was really cold somehow the circuit breaker tripped, but the big boy's didn't. All but the pleco in the other tank died. The filters that I had on their temporary tanks also froze that night. I put the pleco in with the big boy. The water in the tank I took him out of had ice on top and the temp at the bottom of the tank was around 38 degrees F. The big boy's temp was 56 that night. I don't know how those two didn't die. I put an extra heater in with them and that tub held at 80 f. Since they were in smaller tubs no one was eating and I believe the pleco died of malnutrition. My big fish was in horrible shape for the first month he was back in his pond, but now is healthier than ever. Why all that stuff I did you ask. All because my landlord at the time said I had to. After the fish died I decided that I needed to move and just get a place of my own so that I could have the freedome to do what I want with my fish dreams. Now the pond has the rocks in it again, plus some nice rocky sand on the bottom for substrate. He went nuts when I put him back in. I only had to do 2 days of upgrades this time so he wasn't as stressed as last time. I will add some new pics when I get home from work. Tnx for all the compliments and feedback.
 
wizzin;734665; said:
good stuff! what part of Montana are you in? Still in Montana? What size heaters did you end up with? If it's in the thread already, sorry. sorry for the 20 questions too~
Click to expand...



In great falls montana. 2 500w heaters.
 
I used 2" thick plastic laminated styrofoam insulation, and also 16" thick batts of regular attic insulation. I great stuffed every seam, and crevice, and on top of all of that I used 3 gallons of waterproof sealant on all wooden surfaces, and silicone caulked every gap on the outside. Barely any heat loss whatsoever! Hope that helps. There was about $300 of insulation alone in the pond. Now I am in the design and planning phases of the 12'x8'x4' custom aquarium that I am going to build in my garage beside my pond. Roughly 2400 gals on the inside measurements. If you use the outside measurements it would be close to 2900 gals, but it will have thick walls.
 
http://www.quickpools4less.com/securecart/frameset.htm

That will probably be my new indoor pond in the next couple of months. I was going to build a 2500 gal aquarium, but with the prices of gas, and wood and everything else in the world this is a much better option!
 
got the 10 ft model of the pool setup in my garage beside the other pond. It's cycling right now. Can't wait to get some fish in it.
 
yeah, the filtration pretty much sux, but will do the job until I can get something better. Right now I have a 20 gal rubbermaid container full of filter floss on one end and pot scrubbers on the other. The stock load is not going to be that huge right now, but once the fish grow more I will have to upgrade the filtration. I'll try to get some pics really soon.
 
Hey at least its better then the pool pump it comes with ;) I still haven't upgraded mine, just checked the paramenters last night trying to get my pH down by the end of this next week and I'll have heat by then so it will be time to move at least the big TSN to the pond and leave the perch for feeders. Post pics! ~Trent

Also: 300lbs of sand isn't enough to cover the bottom in case you were wondering.... I need at least another 50-100lbs :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom