Started this in the DIY section but think it belongs here! Set up my kiddie pool last night...Fantastic idea lads...cheers! Pics are crap as my camera sucks if the lights not perfect....
Kiddie Pool Pond
- Thread starter King Edward
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The waters dirty as I half filled it with pond water, and as its the end of Autum, its quite mucky now. You cant see any fish in there but there are some convicts...very adept at hiding...Now wondering what to do. I got this pool as they breed too much and the tank became CARNAGE! This solves the probs temporarily, but they will soon start breeding again and overpopulate this pool. Any ideas on control?
I am torn between making it a central american pool of doom, by adding some dempseys ect and maybe a Jag. I believe they predate cons in they wild? And making a 3ft square 'cage' out of eggcrate and lobbing my Pirhana in...thus hopefully the younger more curious cons will slip through the holes feeding Heinrich. I'd like to just put him in but am worried he might bite the wall and pop it!
Any Ideas?
I am torn between making it a central american pool of doom, by adding some dempseys ect and maybe a Jag. I believe they predate cons in they wild? And making a 3ft square 'cage' out of eggcrate and lobbing my Pirhana in...thus hopefully the younger more curious cons will slip through the holes feeding Heinrich. I'd like to just put him in but am worried he might bite the wall and pop it!
Any Ideas?
Wajoo I set the same type of pond up for a Saltwater holding tanks for Sharks and Rays. I just used a pond liner, pond padding, and a few cinder blocks to help with the sturdyness and any possible biters. Will post pictures later. Glad to see someone else decided to make use out of a cheap kiddie pool.
I'm glad you asked that as I wanted to run it by you! At the minute there is a Very Mature 70's Fluval in there. Its been dropped and repaired so many times theres more superglue than original plastic! Its full of carbonpads and gravel which it regularily pulls through its impeller AND LAUGHS! I HAVE TRIED TO KILL IT, BUT IT WILL NOT DIE!
This is fine with the cons but if i put anything else in there, and the desire is burning, I'll need some more! There's a window behind the pond that has a windowsill 12" wide and 4' long. I want to put a tank here, pump the water (If I can find a cheap modern pump that wont faint when it sees a bit of leaf in the water or start making a racket as a water flea knocked the impeller off center) from the pond up to this tank, wher I want to grow a veggie filter. This will gravity feed via a spray bar to the open head of a 6" by 2' length of drainpipe full of gravel with the exit end stuck in a deep gravel bed in a 55 gallon Shrub pot. Above the gravel bed is a mini-pond with my guppies in it. This will overflow back to the kiddie pool, hopefully taking some of the cute baby guppies with it solving my other overpopulation problem!
This is fine with the cons but if i put anything else in there, and the desire is burning, I'll need some more! There's a window behind the pond that has a windowsill 12" wide and 4' long. I want to put a tank here, pump the water (If I can find a cheap modern pump that wont faint when it sees a bit of leaf in the water or start making a racket as a water flea knocked the impeller off center) from the pond up to this tank, wher I want to grow a veggie filter. This will gravity feed via a spray bar to the open head of a 6" by 2' length of drainpipe full of gravel with the exit end stuck in a deep gravel bed in a 55 gallon Shrub pot. Above the gravel bed is a mini-pond with my guppies in it. This will overflow back to the kiddie pool, hopefully taking some of the cute baby guppies with it solving my other overpopulation problem!
Heres what I was thinking. I have a longer window sill tank, thats just one I use to grow little bugs for my baby cloud minnows, and the pipe will be verticle! Any suggestions on suitable plants? I know its not nearly enough area to fully filter the water, but some floating plants can get a dense growth. My Missus says strawberries!
Get a Dimidiochromis Compressiceps. It will make short work of fry and enjoy the space. Try to get a male as they are pretty colorful.
the thing is convicts protect their fry...do you think he'd survive against an angry pair of cons? Nice looking fish though. I'd never considered malawis. The water here in Scotland runs off granite so has a KH of 0...my cons are aclimatised to very soft water, hence the pirhana! Water here needs hardening for amazons,lol!
King Edward;1289479; said:
Looks like it will work fine. A pond feature pump (fountain) with a coarse foam filter to stop the fleas and leaves will work (& give a little peace of mind). Aerate the water in the tank (under the roots) with a couple of wands (full length of the tank).
Pre-filter the water before it enter the plant tank, but don't clean the pre-filter very often (bet you never heard someone tell you that before
), this way the waste will breakdown by errosion and be better used by the plants.You'll have to trellis strawberries (MMmmm), but thta's a nice spot for them. If your leaning toward edible plants .. lettuce & watercress have a good root structure, otherwise...
Floating plants: waterlettuce, water hyacynth, cattails if you can support them. Duck weed to fill in the spaces (& use for fish food). Lilies are too big for what the contribute (or take away).
Submerged plants?: Anacharis, foxtail, hornwort, parrots feather, algae.
If there is enough fish waste/ammonia you can combine both types of plants in there.
Aerate the gravel filter from the bottom also (important, water is depleted at this time from fish and plants (@ night)). Have you considered small lava rock (more surface area) instead of gravel? Some say it clogs up, but with the pre-filter that could be 2 years down the road. I keep a 55g barrel (with a lid) of it with water aging after cleaning.
This is a nice project. Especially since your DW is chiming in positively
(
).Dr Joe
.
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