need idea's for indoor pond

[mylilzoo]

What I'd like to do is build a peice of haven in the basement.Pond with different spiece's ie:fish,frogs,crayfish,insects and plants.just like the real thing.Then once it is sustained I will put a 2' dwarf caimen.The only fish he eats is gold fish so I want to put a bunch of breeders in and get a good school going.HE also eats frogs so I'll do the same for that.Everything else should be fine.The pond is either 200 or 292 gl. I not sure what I'll need in terms of pump,filter,skimmer,chemicals ect......All I know is I have a prefromed pond and a caimen. If anyone can help Please do so.Thanks in advance.Guy

 

[Dr Joe]

mylilzoo....


How's you budget?? Eh, we'll start cheap...

You got a good start, unless you want to build your own W/D, get one of these..

http://www.pondliner.com/PM1000.htm & http://www.pondliner.com/PM5.htm

Or if you want the filter out of the pond...

http://www.pondliner.com/PF1.htm

Place in the middle and arrange your plants to hide it, plus the water will be flowing past the plants to feed them.

Make a return system of pipes around the circumference of the bottom of the pond with several jets to create circulation.

Hang your lighting above the center of the pond for the plants.

Screen around the edge of the pond slanted inward so the critter will fall back in when he tries to climb out.

Post some pix of what you've got now too...kind of a before and after.

Dr Joe

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[mylilzoo]

I'm not sure what W/D means. But I'm gonna use the pre-formed pond for now.What I'm doing is building a huge pen style enclosure. It will have 2 ponds the 200-292 gl and a smaller 50 gl so if he gets sick of sharing the water with the other stuff he can hang out in the little one by himself.What I need to know his what kind of heating,filtration ect. what size pumps,will I need skimmers ect,

 

[Z Trip]

You will need a VERY pond for any caiman. Atleast 9X9 of water area not counting the square footage of land area. Dwarf caiman get onver 4 feet long whenproperly cared for. You will need to use special pond liner/matrerial that the caiman canot peirce. I do not know of any pre-formed pond that can hold a caiman.

Z

 

[chesterfieldzoo]

I don't know if you have a Lowe's store by you, but they have an 8 foot x 5 foot preformed pond. It's huge. Graingers sells heaters - you would need to put it in something separate from the pond itself - like in a filter. Comes with a thermostat and temperature probe for about $350. I just put one in a 2500 gallon pond. Just a hint, put the pond on a piece of stryrofoam insulation to break the concrete to water connection. You will be able to control the water temp better if you don't have to deal with fluctuating concrete temps.

 

[mylilzoo]

I like the styrofoam idea, I just picked up the pond last night, It's 8'x5'x3' and it is pre-formed.Thanks for your input Z Trip but caimen's can grow up to 7' feet depending on the size of enclosure and the amount of food you give it,I know a guy who expeirments with stunting the growth of his reptile's,He has several american ali's that he has stunted as well as some dwarf caimens ,turtle'sand tortoise's and all are very healthy.Beside's that caimen's take a very long time to grow ,So I'm not worried about the size of his pond.

 

[frasertheking]

what lighting are you getting ? to grow plants in there unless it gets full sun you might wanna look into metal halogens .hydrophonic shops should have them . you might be able to get away with one but 2 600watts would grow most things in the pond

 

[Z Trip]

Spectacle caiman get 6-7 feet. Along with Broad snouted caiman.

Dwarfs and Smooth Fronts get 4-5 feet max.

yep pretty sure their smaller then the one your thinking about. And they grow a foot a year, and thats fast IMO.

Z

 

[frasertheking]

just got your pm


i thik its the metal halides the halogens dont produce the right specture or intensity but im no expert


not sure on your other question any chance you could explain what you mean in a bit more detail .

but the lighting im sure on larger ponds when you hit 2 wpg your good to grow most things . id stay away from duck weed but some water lettuce would look natural and some reeds possibly some papyrus and lillies would be nice

 

[Dr Joe]

I'm not sure what W/D means. But I'm gonna use the pre-formed pond for now.What I'm doing is building a huge pen style enclosure. It will have 2 ponds the 200-292 gl and a smaller 50 gl so if he gets sick of sharing the water with the other stuff he can hang out in the little one by himself.What I need to know his what kind of heating,filtration ect. what size pumps,will I need skimmers ect,

W/D = Wet / Dry filter, there are alot of plans in the DIY section. You can put the heaters in it so they don't get broken by the critters.

Use multiple heaters in case of failures. Size of heaters depends on temperature differential of your set-up.

Pumps will depend on type of filter, and size of filter will depend on total bio-load and if your going to use part of the pond as a bog filter. Skimmers amy not be necessary.

Dr Joe

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