New Fish Room Setup - DIY Pond + In-Wall

[aeri]

After a few slow months of working on my new basement setup, it's finally complete.
I built an 8'L x 4'W x 3'H plywood pond, inside dimensions approx 84" x 44", water filled to 30" height.
Also busted a hole in the wall leading to the furnished area of the basement to make an in-wall tank, and put together a stand.

Plywood Pond:

Styrofoam insulation

Installing the liner

Siliconing the gap between the top trim and liner to minimize any evaporation/water leaks

3x 33G totes as W/D

Acrylic pieces to support lids

More insulation

Stand

In-Wall tank front view

Final Setup

 

[aquaponicpaw]

very nice! On behalf of everyone that views this thread, I'd like to make an early request for more pics, a breakdown of Your filtration setup and more pics of stock. You've done a very fine job.

 

[Dial92]

this is awesome to say the least

 

[rwellbaum]

very cool! and yes more pics!!!

 

[gangster]

Awesome build!

 

[bozatron]

I'm with everyone else, awesome set up. I am not too keen on your in wall tank decor, but each and every man to their own. It would be boring if we all liked the same. That is a nice looking Aro! what is in the pond? and what about a stocklist and filtration list? Good Job!!

 

[Kyle_91]

Great builds!
More pics and updates please!

- What are you gonna end up putting in the pond?

 

[Prakashv]

BIG and Clean; love the crystal cleat water. Would love to know more about the type of filtration used.

 

[geronimo69]

That pond is awesome. Love the way it was built.

Prakashv: The water in your tanks isn't crystal clear?... Mine all are

 

[aeri]

Thanks everyone . Everything is pretty much stocked already, I'm actually trying to downsize what I can (mainly the 125G tank). I tried to take a few more pics of the fish in the pond but it's a bit dark. I took an underwater video as well...made me realize how loud the splashing of the water is underwater.

Anyways here's the filtration and stock list:

In-Wall Tank
Filtration - AC110, Eheim 2217, Eheim Pro 3e
Stock - African cichlids all raised from babies. Originally 6 halembe frontosas, 8 yellow labs, 2 OB peacocks, 1 albino socolfi, 1 sp44, 2 hap ali, 2 johanni, 2 golden johanni, 2 strawberry peacocks. Coincidentially I seemed to have at least 1M and 1F for each because they've all bred so much I've lost count of how many fish I actually have in there.

Turtle Tank
Stock - 2 red ear sliders

3ft Tank
Stock - 3 leucistic axolotls

125G Tank
Filtration - Eheim W/D 2229, 2x Hydro 5 sponges
Stock - RTG arowana, Endlicheri bichir, 2 Lapredei bichirs

Pond
Filtration - Mag1200 pump through 1" PVC pipes out 2 spray bars into 3 33g totes. Each tote is about 27Lx16Wx12H and has a hole drilled in every square inch along the bottom, trickling water down to the next tote. The very last tote on the bottom has 2x 2.5" holes to pour water out and help oxygenate the pond (My whisper 100 air pump does nothing...but I'm having a hard time finding a large air pump that isn't annoyingly loud).

Starting from the bottom of the trickle filter, I have a 4" layer of mechanical sponge, 300 bioballs, and a little over 700 of those plastic scrubbies (I cleared out the stock in over 8 dollar stores). The top tote has one row of scrubbies, 6 bags of ceramic stones, and 1 layer of filter floss. There's still a good half of the top tote which is empty...deciding what else to fill it with.

There's a 12"x18" space on the left of the totes, I'm thinking of hanging a plastic bin with it partially submerged and drilled, and either putting in plants or K1, not sure which would be better.

Stock - jardini, giant gourami, 7 tinfoil barbs, 2 lemon finned barbs. The 9 barbs are there as dithers to ideally minimize any fighting, and to eat any leftover crumbs from the jardini/gourami. I also recently picked up an rtg that's in there too but I sectioned it off because it wasn't eating.

Additional Points
- I spent the extra money on cedar for the top trim and the wooden filtration 'stand' as I heard that cedar has the most water-resistant properties out of the woods they sell at home depot. Pressure treated wood I was told to stay away from
- The top lids are made of clear shower curtains tightly wrapped and taped around PVC pipes. This way the arowana can jump without getting hurt, and no risk of it breaking. It helps keep the heat and water in, and if it falls in for some reason it won't pierce the pond liner or hurt any fish since it's light and rounded

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