New Pond

guppy

Small Squiggly Thing
Apr 15, 2005
11,582
87
0
confused, lost, and lonely
Heating is going to kill you. Insulate both under and around the pond and think about a greenhouse. An 8'x 12' pond built with two steps, one at 2'deep, and one at 3' deep with the deepest part being 4' deep will probably neep retaining walls and will contain almost 1900g but be deep enough to mitigate weather effects if it is protected in a plastic green house that could be removed in good weather but I would not risk it.
There are some great temperate weather fish from Europe and Eurasia such as sterlet and zander that you might look into. A scan of fishbase in the by country listings for place like poland or hungary can give you some ideas. Many of these fish are long lived and some will hand tame for feeding. American eels are also a pond choice. For a pond that size you will want 2 4250gph pumps and at least 120g worth of filter and maybe (2) 300g plant troughs. It only takes a few hours of power outage or one bad storm to wipe out an outside tropical tank in your area.
 

ZBT3091

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 22, 2005
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I was thinking about getting an American Eel and some other cool ones like maybe a stingray(s), clown knife, arrow, or a gar or 2. The problem is that i already have these 2 RB pacu, so im gonna have to put them into the pond. How much wud it be for one of them 'portable greenhouses'? Should i just use alot of heaters? Can this be done????!?
 

mkpeters6

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 10, 2005
156
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denver/syracuse
i dont think it is feasible to keep tropical fish outdoors in new york period w/o the project costing 1000s of dollars (including some type of heated enclosure and not considering electric bill) the winters are just too cold and there is just too much snow

if you want to do a pond w/tropical fish in new york it has to be indoors
 

ZBT3091

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 22, 2005
23
0
0
43
thanks for all the info. This is gonna b tough. I think i might go for it and set up a greenhouse with mega-heating. A bunch of pond heaters + insulation. Worst comes to worst i can put them indoors or sell them. thanks for all of the advise. I just have a few questions about compatability. Is it possible to keep a couple of rays, an arrow, 2 red pacu, gar(s), maybe a clown knife or peacock bass or 2. For a 500-1000 gallon tank with this b alright?
 

auren

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 16, 2005
9
0
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47
Mexico City
Well I have an outside 350 gallon concrete japanese style pond, and I live in Mexico city where it doesn't snow or there the climate is stable. winters it the coldest during winter is 41 F and the warmest in summer is 77 F. I have tropical fish like an angel fish that has lasted with me almost two years, 1 hybrid parrot fish, I also had an arowana that thrived for 1yr and a half and looked great!!! (until I did the mistake of adding to much salt for one koi in the pond, and the arowana couldn handle it) I heat my pond with 1800 watts of sumbersible heaters (for sub-heaters go to: www.clepco.com). I also have a net around the pond to protect it from leaves. I must say that in regards to having your fish in a tank or in a tropical community watergarden or pond is a question of taste, I personally love sitting in my garden and watching my fish swim from the undeground pond and Arowanas dont need a lot of depth in a pond, they do need surface space though, they always swim in the surface.

What you could do is leave them outside all the time, and in the winter you can maybe cover the entire area like with a tent or something and get an outside heater or somethin (bad thing is you need $$), its not that good to stress your fish by taking them in and out in winter. Advice: I bought myself a wireless digital thermometor from radio shack with two wireless thermometors which I could monitor from my room. One thermometor is made for spas and pools, therefore I placed it in my pond and the other I just left in my garden. Now I can monitor my temp from my room and put an alarm if tempo goes beyond a certain range. Hope this info is useful.
 
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