Preformed Basement Fish Pond!

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King Edward that plan would be ideal but id have to build the box super tight and line it with plastic or it would all seep out all over the floor. Id like to avoid filling the box with anything other than insulation...if that wont work then I think id rather have a stock tank.
 
I have a 45 gal preformed plastic pond I got from Manard's.
I turned it into a coffee table by building a little frame around the lip of the top and then adding a bit of decking over that .

The top decking allows people to place their drink down.
It's a cool look that everyone seems to like.

I made the under support frame by turning the plastic pond upside down onto the floor, and cutting short sections of 2x4 that connect to each other and run around the under ring of the pond's lip.

next I just put a few up-and-down 2x4s to hold the ring 2x4s off the floor at the correct hight.

IMPORTANT NOTE - the preformed pond I got was slightly warped so you have to make sure your frame takes this into account ( in other words, dont change the frame to fit the warp, but rather allow the pond to fit the frame)

If your frame is all the same hight off the floor it fixes the warped pond and makes everything even once the pond is filled with water.
I took the warp out by just making sure my frame 2x4s that run up-and-down were all cut to the same length no matter how up or down the plastic lip was warped.

Once the pond was filled with water the weight of the water pushed the highwarps down to match the frame and everything was all nice and even.

(Better make sure you understand the warpping situation and how to fix it or you may end up with a pond thats deeper at one end than the other)
 
I have a preformed pond in my basement and it did distort at half way...i used simple supports and its fine now



doug
 
Now remember, I never said my coffee table pond was something that fit into everyone elses' house.

But the whole way I have done things with design inside my home is to use the concept of - "Normal Things Used In New Ways!"

The Idea I had was to have a pond inside the TV watching room that would not look totally out of place.

It also needed to be usefull, ei, have a place to set my beer down on top of while watching TV...LOL

I took photos of how the pond is sitting in the context of the room so you can see how big it is.

I took a photo of the way I used this pond to test my idea of an upside down aqaurium as part of a pond, This was done here in small-scale.
If you look at the far end of the pond you will see a glass dome thats filled with water and allows the fish to swim up into it and be able to see whats going on in the room.
I also have seen fish use the dome as a penthouse to spot food they didnt see from below the water level looking up.

I tried to take a photo of how I supported the pre-formed shelf that is under the upside down globe. I used a cement block with a paper book between the cement block and the plastic pond.

I tried to take a photo of the 2x4 supports that run around under the plastic lip of the pond top as well as the 2x4s that run up-and-down that keep the pond level.

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Remember I have zero skill with tools, and I did as best I could.
But based on what I saw true (as I worked on this pond I learned) there is no real problem with using the many preformed outdoor ponds they sell to us for our own indoor pond too.

You do have to support the top lip of the pond all the way around, and you also have to support under any shelves that are preformed into the pond.

But other than that, no problem.

One of the things I ran into right away with this pond was the idea that "all indoor ponds need to look like outdoor ponds."
I reject that idea.

To me if you try to make an indoor pond look just like an outdoor pond you are missing the point of having an indoor pond.
I believe that indoor ponds should look like thats what they always were ment to be.
It would be crazy for me to make my future outdoor pond look like my indoor ponds, (setting a TV and chair next to the pond) so why try to make an indoor pond look like an outdoor pond?
 
SkelloEric;4122809; said:
wait. are there basement fish ponds out there?
Click to expand...

:banhim: This thread is over 2 years old.

Look around on this forum, you will find many people that have basement ponds.

I believe the 3,000 liter kiddie pool is one.
 
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