Last week I had some free time and Ive had this this rubber roofing material kicking around, so I started digging- I had already tested the rubber previously- to test the roofing I lined a barrel with it, filled it with water and some feeders- after about 2 weeks I pulled the feeders so they could do the job they were born to do- I fed them to the fish that they were testing the rubber for- I already had two existing tropical ponds out back-
I had it set up so one pond would waterfall into a similar sized pond, each one was between 125 and 150 gallons for a total of 250 and 300. Theyre replacement was to be closer to 700 gallons- Anyway the first thing to do was dont plan, just jump in face first- so I moved several cockzillion tons of rocks and boulders before I could pull the upper pond- I also had to put all of its fish and frogs (which were last years tadpoles and just stuck around) into the lower pond then I pulled the waterfall that connects them-
I started in the late afternoon to beat the heat- so the sun was already setting when I pulled it- If I had planned I wouldve known how I was going to filter and oxygenate the water overnight, which was now really important since I had the same amount of dirty fish with half the water volume.
I ran the normal pumps plus I had an old magnum 350 canister that I hated but finally came in handy. The next day I got up early- me and the fish wanted in the new pond that day- so I pumped as much of the water from the pond they spent the night in, into the loose one that I pulled the night before, added some fresh, and topped it off with fish- I got the rest of the water, the lava rock/fluorite/sand substrate, and miscelanious grossness out and pulled the pond- then I started digging out the area the connecting waterfall wasand then kept going-I could do this because the rubber was 8'x16'- I had some old carpet and the foam used under acrylic tanks, so I put those down first, then the liner- I thought that I had put it where I wanted- but Ive got a short side that Im nervous to water behind due to possible cave in- Im working on a solution now-
but the fish are in and other than the nomal aggresion that four 12+" oscars, or four 5"-10" green sunfish, or a breeding pair of Jack Dempseys show toards each other, or the 18" clown knife, or the three channel cats that are 8",12", and 14" and the four plecos(orange spot, albino, rhinocerus, and one more that I forgot but its something other than a common- I still have alot to do like clean up the plumbing and filters, but its a start- the pictures with murky water was day one, its crystal clear now, and probably drinkable except for the oscar pee in it- and the last picture is some baby silver arowanas from the old setup- I just thought it was cool
I had it set up so one pond would waterfall into a similar sized pond, each one was between 125 and 150 gallons for a total of 250 and 300. Theyre replacement was to be closer to 700 gallons- Anyway the first thing to do was dont plan, just jump in face first- so I moved several cockzillion tons of rocks and boulders before I could pull the upper pond- I also had to put all of its fish and frogs (which were last years tadpoles and just stuck around) into the lower pond then I pulled the waterfall that connects them-
I started in the late afternoon to beat the heat- so the sun was already setting when I pulled it- If I had planned I wouldve known how I was going to filter and oxygenate the water overnight, which was now really important since I had the same amount of dirty fish with half the water volume.
I ran the normal pumps plus I had an old magnum 350 canister that I hated but finally came in handy. The next day I got up early- me and the fish wanted in the new pond that day- so I pumped as much of the water from the pond they spent the night in, into the loose one that I pulled the night before, added some fresh, and topped it off with fish- I got the rest of the water, the lava rock/fluorite/sand substrate, and miscelanious grossness out and pulled the pond- then I started digging out the area the connecting waterfall wasand then kept going-I could do this because the rubber was 8'x16'- I had some old carpet and the foam used under acrylic tanks, so I put those down first, then the liner- I thought that I had put it where I wanted- but Ive got a short side that Im nervous to water behind due to possible cave in- Im working on a solution now-
but the fish are in and other than the nomal aggresion that four 12+" oscars, or four 5"-10" green sunfish, or a breeding pair of Jack Dempseys show toards each other, or the 18" clown knife, or the three channel cats that are 8",12", and 14" and the four plecos(orange spot, albino, rhinocerus, and one more that I forgot but its something other than a common- I still have alot to do like clean up the plumbing and filters, but its a start- the pictures with murky water was day one, its crystal clear now, and probably drinkable except for the oscar pee in it- and the last picture is some baby silver arowanas from the old setup- I just thought it was cool
