Stingray pond

[mattamin]

I am going to be building a 20x6ft pond in my garage for henlei rays. I was wondering what to do to stop them getting out.

If i just have the water to 2.5ft and then 1ft taller would this stop them? Also i am going to be using a big koi pond filter with this and a swimming pool heater, has anyone got any other tips or advice for me?

Cheers

 

[oldfish]

plan on a tight fitting cover to keep the heat in or you will be paying to heat the entire garage

 

[sam buckle]

The evaporation and heat loss will be massive. I would definitely make a cover out of clear box section polycarbonate like they use for conservatory roofs. Otherwise your garage will be a damp rotten mess within a couple of months. I have seen an entire fish room have to be pulled apart after just 3 months because the uncovered tropical pond caused so much moisture that anything not waterproofed had started rotting/rusting.

The cover would still let light in and also keep the heat from escaping.
The pond sounds great though. Have you already got the rays?

 

[RedTailKinG]

fish net over the top

 

[mattamin]

thanks for your replys. i think a cover over the top will be the best way, i didnt think about the moisture!

no i dont have the rays yet. i am not sure how many and what sex's to get. i would like to have them breed (in an ideal world) so i was thinking of one male and two females. how would they all get on if i was to get two males and 4 females? will there be much aggresion between the males?

i was also thinking of having dividers that i can take in and out, so when they do breed i can seperate the male from the female and pups, and then seperate the pups so i can give them loads of food without any competition from the adult rays.

 

[Just Toby]

You need to insulate the underside of the pond if possible, clear cover would also be good. depending on the type of garage you could insulate the garage and heat the garage area.

Filtration will also be a big issue.

What type of pool heater do you plan to use? In line electric needs to be around 3kw, Gas boiler would need gas supply and flue kit, Airsource heat pump will cost £5000 to buy etc.....

Good Luck with it, keep us posted.

 

[skynoch]

Besides the above that was mentioned I would stay away from a pond liner if housing rays or you will develop leaks in about 2.5 to 3 years. I would use a rubber coating like zavlar or epoxy paint.

 

[mattamin]

I am going to insulate the garage and then heat the room to 16 degrees (ish). I think i will be going with a clear cover on some sort of pully/ draw bridge set up so i can easily lift it up.

I will use a big Koi filter, the nexus 310 seems quite good, has loads of media for the biological filtration and mechanical seems quite good.
http://www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/Nexus_Eazy_200_300.html

Not too sure what sort of heater i am going to use yet, i was thinking of a electric, and hope that by heating the room and keeping it all insulated that the running costs arn't too high, but still need to look into that.

I was thinking to using tiles, just like in a swimming pool. Not sure if that would work out better then the rubber coating or not.

 

[arowfan]

I would insulate the pond...and if the garage is attached to the house, you might want to heat it if possible. I believe I used r19 inside the pond, then added two tarps (10 mil each) and then a 45mil fish safe pond liner and so far so good! Right now its a little more then half full-theres about 300 gallons in there now, and I'm heating it with a 150 watt heater w/ the water temp easily at 80, and I can go higher if I want!
here's some pics:

And as for a top, I'm constructing a plywood frame (which will be waterproffed) with sliding windows to open...as everyone has mentioned, there will be a lot of moisture! Good luck, sounds like its going to be a great pond!

 

[Just Toby]

Cool pics.

Personally I would have used Celotex to insulate as it would form one panel, would be stiff and 2 inches is equivalent to over 4 of normal insulation.

Mattamin, I have a contact who has 2 inline 3KW pool heaters for sale, I may take one for my pool. They are made of Titanium and have built in thermostats. They are less than 2 yrs old as they were uses to heat a complete fish shop system which recently burned to the ground so they are selling off everything that did not get damaged by the fire. I will shoot you a pm when I get the prices - they should be cheap though!