Too bad it gets cold over here

[Longshot]

Found an 8 inch RTC near by that is outgrowing its 55 gallon tank (but apparently it can temporarily live in the 10 gallon he is trying to get rid of). It is the perfect size and I could probably get this fish dang near free if I wanted.

http://sanmarcos.craigslist.org/pet/3277942659.html

I've got the huge outdoor ponds and everything but I'm not going to try keeping any one of them above 70 this winter and an indoor pond is still out of the question (no room for it).

Dang, I always see cool fish when I can't have them.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Dang, I always see cool fish when I can't have them.

"Hot" fish would have been a more meaningful use here

Sorry, just trying to lighten things up. I know your pains. All do. My wants and means are extremely mismatched too.

 

[Longshot]

LOL

Yeah, I'm in the designing process for an indoor pond. I'm thinking it'll be larger than 6x4x3 so that I can keep a RTC. I've wanted one ever since I saw the monsters at the local Cabela's.
The girlfriend also wants a monster tank so it'll be all green lights when I get started.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

What's Cabela?

Have you given any thought to building a greenhouse-type structure around and above one of your outdoor ponds? Keep it open or just with a shade-cloth for warm times and cover with/roll-down the plastic for the colder times. What's your ground temperature as would be indicated by e.g. an incoming well water temperature?

 

[Andrew1002]

What's Cabela?

Have you given any thought to building a greenhouse-type structure around and above one of your outdoor ponds? Keep it open or just with a shade-cloth for warm times and cover with/roll-down the plastic for the colder times. What's your ground temperature as would be indicated by e.g. an incoming well water temperature?

Cabelas is an outdoor store. That sells fishing, hunting, and most outdoor equipment. If not all then many stores have huge 5000+ gallon fish tanks. And they are known for their huge varieties of fish and the huge fish sizes. Check out Cabelas.com for more info.

-Andrew

 

[Longshot]

What's Cabela?

Have you given any thought to building a greenhouse-type structure around and above one of your outdoor ponds? Keep it open or just with shade-cloth for warm times and cover with/roll-down the plastic for the colder times. What's your ground temperature as would be indicated by e.g. an incoming well water temperature?

An over priced northern sporting goods store that often forgets they are in Texas.

The green house is on the list, just not a giant one. I want the pond built into a main room since we don't watch TV. The primary sump is intended to be in an adjacent green house so that I can grow tropical plants and my girlfriend can do a hydroponic garden.

All of my tanks are also outside right now because nothing grows algae better than well stocked aquarium glass outside and between plants, plecos and snails I clean them once every few weeks with only one small HOB keeping debris out of the main tank (I gutted it and ran the sump pump hose up to it). I've been pushing my designs hard since January and have been impressed so far.

Our springs are 72ish. I've just never had a green house so I don't have first hand experience on their thermal qualities.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

An average, clear plastic greenhouse can conserve the heat received during the day and increase the air/ambient temperature by 10-20 degrees, especially the night's lows.

Well, my thought was simple and based on what I am trying to do here in SW FL. We get several days, maybe a dozen of cold, nights in the 30-ies, a year. The water in the ponds in my dome/greenhouse (unfinished) drops to 60 F while I am pumping a LOT of well water through, incoming at 74 F. Covering the ponds keeps the temp near or above 70 F. There is no way no how I can heat so much water so my saving grace is pumping a LOT of the well water at the ground temperature of 74 F and having roll-down plastic walls to get the greenhouse effect, which should work better than covering just the ponds themselves. The experience shows it can work.

Of course, your winters may be colder but if your ground temp is 72 F, a deep pond (like 20' deep) protected by a greenhouse from the outside when needed, may be a solution to keep an RTC. RTCs can handle low 70-ies. Even high 60-ies for some time although this is not the best, of course.

 

[Longshot]

Hmm, 10-20 over will certainly work. We only have 2 days of winter where the temps get below 32F so your comparison is very useful. I could also build warming loop that consists of black PVC in the sun and only pump water in it during the day when the water will actually be warmed. I've used the technique for livestock so it should be even more effective for this since there will be a constant supply of water being pumped through. If I keep it modular I can replace that loop with an open "creek" to act as a chiller/aerator during the summer.

Just in case anyone is wondering what I'm referring to with the "creek".
I used a gutter drain to spread the water into a thin film. This accomplished several things. It maximized aeration, gave an area for useful algae growth, and acted as an evaporative cooler.

Yes, you are reading that correctly. The water temp is 82 (in the sun) and the air temp is 98F (sensor in the shade).

I've rearranged the outdoor overflow plumbing since that set up and am now sitting at or near ambient for two thin (12 inch deep by 19+ inch tall) glass tanks exposed to the elements. The next step is to test heating strategies before I have to pack everything up in December.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Great ideas! Sounds like you are a routine DIY-er and an experimenter. Now I have to ponder how I may take advantage of these techniques for my purposes.

Why do you need so much algae? I, on the opposite, will cover my fish house with 95% shade cloth and 50% opaque white plastic on the top to cut down on light.

 

[Longshot]

Yeah, ever since I was old enough to scrape together materials. If it weren't for the nasty math classes I would have gone into engineering and just done biology as a hobby. Instead I'm going for biology as a career and engineering as my hobbies (which is really fun if I can just get a job lined up lol).

I didn't grow the algae on the creek section on purpose but it didn't hurt. It was a nice treat ever so often for the plecos and snails. I was trying to grow it in the tank as my water quality indicator. The plecos did a good job at grazing at night so I had trouble estimating growth rates. I put in the creek and suddenly I could watch how long it took to get a solid layer of algae. Algae means unused productivity. Once I added emergent plants my N compounds fell to 0 except for nitrate which has been between 0 and 5 ppm (obviously 0 is impossible in a tank with living organisms). The highest I've gotten lately was 10 ppm on Nitrate after I killed a bunch of fish with an unexpectedly large influx of chlorinated city water. One of the victims was my 12" koi I did have a small algae bloom this week because I removed the gutter drain. Since nothing showed up on the water chemistry I'm assuming it was a jump of CO2. I added my big aerator and growth has subsided again. Now I need to build some way to heat the water in the morning that takes advantage of my established water flow...yes, I've already got a design in mind.

The reason it is in the sun is because I'm testing the limits. Nothing grows algae better then a stocked tank that has direct sun for at least 6 hours per day. Like I mentioned earlier, algae is my indicator.

I'd love to have any one of the monster tanks here because most of them are mere shadows of their potential.