Is it possible to keep an outdoor saltwater pond or fountain?

[Auren]

Hi, I actually only keep FreshWater fishes in an 350gal outdoor ornamental fountain/pond with heaters and a stable temperature of 25 celcius. Where I live in Mexico City the temperature fluctuationas ara not high and it doesnt snow or get that cold and it nos very hot like in tropical places. I was wondering is it possible to keep an ornamental pond or fountain with the hardiest species of Marine Fish? Has anybody heard of such pond or watergarden. My only concern is rain. Thank you.

[wayne]

It has been done. Unless it rains a lot , evaporation is likely a bigger problem. I would say the biggest problem is the cost

[ChicoRaton]

if you happen to live near an unpolluted section of ocean, you could run a pipe out 100 yards into the ocean and pump water up to your house and have it overflow back out to sea. no filter required;)

[edit] aha, mexico city. Nevermind... that's right in the middle of mexico isn't it? that'd be a long pipe.

[Auren]

Thanks I will look into it, currently I use aprox 2000 watts of sub heaters to keep my 350 gallon watergarden to a temp of 25 Celcius. I guess the major cost is electricity, and I would need to use some very powereful protein Skimmer, with some wet dry. I guess the regular bio filter is not enough

[wayne]

Well I tihnk this can work quite well if you want to try. You want to get a big pond pump. You can try a 2 step pond. Pump water up out of the display pond up into a smaller pond filled with limestone chips or small blocks to act as a biofilter. Water then cascades over waterfall and into display.

Presumably your sunlight will be more than adequate (how much local smog?), and you have to keep it warm. I think evaporation will be high so get a salinity meter and a dosing pump, likely your piggest expense, plus a skimmer as required.

[stephenray75]

I have seen some impresive SW ponds. I have seen some that have sharks, rays, and even mini coral setups. THere is alocal FS that deals with ponds. in their store they have a SW pond with sharks and other fish as a example.

[Auren]

[QUOTE= Presumably your sunlight will be more than adequate (how much local smog?), and you have to keep it warm. I think evaporation will be high so get a salinity meter and a dosing pump, likely your piggest expense, plus a skimmer as required.[/QUOTE]

Smog is quite high in the metroplitan area I live higher uphill where it is supposidly cleaner, I guess a temp of 27 is adequete. And what is a dosing pump? Is is a pump that provides salt to the pond depending on the salinity meter? Another question which migh be dull, but might as well ask, does the bottom have to be sand?

[Auren]

I have seen some impresive SW ponds. I have seen some that have sharks, rays, and even mini coral setups. THere is alocal FS that deals with ponds. in their store they have a SW pond with sharks and other fish as a example.

Do you have the web adress or some reference of those FS where you have seen those ponds? Where they exterior ponds?

[Cearbhaill]

All of the saltwater "ponds" (actually huge tanks) or coral propagation setups I have seen are either under large tarps or inside a sort of greenhouse setup. Rain, evaporation. and temperature control will be your biggest considerations.

I have considered doing something of this sort for a long time, but my ambient air temperatures are so high that I would need a huge underground sump to keep my turnover water cool enough- and I don't really want to dig up my yard.
If you could somehow incorporate a really large indoor sump it would help a great deal.

[Auren]

Where I live in winter the coldest it gets is around 55 F in Winter and the warmer is 73 F in Summer, but with all of my sub heaters I have kept a stable water temperature of 77-78 F. Fortunatly I dont have to use such a sump my problem would be in such a case electricity bills to keep a stable temp. I don't know exactly how I could handle rain, though..