First, my wife and I are putting together a pond, rather a couple of adjoining ponds. We are going to house tropical fish. Both ponds will be using liners. Basically our plan is we will have one pond (approx. 7x7x2) partially above ground, we want to have one foot above and one foot below. The other pond will be completely below ground and will be 11 x12 x ???. We have had a lot of experience with indoor aquariums but this is our first outdoor venture. We currently have 4 indoors. Our plan is that we connect the two ponds by a canal (approx. 6ft long by one ft wide). This should create a natural waterfall (small pond being one foot higher than the large pond). We plan on using sand in both ponds. We will have a mixture of large rocks and tropical plants around both ponds. We also plan a fountain on the larger pond. We will have plants in both ponds. We haven't decided on the exact fish as of yet, although we will be transferring an iridescent shark, 3 bala sharks (may add 3 more), a black shark and a couple of plecos from indoors to outdoors. We will probably add some tinfoils and maybe some cychlids. We may also transfer some kissing gouramis.
First, my plan is to dig the holes with a bobcat which should speed things up dramatically.
Now on to some questions. We are going to use an inline system.
I like what I see with the sequence pumps.
What filter would work best with what we want to do? We will also be using a uv sterilizer which we use on our indoor tanks as well.
Second, with the natural waterfal as I think it will work, the pump would have to return water from the large pond back to the small. Can this be done using the same pump as the fountain?
Third, We are trying to decide on the depth of the larger pond. We are already thinking of have one part deeper for easier cleanup. But do we get an extra advantage of having an average depth of 3 or 4 ft vs 2 ft? I know it will be a lot more water which will change which pump, uv sterilizer,etc. we will need but are there any real advantages?
Fourth, Any recommendations on the types of plants we should use? There will be some shade but a good amount of sunlight. I was thinking anarchis to start with.
Finally, we are thinking of setting up a solar setup. Has anyone done this successfully with an outdoor pond? I think this would make sense economically. I am not sure the size we would need but I would like to power everything with solar.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
First, my plan is to dig the holes with a bobcat which should speed things up dramatically.
Now on to some questions. We are going to use an inline system.
I like what I see with the sequence pumps.
What filter would work best with what we want to do? We will also be using a uv sterilizer which we use on our indoor tanks as well.
Second, with the natural waterfal as I think it will work, the pump would have to return water from the large pond back to the small. Can this be done using the same pump as the fountain?
Third, We are trying to decide on the depth of the larger pond. We are already thinking of have one part deeper for easier cleanup. But do we get an extra advantage of having an average depth of 3 or 4 ft vs 2 ft? I know it will be a lot more water which will change which pump, uv sterilizer,etc. we will need but are there any real advantages?
Fourth, Any recommendations on the types of plants we should use? There will be some shade but a good amount of sunlight. I was thinking anarchis to start with.
Finally, we are thinking of setting up a solar setup. Has anyone done this successfully with an outdoor pond? I think this would make sense economically. I am not sure the size we would need but I would like to power everything with solar.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.