Arizona Outdoor Pond???

mcox3

mcox3

Veritas Aequitas
Dec 26, 2006
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Phoenix, AZ
Do you think this would be possible???

Does anyone keep a pond locally?

I'm skeptical because of the extreme heat during the summer months.

I'm wondering what the temps would be and what factors affect it.
 
If you made it deep enough (4' maybe) and large enough volume, you should be able to maintain cool enough temps. Another good thing would be to use lots of water hyacinth to shade the water. Not sure though, hopefully someone with personal experience can add in. Or, make it 2' deep and breed discus in it when its like 90 degreees.
 
I was thinking of putting together a 7' x 7' x 2.75'

but it would be above ground in the shade on my back porch. maybe I could enclose a section of it.

I really dont want to buy one of these.
 
The heat can sure be a headache at times but you should be able to manage. If its going to be above ground I would make it a full 3 feet deep. The water will be cooler towards the bottom. Placing it in the shade will help some. I don't know how well any water plants will do for you in the shade. One thing I have seen people in hot climates do is build pergolas over the pond. This allows some sun in and also provides some shade.
If you have the freezer space, one thing you can do for the days when things get too warm is keep plastic gallon milk jugs of water frozen. You can put them in the pond to help cool the water.
 
ah, well I wasnt planning on having any plants.

this is going to be more of a giant aquarium, but since it will most likely be kept outside, i decided to call it a pond.

Good idea on the frozen jugs.
 
Shade sails are another option for shading. Some folks don't like the looks of them in their yard but they do help.
Plants, particularly floating types like lilies, water hyacinths, etc. help shade and cool the water. They could be an asset in your climate.
 
I'm going to see if I can convince my girl that closing off part of the back porch is a good idea...

I think with an insulated room it wont be so bad... maybe a fan to keep the air moving inside.

Plus I've got misters back there that help cool things down, maybe i can put them on a timer.
 
This is what I had in mind.

just 2x4 frames with drywall on the inside and tongue and grove 4x8s on the outside with insulation in between.

and thats a cieling fan.

-Wow, I made my house look pretty small lol. Hey, i'm at work and all i've got is MS paint. :P

Drawing is not to scale.

project.JPG
 
I live in Phoenix, Arizona

My outdoor pond is 6' x 3.5' x 3' it is in the shade for most of the day, only getting a few hours of direct sunlight per day. In the highest of summers I get about 93 F, winters are a low of 45 F. I have a few red-eared sliders, comet goldfish & shubunkin goldfish. None of which seem to mind the heat, all eat and act normal.
 
mcox3 said:
This is what I had in mind.

just 2x4 frames with drywall on the inside and tongue and grove 4x8s on the outside with insulation in between.

and thats a cieling fan.

-Wow, I made my house look pretty small lol. Hey, i'm at work and all i've got is MS paint. :P
Click to expand...

I live in Phoenix, and I think my house is oriented same as yours, north facing, east/West etc. and my patio is like that. I don't think I'd do it.

Where you are thinking of putting it is a spot like where I tried keeping potted plants and the morning sun in July/Aug/Sept was cooking them. I can only put cacti there. I think your tank/pond would easily reach 100° by 9:00 a.m. at least. This will start happening as soon as the sun hits it.

Underground provides an enormous amount of insulation from the heat. Even in full sun, if you have water lilies and you have dug deep enough, say 2.5 to 3 feet, the fish should be okay. When I was a kid, we had a small bathtub sized thing dug into a spot under a tree with a waterfall. We grew watercress in the trays of the waterfall and it went dormant in winter and came back every summer. The GF did fine.

It was really nice to listen to the waterfall on a hot evening.
 
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