Daily Log of Constructing a Tropical Fish Pond

Back from the slack attack

Phil22 said:
Um, lousybreed...we need an update with pix!
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Ok you are all right, I haven't done much lately so I got back on the horse.

I went to lowes for some stuff tonight and found a really nice mini wood barrel that was on sale from $15 to $7. This is exactly I was looking for. I was going to buy the $20 planter tonight but then I found this. I cut the waterfall outlet and Drilled two 5/8" holes in the bottom for my lines from the sponge filters. This will hold some plants in it. Some kind of emergent plant is what I was thinking. I also bought a brick slab (the ones used for walking on) to secure the sponge filters to the bottom (they are still floating up!!) I also got some potting soil for my lilies.

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Looks great. You will probably have to put a lip on the bucket to stop the water from running down the side. A short wood trough would work great and still keep the look.
 
Good choice LB! Ditto on that lip trough idea.
 
Plecosterone said:
Looks great. You will probably have to put a lip on the bucket to stop the water from running down the side. A short wood trough would work great and still keep the look.
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Lip construction has already begun. I used some engineering calcs and I would need minimum 1200gph to not have a lip. But then again I am some assumtions for the calcs so we will see if I need a lip. I actually plan on making a lip out of liner. It shouldn't be too visible. For support I am going to use some thin guage wire...
 
I bought some water hyacinth (sp??) for the pond today and I am still working on the plumbing from the powerheads the barrel. The barrel is still under construction also so not much to report back. I hope sometime next week I have the barrel waterfall working. And I have some more plants to pot. I will take pics then...
 
Nice choice on the barrel. The wood color matches really well. Frankly, I'd do something with the white banding...maybe paint it black? Are you planning to put a wedge under the back edge so it tilts toward the pond? Anyway, I'd consider a grouping...perhaps two smaller barrels, one of each side with annuals or other plants. And maybe even consider a "pile of rocks" under the barrel in the pond that the waterfall would flow over.
Thanks for the updates..you've done a great job.
 
Phil22 said:
Nice choice on the barrel. The wood color matches really well. Frankly, I'd do something with the white banding...maybe paint it black? Are you planning to put a wedge under the back edge so it tilts toward the pond? Anyway, I'd consider a grouping...perhaps two smaller barrels, one of each side with annuals or other plants. And maybe even consider a "pile of rocks" under the barrel in the pond that the waterfall would flow over.
Thanks for the updates..you've done a great job.
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The pic didn't turn out too well....the banding is a dull metalic. I am not sure why it looks so bright...it looks weathered in real-life.

The grouping idea sounds really good.....I will look into it once I get it up and running. With the flexible tubing, moves and changes are very easy..... Thanks again!
 
For some reason i thought you were going to tilt the barrel, like its pouring into the pond...

either way i think it looks great.
 
Ok a little update on the pond. SO far I haven't done a single water change. I do use the water for my plants in the backyard. I figure I am doing around a 10% water change every week by the amount I water my plants. The water still has a slight greenish tint to it. I attached the sponge filters to a chunk of "paver" (those concrete slabs for walking on) so they are staying on the bottom. I had the sponge just floating in the water for the last several weeks waiting the paver anchor system. When I took the sponge out it had all these red little wormy things living in the sponge. The white clouds were picking these out of the sponge to eat. I am going to get some more spare sponges and just let them float in the pond so the fish can nibble on the worms that live on the sponge.

The plants havent changed much in the last week, but the water hyacinth has been shooting out new roots like crazy. Hopefully they will start growing soon so they can fill in more of the pond. The reeds are boarderline on survival so I am not holding my breath. The pond weeds I planted are looking good and they are sending leaves to the surface. They almost resemble a water lily but are much smaller. The leaves are about 1.5" wide and 3" long. Back to constructing the waterfall!

On last thing. I netted some of the white clouds and one of the gold barbs. Man are they fat! The gold barb has doubled in size. All the fish were amazingly colorful. The white clouds almost looked like a different fish!
 
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