I knew I shouldn't browse here- wine barrel pond

E

euglossa

AC Members
Nov 9, 2006
230
0
0
I knew I shouldn't start browsing here. Now I want to set up a half barrel this summer. I'd like a few fish. I've been admiring the orandas at the fish store. I've read fancies don't get as big, but I suspect two is one too many for a barrel? One goldfish and a few gambusia? And plants.

For winter I would move the barrel to my cellar. The temperature down there stays between 50 and 60 degrees and I think the humidity from the water would help keep my stored garden produce in good condition.

There is a garden center in town that has quite a good pond section. It should open for the season in a month or so and I can get set up there with plants and fish, liner and bubbler or fountain.

The problem is heat. Our summers can have many days in the 90s, several over 100. My carport, which I set up as a porch in the summer is shady and cool, but would plants thrive with little or no direct sunlight?
 
anything more than 75 and less than 60 degrees i would consider is too much for fancy goldfish. Also, If you keep the half-barrel outisde, the water will turn green from aglae.

I also dont recommend you keep any fish in places where people have acces to them. In my local home depot, some teen thought it would be funny to feed the goldfish bb's. You can guess what happened to the goldfish.....

short answer, dont do it.
 
euglossa said:
I knew I shouldn't start browsing here. Now I want to set up a half barrel this summer. I'd like a few fish. I've been admiring the orandas at the fish store. I've read fancies don't get as big, but I suspect two is one too many for a barrel? One goldfish and a few gambusia? And plants.

For winter I would move the barrel to my cellar. The temperature down there stays between 50 and 60 degrees and I think the humidity from the water would help keep my stored garden produce in good condition.

There is a garden center in town that has quite a good pond section. It should open for the season in a month or so and I can get set up there with plants and fish, liner and bubbler or fountain.

The problem is heat. Our summers can have many days in the 90s, several over 100. My carport, which I set up as a porch in the summer is shady and cool, but would plants thrive with little or no direct sunlight?
Click to expand...

Not too sure about the fancy goldfish, but you could have a comet goldfish in a half a barrel pond. I don't think that a 90-100 summer days would hurt the fish, you would have to put a bubbler in the barrel for air, also the floating plants would shade the fish from the sun, a fountain would also help create oxygen. Water has less oxygen in the summer, and more in the fall/winter. If the barrel is in direct sunlight you can do a few things to keep the algea at bay. One is to put lots of plants like Anchris and other oxygenating plants in the barrel, and floaters like water lettuce or water hyacyints. They will compete with the algea for food. The other thing you can do is only feed the goldfish a bare minimum amount, and use a phosphate free food.

Ponding is additive, once you get a barrel pond a regular pond is near! Trust me. Then you can get different water plants like lilys cattails, iris's, parrots feather.....the list goes on and on. heh
 
oh yeah, if you plan on going through with this, an air pump is a must! warmer water holds lot less oxygen than colder water.
 
thanks, given the information I probably won't go with the barrel. But, if I did with a comet, would a bubbler fountain be a viable substitute for an air pump?

Probably I'll wait till I have room for a tank big enough to have one or two fancy goldfish inside the house.

Ellen
 
Its a small pond built out of a used wine barrel that is cut in half across its diameter. They are often sold as planters for deck flowers, etc.

Well, a full barrel is 31 gallons, so a pond out of a half barrel would only hold 15.5gal max. That small amount of water sitting in the sun on a hot day would easily get hot enough to practically hard-boil your fish. I had a 60gal kiddie pool set up for a turtle, that would get easily up to 95 degrees, and it was only in sun about half the day. To regulate a pond like that, you'd probably need a chiller. My pond is 1000gal or so, and being in the ground helps to regulate the temp quite a bit too. It still gets fairly warm in the middle of the summer.
 
>Well, a full barrel is 31 gallons, so a pond out of a half barrel would only hold >15.5gal max.

Wow, that seems small. I have three blueberry plants in one. My barrel is about three feet in diameter and 2 or 2 1/2 feet deep. I remember when I got it, it wouldn't fit in my car. That's got to be more than 15 gallons. Just looking at it I would guess 30 to 40 gallons. But heat is still going to be a problem.

Ellen
 
When using barrel as a volumetric meesurement, 1bbl=31gal. A keg of beer is actually a half-barrel, so 15.5gal of beer. Now, just buying a barrel planter or something, I supposed they could be any size.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom