Indoor blood parrot pond project!! NEED YOUR HELP AND IDEAS!!!!

A

almsk8s4life

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Dec 27, 2005
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wow say that title five times fast



Hello as you can see in the picture above i have 4 blood parrots 1 albino oscar and 1 green texas cichlid you might have read in one of my previous threads i rescued these from my aunt who was going to let them go in lake erie. (shes retarded)

Well anyway i feel terrible keeping them in a 55 gallon because i know the tank isnt even big enough for one of those fish

so what i was thinking and what i need YOUR IDEAS for is making an indoor koi pond type deal with substrate and all the rocks and caves parrots and oscars need to thrive

i looked around for ponds shortly on the internet and could only find liners does anyone have a site they know with the actual hard shelled koi ponds you put outdoors

since i love these stupid fish so much i am going to be quiting my other hobby paintball and selling my gear to finance this project i know it is going to take time and all so i would love to have someone who knows alot about south american cichlids give me some well appreciated advice on how to set up and aquatic enviornment in a pond type tank,ie filters heaters lighting substrate rock structure maybee some driftwood and some fake plants

i know the pond isnt going to be to much fun watching because i personally cant see through black plastic but i would really like to keep them and take care of them because i promised my aunt i would and i have fallen in love with these fish

my budget for this is going to be around 4to5 hundred bones so i have to figure out something cheap i even looked into big tupperware storage bins but found most were to small or couldnt actually hold a large amount of water

i want this to be the mekka or however you spell it of indoor ponds (not really) but i want the fish to be as healthy and happy as possible

if you have made it this far thank you for your time and thank you for reading my longest post yet i greatly appreciate any help and adivice :hi:


Note(i want to add more fish when the pond is finished thats why im not going to just buy a bigger tank)
 
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Im really not certain that 4-5 hundred will finance a project like this I think the cheapest way would be to build a tank out of cinder blocks fill the holes with cement the put water proof sealer on the cement. Of course It would be nice to put some glass in the wall but this will add signifigantly to the price. I would do a home made sump filter with your 55 gallon to help cut costs further. Good luck with this. You might want to check out the site www.monsterfishkeepers.com as a lot of guys over there have constructed there own tanks. On here the only members I can think of to do such and undertakeing are Debra Mark and Mojo. so I PM to one of them might get somemore ideas as well.
 
You can get a 300gal rubbermaid tub from most tractor supplie stores for around $150. The tubs already have a drain plug in the bottom so setting up filtration for it will be pretty easy. You could make a cheap filter out of a 5gal bucket and some bioballs (search diy filter). So 150 for the tub 100ish for the pump 20 bucks for a DIY filter a few dollars in pvc pipe and your done. You could use the extra money for some landscaping timbers and some potted plants and it would look pretty decent. I don't think the preformed ponds would work as well they are usually pretty shallow with only the middle being deep.
 
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My uncle did something similar to this, he got one of those black hard shell outdoor ponds. He made a wood frame very messy but it was hard to support the weight of a rather large pond filled with water. He put insilation(i dont know how to spell that) around the shell in the wood frame. He put seetrock(not sure how to spell that either..) around the wood frame and painted it a light blue color. For the inside of the pond he painted or dyed it a watery blue color with water/aquarium safe paint/dye, i hope. Its set up like a tank just no gravel or sand and its a regular pond filter with a waterfall flowing down a stack of rocks back into the pond. The filter intake is covered by a screen to block any fish from getting sucked up, im trying to remember the fish he has in it, theres only one, if i find out the name ill tell you but i think it would work with most fish. You can only look down on it and because of the waterfall its wavy and a little difficult to see. Everything looks really good though.
Sorry i dont know any site's were you could find the hard koi ponds, and i can't believe you would quite the best sport in the world... :eek:
 
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I could see haveing a hard time with one of those ponds inside the need support under them due to the uneven bottoms and this is ussualy accheived by the dirt under them. The big tub might work if its flat bottomed but im not so sure I would us a small 5 gallon bucked with all thos fish something bigger would work much better you will also need a pump for it.
 
The rubbermaid tubs will definately work they are supposed to be used as a watering trough for cattle and horses. Here is a link from rubermaid about them.
http://www.rcpworksmarter.com/rcp/products/detail.jsp?categoryID=507&subcategoryID=555&rcpNum=4247

The 5gal bucket filter was just a suggestion for a cheap and easy filter. There are better options, but for the price they can't be beat. I saw your suggestion of using the 55gal as a sump, but that would kinda be a waste of a tank.
 
I'd definitely tend toward one of the stock tanks. I had one for my turtles, a 150gal. They are very strong and durable, and you can always build a decorative wall around the outside or surround it plants or something to hide the plastic. They have drain holes in the bottom too, you could put in a valve and a hose to make water changes super easy. I'd also do some sort of homemade sump with a 5 gal bucket or a rubber maid or something, much cheaper than buying a big canister or sump.
 
Whoa, hold up a second! I have some things you might want to think about before you go ahead with the indoor pond idea!

I am a landscaper, and I am very familiar with outdoor ponds, AND have done two indoor 'ponds' last winter.

First, you need to think about where you are going to put this huge amount of water. Obviously, you shouldnt be putting a 300 gallon tank, jug, tub, or cow trough anywhere you havent planned long and hard for, even in a basement in many cases. If you are thinking about putting this amount of weight combined with water any place but a basement, you are going to have to spend 4 or 5 hundred dollars getting estimates from some construction companies to get your floor strengthened. Even in some basements, especially older ones, you can either damage the flooring to the point that it needs to be replaced. The idea being that no matter how hard you try, you are most likely going to be creating an area of 'moistness', for a lack of a better term.

However, I have seen some marvelous indoor ponds in my time (I actually live near a 'pond company' who has some awesome displays in their showroom). Typically, to acheive a pond that will fit into the odd corners and areas that most of us have in a basement, the pond walls are build out of cinder blocks and then a flexable pond liner is used. This way you can make your pond any depth you wish and also in any shape (you can also buy special blocks that will create smooth curves or perfect triangles)

You also need to think about the fact that you are heating this pond. I am sure that you are smart enough to know how to get the water into the appropriate temperature range, however, have you thought of the amount of evaporation this is going to cause? It is just like any tank, over time it needs to be filled up a little bit. So, you need to think about where this evaporation is going to go. Most likely it is going to be sucked up by drywall or even the studs and floor joists. So, you could also be weakening your upper floors by having the pond underneath them.

So, in reality, the best option is going to be expensive and I am sorry to tell you that. Many people who have ponds or hot tubs inside their houses need to have a large amount of fans to exhaust the water vapors outside. Otherwise they need to seal the area in which the water is to keep it from damaging other areas of the house.

Have you thought about getting more tanks and seperating your fish? I know that you can buy a complete 55 gallon aquarium 'kit' at a Walmart for around 200 dollars and probrably can get the same for cheaper if you shop around and buy the tanks and equipment seperately.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but like I said, I have seen these ponds go into people's houses and it is much more that just creating the vessel and filling it with water.
 
This is kind of off topic but, is that red lighthing your using for your tank? It looks kind of cool, where did you get?
 
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