pond ?'s

bunlet

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Mar 4, 2006
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I have a 11' x 2' x 2' pond with no filter, waterfall, or pump. There are about 20+ feeder goldfish in it now and the temp here is around 50 f. How would I put power near the pond so I can put a filter of somekind? Could I put a bunch of plants in so that the fish would have a better chance of survival? How would I add terrestial plants in there reason being its much cheaper? Any low cost low tech ideas for aesthetics or so the fishies won't die?
 
Well, the proper thing to do would be to have an electrical line buried out to your pond with an GFI outlet. If you are handy you can do this yourself or you would need to have an electrician do it.
The cheating way to do it is if you have a nearby outside outlet, get yourself one of the really heavy outdoor extension cords and run it over to your pond. Now this is not the safest way to do things but it will work. You can leave it above ground or you can also get some plastic pipe and run the extension cord through it to protect it. You can leave this above ground or bury it too. You will need to place something over your plugs to protect them from moisture. Wrapping them together with black electrical tape helps too. I rent so I have to use extension cords to my above ground ponds.

You could also look into getting at least a solar fountain setup so you get some water moving. Ebay is a good place to look for some good deals on those. There are some on there that the solar panel looks like a rock. It is my understanding that they work fairly well. You need to get the ones that have the battery backup so they will continue to function at night.

You really do need to get something going in your pond as that is quite a few fish for a pond that size. Make sure you do small water changes at least once a week to help with water quality.
 
how close is the nearest outdoor outlet?
i use the cal pump power control center. ive been using it for 2 years and it works great, you can also hook up some low voltage lighting to it which is cool
heres the link
http://www.pondsonlinecanada.com/gfci.htm#CALPUMP
it says canada but i just gave it as an expample and didnt realize it was a canadian site sorry :)
 
I stumbled onto here because I also bought the cal pump power center and have a question.

Is it safet o bury the cord or does it have to be above ground? Same with the pump electrical cords - can they be buried? I really don't want extension cords in site running all over the place!

I'm in the middle of digging an 8" trench to bury the 50 foot cable for my calpump power center and then I figured I should look it up before I finish.

Originally I was going to have an outlet put out there but when I saw this I thought it was better.

The outlet that the power center plugs into is GFCI and it has a wet location while plugged in box. I've done plenty of reading on how to do things right and how to do things wrong. The only thing I'm unsure about is whether it's alright to bury this cord or if I have to get Underground feeder wire and have a new receptacle wired out there. If so it sucks because it's the whole reason I spent over $100 on this cal pump thing. Because it's around the same cost as all of the electrical wire and the box, but much less work for wiring.
 
you could bury a piece of pvc piping and then run the electrics safely through that, just drill random holes so if the pipe gets water in it may drain out...
 
I appreciate the advice. I'll probably go get some PVC tomorrow. I realize that the fact that I'm digging a trench and that I bought this $100 box is 90% of the work and about the same cost as the parts for just running wire. The issue is that I really don't want to tap into the wiring or pay the high price of haivng an electrician do it. The existing GFCI receptacles are built right into the brick wall and I don't want to get into drilling holes and fishing wires. The existing outlet is not surface mounted, but cut right in so it's not a matter of just putting a pipe out the bottom. I want to make this as easy as possible for me, but without comprimising safety.
 
removing a question I just asked since I already found the answer.
 
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