Portable plastered polystyrene pond projects
- Thread starter ohbly
- Start date
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wow i know the laws thought the not being able to get geckos from NZ. stupid because some of them are dieing off and at least if thay where in the pet trade there would be people trying to bread them. So there would be a viable population in captivity if thay go extinct in the wild. hell the look at the crested gecko a little while ago thay thought it was extinct but look at them now there are fricking tons of them. gerrrr but not being able to own something like a dart frog is insane (it's not like thay are poisonis if thay are captive born and thus easy pray)
also aren't goldfish not native to say anywhere i mean thay are domestication of fish at it's finest.
I would say goldfish are uniquely exempt. Introduced perch, rudd, koi and catfish are all common in NZ waterways too, but it illegal to possess live specimens. You can fish for them, but if you catch one you have to kill it. Returning them to the water alive is against the law.
With trout, you need a licence to fish for them, and you must release fish that are below minimum size. The laws are there because of the powerful fish and game body that is only interested in protecting the trout fishing industry.
We do have most tropical aquarium fishes, but tilapia are banned, and they are the best food fish for aquaponics.
I'm not sure what you mean by native blue eye?
Gecko laws are funny too. First you have to build a regulation enclosure, then you have to apply for a licence to keep them. You can't take them from the wild, but you can't buy or sell them either. You have to be given them by someone else who has captive bred them. There are large captive populations of geckos in nz, and there has been some talk of legal exporting recently.
that sort of messed up
wow just wow hope thay do decide to export them, what are the laws for non native gecko species?
Don't hold your breath, its only just started to be discussed.
Non native geckos are leopard geckos at about $1800 each, but the price will drop as their numbers increase from captive breeding. Some people have day geckos but you need a special permit to own them I think.
Updates..
I replaced the foam with acrylic felt because the foam started to break down in the sun. I planted a mixture of plants to see what would grow-
There is a paradise fish and a couple of baby goldfish in there. Not enough fish to produce much fertilizer so the plants are growing very slowly.
I made three planters out of polystyrene, plastered with a thin coat of mortar and a thin veneer of hypertufa. I converted the third one into a pond pot by rendering the inside with mortar and painted it with pond paint. I used fibreglass mesh tape to reinforce the edges and seams.
They are 1200mm long by 480mm wide by 400mm high and hold about 170ltrs. They are pretty light and can be picked up and carried by one person.
I made a little scale model for a 1200x440x800 pond-
This pond used only one piece of 40mm foam to make.
The finished pond-
It has built in feet that raise it above the ground so the valve to drain the pond is hidden. This pond is nowhere near as robust as the first two I made, but it was much easier and cheaper to build and only weighs about 40kg when empty, so its very easy to carry. I didn't use any wire reinforcing, I used reinforcing fibres mixed with the mortar and fibreglass mesh tape instead. all up it took about two days work to make minus curing time.
I'm going to try and grow herbs and lettuces along the back in a nft pipe that should act as a vegetable filter. Haven't decided what sort of fish to put in there yet.
I replaced the foam with acrylic felt because the foam started to break down in the sun. I planted a mixture of plants to see what would grow-
There is a paradise fish and a couple of baby goldfish in there. Not enough fish to produce much fertilizer so the plants are growing very slowly.
I made three planters out of polystyrene, plastered with a thin coat of mortar and a thin veneer of hypertufa. I converted the third one into a pond pot by rendering the inside with mortar and painted it with pond paint. I used fibreglass mesh tape to reinforce the edges and seams.
They are 1200mm long by 480mm wide by 400mm high and hold about 170ltrs. They are pretty light and can be picked up and carried by one person.
I made a little scale model for a 1200x440x800 pond-
This pond used only one piece of 40mm foam to make.
The finished pond-
It has built in feet that raise it above the ground so the valve to drain the pond is hidden. This pond is nowhere near as robust as the first two I made, but it was much easier and cheaper to build and only weighs about 40kg when empty, so its very easy to carry. I didn't use any wire reinforcing, I used reinforcing fibres mixed with the mortar and fibreglass mesh tape instead. all up it took about two days work to make minus curing time.
I'm going to try and grow herbs and lettuces along the back in a nft pipe that should act as a vegetable filter. Haven't decided what sort of fish to put in there yet.
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