Diy ponds - Indoors

[ronrca]

I was made aware of a couple of websites that really interested me (now if I can only convince my wife not to rent out the basement anymore).

http://aquamojo.com/pond.html

http://sinister.com/~patmanta/indpond.htm

Anyone else!

[henryD]

Ronrca,

Have you considered buying one of those inflatable pools? They are pretty cheap and comes with a full setup.

It looks to be alot cheaper. Plus it comes with a pump that includes a microfilter. It looks similar to the ones marineland sells in their magnum series.

The 2 concerns I would have would be insulation and durability. Maybe you could set it on a DIY platform. I think from a cost stand point it is worth considering.

[ronrca]

Ive have looked at the inflatable pools however not until I actually try it (or someone else), I dont want to recommend it yet. Im not comfortable with it because, well....its inflatable. I have found things like inflatable matresses or whatever lose air over time (maybe a small, slow leak) and the worst thing you want happening is waking up in the morning, a flat pool and, well....you get the picture.

Like I mentioned, I would like to try one but I dont have the room at the moment (this is until I can convince my wife not to rent out the basement).

Of course, if someone has done this, plz post your experiences! ;)

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Has anyone tried the large black plastic outdoor horse watering troughs? They come in different sizes & are real sturdy (horses tough on everything). If my fish insist on breeding/raising fry, I need someplace to put them to grow well. Have lotsa room down in the basement/cellar & could put one of these on a platform off the cement floor, covering with netpond cover. Wish I could find some large old tanks, but don't know anyone around wanting to donate. Our climate here won't allow for outdoor pool tricks. lol, Dottie ::) ::)

[ronrca]

Horse watering troughs? :o Thats a new one! Do you have any links?

Your in the same boat as myself. Climate doesnt really allow for outside ponds unless covered and heated in the winter but would never be able to support discus, summer or winter! :(

[korbi_doc]

:o :o most tack/feed stores have these large plastic tubs. In my area they are all black, but this page seems to have more. Probably have to look around for prices, or find a farm going out of business & buy old ones, hahahaha. Shouldn't be too hard. Dottie ;D hope this works
http://www.highcountryplastics.com/water.htm

[ronrca]

Cool! I'll take the 150G trough! How much? ;D


Check out rubbermaid - stock tanks

http://www.rubbermaid.com/hpd/consumer/product/list.jhtml

Ok! Found some pools as 'tanks'!
http://www.angelfish.net/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=736

I will have to contact them sometime to ask a few questions though!

[stilllearnin]

Troughs work great for other cichlids,and other fish but I haven't tried them with Discus

Have you guys seen the big pool like - troughs?

maybe look into these for a pond type set up http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=8&paID=6004&sonID=6062&page=1&prod uctID=1505 hopefully I post this link right? They're only $229 - $299 depending what time of year you pick them up (for the 8' X 2')


if not look @
http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=8&paID=6004&sonID=6062&page=1&prod uctID=1505

they come either 9' or 8' circles 2' deep

they also carry 300 gallon troughs and I think they'll special order up to 600 gallons on the poly troughs/stock tanks
http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=8&paID=6004&sonID=6062

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2: :bounce2:

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dottie ;D ;D

[Jason]

Hi Ron

About 10 years ago when I was still living at home with my parents my pet turtles (western painted and Indian softshell) and my caiman outgrew my biggest tanks, by that time I was pretty much into discus exclusively too..so I did'nt want too use aquariums for those guys.

I went to eather zellers or canadian tire, cant remember ???
and got one of those kiddie pools that are collapseable, it was out 2' high and 10' in diameter. I used it outside that summer and it was great no filters, I'd just scoop out leaves and bend a wall inward to let water out for a change. I even made a little ramp so my turtles to get into my sisters sandbox heehee, they layed eggs too!

anyways that fall when my mom went out of town, I moved it into the basement, I had to toss out the couch down there to make room, put a few sheets of plywood underneath it and that insulated it from the cement floor, temp never dropped below 68dgf. I made an "island" in the middle that was a trickle filter that they could climb up onto to get out of the water. It had a hologen fllodlamp over it and that was enough to grow a few water plants, at that time the lfs's in town were selling feeder fish that were called "rosy-red flathead minnows" I tossed a dozen in and the spawned constantly, even with the turtles and caiman eating them, the school of minnows was always around 300-400 fish! awesome site! big swarm of pink minnows it was great! thanks for sending me down memory lane!

[Jason]

mine looked like this
http://store5.yimg.com/I/aqualinepoolsparts_1673_16367023

except it was a little mermaid one

[ronrca]

Cool! I would of like to see that! Do you still have it by any chance?

Thanks for shaing! ;)

[Jason]

no problem,
I dont have it now, got rid of it when I moved to toronto.

gave the turtles to a crazy turtle lady and the caiman is at the winnepeg zoo.
next time I'm at my moms I'll look for pics.

[henryD]

Jason,

You never cease to amaze me. I would have loved to have seen the turtle pen.

How did you heat the pool?

[Jason]

I did'nt really heat the pool, the painted turtles and minnows were native speceis and did'nt need tropical temps.

It was pretty warm down there already with all my tanks wich were heated. the flood lamp was on about 8-12 hours a day it gave off some heat, when the animals needed to get warm they just climbed up onto the rocks that were ontop of the trickle filter and got a sun tan. the rocks also stored alot of heat too and released it at night when the lamp was off.

[Smokey]

You never cease to amaze me Jasen !

Ron, flood the basement. should work !!! lol

Smokey

[ronrca]

LOL! Dont worry! I have thought of it already. An easy way to rid renters! ;D

[Smokey]

Did you wife not want new picture windows. Well just add on and set up a window pool.

Smokey

[ronrca]

LOL! I was more or less thinking of replacing the flooring with thick plexiglass instead. Then I can walk on top of my huge tank! ;D

Hey Ron

what about a plastic pond liner? ive seen some premade/preshaped ones at a local pond place. Make a little wooden frame to sit the plastic liner in

Might not be strong enough to hold the water without being sunk into the ground to support it though

or maybe an old plastic water tank, the ones you stick in a truck bed to haul water out to the farm. find a rectangular one, cut it in half horizontally, then lay the two pieces side by side, cut out the lips between the two halves and seal them together. Good for about 800 gals or so ;D

course you just use each half, but that'd only be 350-400 gals :P

[tedd47]

I used to breed SA cichlids, oscars, dovii, 3 dif. pikes, jaguar, a bunch of big, ugly stuff, these fish have spawns of 500-2000 fry. I'd raise the fry in the larger size rigid plastic kiddie pools in the basement. (I also had turtles, in some and raised Argentine horned frog tadpoles in another. If you think raising discus fry is a pain, try raising those things, if you don't keep them apart you'll end up with 50 really fat ones out of 2000. I had really good parents that were afraid to go in the basement.

Put a couple of pieces of plywood down and then the pool. Stick a couple of 300 watt heaters and a canister filter in it and you'll be in business. In the ones I raised fish in I hung industrial fixtures over them with chains hung from the ceiling.
Now I use 35 gallon plastic tubs, they are a by-product of cattle farming (mineral licks come in them. You don't have to do much except rinse them out and fill them back up. The farmer I get them from just threw them away, now he saves them for me and they are almost as thick as the plastic water troughs. Plus they are free! I have had them freeze solid in the winter and they won't bust. I've had fish (african cichlids) outside for a month in them (with a heater) and as soon as I get some discus fry I'll probably raise the majority in these things lined up in the entrance hall of my house (I'm single).
I'd watch the blow up pools, most of the time, anything that can go wrong will. The larger sized rigid kiddie pools always worked well for me, and are only about 20 bucks at Walmart. Good luck, Ted

[Jason]

Tedd you sound just like me!

ever use fridge liners? I use to pull them out of junk ones, seal up holes then use the freezer compartment as a wet/dry.

to bad your parents did'nt know mine, I put mine through fish-hell, they coulda started a support group or something.

[tedd47]

I've used just about anything you can get to hold water! The only time my parents got upset was when I had a breeding pair of goulds monitors and the male broke free and got in the duct system of the house. The only way I could think to get him out was I set a snare with a mouse as bait. It worked but he grabbed the mouse at about 3:00 in the morning! It sounded like the house was caving in with a trapped 30 lb. monitor in an aluminum heating duct. I had to tear out a 6 foot section of duct to get him out and by the time I had finished my dad was standing behind me with his shotgun, in his underwear, thinking the communists were invading!

Oh yeah, there was the time my worm farm that I had made out of a broken freezer went bad while we were on vacation for 2 weeks... But that's another story.

Well they always say that everyone has a twin...
Ted

[ronrca]

LOL! I'll stick with discus!

FOr those that dont know what a gould monitor is (I didnt), click here:
http://www.reptilecenta.com.au/reptiles/lizards/goulds_monitor.html

How big was the male anyways?
(and my wife thinks keeping discus is bad enough, nevermind live worms in the fridge but a MONSTER :o)

[Jason]

lol Tedd, do you live in Sydney? could be my cousin!

[tedd47]

Sorry, I live in Kentucky, did have an uncle that was a merchant marine though. ;)

My male gould's was about 4-5 feet, mostly tail but he was pretty tame. I had them about 5 years, got them as small ones and hand fed them all the time. The only thing you had to worry about was if your hands smelled like mice and you weren't quick enough to pull away... good way to earn the nickname stubby.

I've pretty much stuck with fish now also, still have a colony of NA wood turtles and thinking about getting more bearded dragons.
Ted

[Jason]

my apologies Ted,

I have no clue as to why I thought you were in australia ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

do you know where I could get some of those map turtles with the crest on the shell?

[tedd47]

Hi again, yeah, I know where you can get them, I collected some a few years back. Come on over, we'll roll down south and get you some. They are protected now though, you can get captive born hatchlings but I don't know about importing them into your country. I find them sometimes at reptile events. In my exp. they are somewhat tough to raise from hatchlings, they need alot of snails and clams in the diet. I've caught them before with small clams on their front claws.
I wasted my teen years on collecting, as soon as I got a car that would travel more than 100 miles I was off. My intrest lies more with the northern species, spotted, wood, blandings and bog turtles. I've made 4 trips to find bog turtles, found them twice, no collecting those guys though, just watching. Ted

[Jason]

Yep Ted, I think your my twin :)

one of the first trips I made when I got my licence was to a really remote lake in northwestern ontario called "turtle lake"

the only exotic turtles I've ever owned were a couple of japanese pond turtles and a softshell from India, all of wich were rescued from people who could'nt care for them.

here locally in my area we have western painted turtles(I've been chasing after those since I was knee-high ;D) and a type of snapper not sure wich species it is but they get absolutely huge, I caught one in the lake of the woods area in northern ontario that weighed over 80 pounds! they look like alligator snappers but do not have the tongue "lour". I have come across wood turtles a couple times but they are pretty rare around here.

actually this is really sad, but when this thread started last week I got kinda nostalgic and grabbed my binoculars then drove to a place where I used to catch painteds, all I saw sunning on the logs and pond edge were red-ears :'( I guess over the last 15 years or so they've been selling them in town the unwanted pets had to go somewhere. I was kinda upset about it, when I was a kid my dad and I spent many week-end mornings chasing after painted turtles, always thought if I ever started a family I'd do that with my kids too.

anyways about the map turtles, my dad had a few in the 50's and 60's and I always wanted to get a couple for him or myself but have never came across any.

I may just take you up on that trip down there :P

take-care,
Jason

[samcatj]

Horse troughs work great and are very sturdy. Any feed store sells them.

samcatj