Wingsdlc container pond UPDATE: 8.25.08

[Wingsdlc]

Here is my container pond. It is the first one I have tried. Let me know what you think.

Before planting and filling.

The pots with holes drilled in the bottom to let the roots go into the pond.

The pots are first filled with this large gravel.

Then they are capped with schultz.

Here are the water plants. It is mostly Rotola with a few stems of ludwigia and star grass. All the plants were taken from my 55G tank during trim time this weekend.

Next came the bog plant, a Cala Lilly. From what I have read, they can be grown this way. I hope that is correct.


Here is the container filled. Along with a closer look a the aquatic plants.

[epicfish]

Wow, that's kinda cool!

[Wingsdlc]

The container was bought from wallmart for about $7. It holds 19 gallons of water. There will be a bit less water in it due to the bricks and pots.

In the next week or so I plan on introducing a few cherry shrimp to the tank. From what I have read they can take temps down to about 50 degrees F. The current air temp is around 60 degrees today but this week it should be 70-80 with night time around 50. I think things should be alright.

In a month or so I want to add a few baby bristle nose plecos and use the pond as a grow out for them. I want to make sure the water temp wont drop too much for them first. I will also add some guppies or some other small fish with color to eat the bugs.

As for plants:

I am not sure if the star grass will stay or not. I am on the look out for a small aquatic lilly for that pot. I think it might do better being it puts leaves to the surface.

I am also thinking of adding some java fern and anubias to the bricks.

All questions, comments, and advice is more than welcome.

Thanks for looking!!

[A Hill]

I wouldn't have used pots for the stems. I would have just put a bag or two of shultz down on the bottom and used weights to keep them down the same way you can do it in a normal fish tank.

Besides that it sounds like what I want to try.

-Andrew

[Wingsdlc]

A Hill,

I thought about doing it without the pots also. I decided on doing it this way so that it would be easier to keep the thing clean.

[pet-teez]

Yep, that lil sure will grow that way!
I have a zillion of those darn things in the yard (pop up everywhere) so I decided to try a chunk in a plastic thing (was from a diary, carries milk bottles or something) with large gravel in one of my ponds and it did well, the leaves didn't get as big as they do in the yard but that was fine with me and the roots went insane, when I ripped it out about a month ago there were roots throughout the 36"x24" pond container (stock tank) and the lilies had only been in there maybe 9 months.
I also had some stem plants in some sms in a pond plant basket and those did really well but I had to pull giant slurmy strings of algae off of them without pulling the plants from the substrate.

[ZLewis]

So how's the pond doing? I have some blanket algae growing in mine that I have to pull out about one a week. I also had to put my portable uv sterilizer on it because of green water. Are you having either of these?

[Wingsdlc]

Well, I wish I could say things were going great with it but that is really not the case. The star grass has rotted away, lots of the lower leaves on the rotala have melted, and the Cala Lilly has lost most of its leaves. The Cala Lilly does have some new leaves growing in but not really fast enough to make it look healthy. That is just in the plant realm.

The fish have taken a downward swing also. A couple of weeks ago I added 3 white mollies to the tub (1m and 2f). A day after I had quite a few babies in the tub. Yesterday I lost one of the females and today I lost the other two and all but 3-4 babies. This past weekend I put two baby Bristle Nose in and at least one is still alive tonight.

In terms of algae I am not having too many problems. The sides had a pretty good coat of brown slimy algae until I wiped it off today during the water change.

I will try and get some pictures later.

[eyebeatbadgers]

Is the fish death due to temp swings? Have you considered covering the tank at night, or insulating the sides with styrofoam? Maybe adding a heater, though I don't know how effective that would be outside, with the ambient temperature being so different than the ideal temperature.

[pet-teez]

When I planted my lily outside in my pond it died back and than started growing smaller leaves instead of the huge ones it grows in the ground.

[Wingsdlc]

Here are a few pictures. I will comment on your comments later this weekend. Thanks for looking and leaving comments!

[Wingsdlc]

Here are a couple of plant pictures from the pond. The first is of a rotala stem making its way into the air. The second is of an Aponogeton crispus leaf that is now floating on the surface.

I have added a tiger lily and dwarf lily to the mix.

The Calla Lily is making a come back with much smaller leaves. No flowers yet.

I still do not have any fish in the pond as I am waiting for the temp to stable out a little. I am pretty sure it was the temperature fluctuation that killed. I am think I might try and breed Gouramis in it. I just don't know what type to get yet.

[gmccreedy]

Updates?

[supaoopa]

I really like the container setup. Did the star grass ever make a comeback? I'd like to see updates too if you have any.

[Wingsdlc]

I don't have access to a camera right now but here is the best update I can do.

~About a month and a half ago I added a pair of paradise fish. They have spawned at least once and seem to be doing really well. They are also great at controlling mosquito populations.

~ I water lettuce covers most of the surface of the tub now. This has helped keep the temperature under control when we have days into the 90's.

~The dwarf little is putting up many pads and I am getting a few apongeton leaves to the surface also.

~The calla lily is still making a come back but has not flowered.

~I added some creeping jenny to the pot with the calla lily and it has grown into the water. My original play was to have it grow over the edges but it likes water far too much for this.

~The rotala hasn't been growing very well for me. I have a lot of issues with floaters and slimy/stringy algae growing on it.

~I have one stem of Alternanthera reineckii that has made its way through the surface and is growing well.

~The star grass did not fair will for me and was melted away within a month or so.

~I added a few cork screw vals to the mix just to see how they would do.

One thing I think I need to do is to drain out most of the water and move the tub so it doesn't get nearly as much light. If I do this I think I can get rid of many of the floaters and grow more submersed plant life.