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CL's 100 Gallon Container Pond

30K views 62 replies 24 participants last post by  AGUILAR3 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm finally setting up a container pond for the spring/ summer. I'll be picking up a 100 water trough tomorrow to use. I'm going to have some dwarf lilies/ lotus and a few other floaters such as salvinia oblongata (all of which are coming in the mail this week), and maybe a few stems and an emergent watersprite for good measure. I'll probably just have a bunch of zebra danios in there to eat the mosquito larvae. The container will be in a partially shaded area, so I won't really need to worry about the water getting too low too fast.

I have a couple of questions though. I am not going to filter this pond, mainly because It'll have loads of plants, and few fish. Any recommendations about water movement? Could I just use an air pump and air stone (air pump protected from the elements of course)?

I'm pretty pumped :icon_mrgr
EDIT: moved the pond into the sun, the area was too shaded.
Here are pics (the tub is half buried in the ground. The pump is making that much surface movement, and it is at the bottom of the tub (about 27 inches down!), and the flow is divided between the two heads, so it's not as much of a stream. I'm waiting for the plants in the back to grow up and over the back edge of the tub, it looks a bit ugly right now :icon_neut:
Sorry for the sideways pictures ;)



The plant that will drape over the back, and grow in the gaps of the rock around the tub

Currently the ~25 zebra danios (some long finned, some long finned leopard danios) are doing great. I plan to have about 50 total when I'm done adding them to this pond. I also might add a couple of BN plecos when the algae starts growing well (as it will)
Currently I'm waiting on the plants in the pot to grow up to the surface. I also have a wad of flame moss in there somewhere in case the danios breed, and the fry can hide in it. Also, I plan on adding a bunch of cherry shrimp, and the baby shrimp can hide in the moss as well, and others will supplement the danios diet of mosquito larva.
I hope that's enough rambling typing for now ;)
 
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#2 ·
Can't wait to see it! As for water movement, I don't think an airstone would be enough. I know they sell cheap underwater pumps for ponds. I saw someone using one the other day over at AC.
Jake
 
#6 ·
Thanks!
If you don't want to run any ugly wires back and forth between your pond and electrical outlets, you can always opt for a solar powered pump. They can be found on ebay cheap.

I just ordered one, so I haven't test its efficiency.

But the owner of this blog seemed to have a lot of success going that route, so I decided to give it a try.
http://www.guitarfish.org/2006/08/25/an-outdoor-tank
Yeah, guitarfish is made me want to set one up a couple of years ago because I follow his blog, but I just never actually got around to setting it up. Hopefully 100 gallons will be enough to satisfy me for now at least.
 
#7 ·
Guitarfish definitely has a great blog. :thumbsup:

I hope you can start rolling out some pictures soon. It would be nice to see what others are doing with their ponds so I can get an idea for mine.

When do you think you'll be setting it up? I know spring probably already started, but these fluctuating temperatures are really a party pooper, at least here in NY.
 
#9 ·
Alright, I leveled the ground, got the trough in place, filled it with water and lined the outside wall with stones, and threw a few floaters in there. Tomorrow I'll try to find some kind of pump for circulation, and maybe make a trip to the pond store.
 
#14 ·
Rghhhh! I hate being patient! :icon_roll:icon_smil
 
#16 ·
The plants got burned (all except the rotala that I had in my high light 91L ;)) from the sun, but they are starting to recover. I needed a larger pump than the ~120 GPH pump that I have in there (I had it kicking up dust in a closet), so I ordered this ginormous dual koralia knockoff made by sunsun haha http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290422676406#ht_682wt_736
3200 GPH should be enough ;) The zebra danios should like it haha. If it's too much, I can always put a brick in front of it to impede the flow some.
Question, though: should I put the pump pointed straight down the middle to make a more mixed flow, or down one side so that the water will circulate in a vortex? Or maybe on the bottom pointed straight up at the surface to make plenty of ripples?

What do you guys think?

Oh, and I should get some pictures up soon.
 
#17 ·
Can't wait to see pictures. You could get a real neat effect with that pump angled up to create an upwelling water surface, but somebody smarter than me should comment.

It is winter here again suddenly, but I am making some progress getting my stock tank pond going. The last few nights I have been repotting my marginal flowering bulbs. I plan to use this tank...

Agrimaster 144-gallon at Farm & Fleet

There is a lot of great flowering stuff that you can get going in a pond like this.

 
#18 ·
Cool stuff, hydro! I got the rubbermaid version of that trough you linked. It's not as pretty as yours (and a bit smaller), but they had them locally for about $85, so I got it. Plus it's half buried in the ground, and the upper half has rocks around it (should look good when I get these little succulent vines growing all over it to fill in the gaps in the rocks, these things grow like weeds around here, no idea what they are called) I think that the zebra danios will love the 32.5x turnover in the pond :hihi: It got cold quick here too. Should warm up in a couple of days, though. Hopefully the ~25 danios I have in the tank to get things going biologically will make it through 50 degree water for a couple of days. :icon_neut:
 
#20 ·
Yeah, that's why I labored for 2 hours digging that hole and leveling it haha. It was a chore, for sure, but at least I know that the temps won't fluctuate as much, like you said.
And yeah, they are sedums. That name sounds familiar, and a quick google search shows that you are right.
I'm pretty pumped about this powerhead. More than I should be, considering it's a powerhead, but the thought of a dual propeller pump that pushes 3250 GPH in a 100 gallon tank just sounds like too much fun :tongue:
Good thing they ship priority. :)
 
#25 ·
Monday just got a little less sucky


Touch the perfection

Gotta love a little engrish


12,000 LPH/ 3200 GPH Sunsun powerhead. Feels pretty solid, though the plastic is a little less heavy than my koralias, you can't beat $30 shipped priority for that much flow. It works great (uploading more pics), and I'll probably buy these for my other tanks if I ever need to (the less powerful models ;) instead of koralias. Koralia has great quality, and even though the plastic is a little less rigid than koralias, you can't beat the price. It also came with ball joint- like adjustable flow directors.
I give it :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
#27 ·
WOW...If I ever get my dream 100g+ tank, I'll hafta get one of those!
 
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