[lisals]

Planning on trying my hand at growing some plants outside in just regular storage bins (no livestock), but I'm concerned with how hot it gets here in the summer.
No filter or airstone so.. are my plants doomed? Hoping to purchase some shade cloth to use when it gets really hot and I think I'd probably have to do daily water changes just to keep things cooled down some, but I don't know how much that would really help to keep the plants from being boiled.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kehy]

You're going to want some water circulation to keep mosquitoes from breeding in your pond. I've usually gone with cheap solar water pumps. Don't count on fish, because in water hot enough to make plants suffer, there's not going to be a lot of oxygen in the water, and fish will suffer too. Labyrinth fish might work if temps stay stable and you have somewhere for them to go in the cooler seasons.

But for the plants, if you can, bury or partially bury your tubs. The ground is a very good insulator and will help keep things cool. You also want to have floating plants covering roughly 2/3 of the surface of the water. Unless you have plants that require sun like water lilies and lotus, don't let your pond have much direct sunlight. Algae and temp swings happen

 

[roadmaster]

Fried some plant's/fishes in big Rubbermaid tub that I placed on the patio that gets about six hours of sun.
Temps outdoors in triple digits sometimes during summer.
Tried to keep large sponge filter going when raccoon's would leave it alone.
Three Pond lilies in pot's did well till water just got too hot.
Keep bait tanks in garage sometimes where it is cooler, but no sunlight, and fishes are seldom in the tub's long enough to consider plant's or shop light's but I can keep the critter's from stealing my bait fishes.

 

[lisals]

Not putting any fish, snails, shrimp, etc outside. Just plants. I have an area in mind, but I think it still gets too much direct sun. Hoping that shade cloth will help some.
Our front porch would be the perfect spot. Shaded most of the day with only a couple of hours of sun, but we live in an HOA run neighborhood, so the tubs would have to look decorative.
I mean... I'd be up to making an above ground pond but I don't think my husband would be up for that lol.

 

[GrampsGrunge]

A single layer of green shadecloth like from Growers Supply will do well. I'm using it on my 250 gallon tub pond. If you have time, moderate the length of time it's used over the tubs; so like on cloudy days just leave it off all day, but on sunny days at least from about 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. A little morning sun doesn't hurt.

 

[Sarlindescent]

I have only done this once for the first time last summer, but it worked in the DC area. I had a rubbermaid 50 gallon stock tank. I added some floating plants, moss, and riccia to the tub. I started with 10 white clouds and ended the summer with around 200. I filled it with water from a water change on my 75 and added some cycled media. I waited 1-2 weeks before adding fish. Beyond that, I did pretty much nothing the rest of the summer. Rains mainly handled top off (and some over filling). Twice I had to add water myself. I may have feed them 5 times to get a count. They ate mosquitoes and infusoria from leaves that fell in the pond. As long as I didn't have standing water elsewhere, I rarely saw a mosquito.

To note: This was done once. I am going to try and reproduce the same results again, this year. However, changes in temp, rainfall, and any other factor could cause issues.

 

[Victorvector]

Planning on trying my hand at growing some plants outside in just regular storage bins (no livestock), but I'm concerned with how hot it gets here in the summer.
No filter or airstone so.. are my plants doomed? Hoping to purchase some shade cloth to use when it gets really hot and I think I'd probably have to do daily water changes just to keep things cooled down some, but I don't know how much that would really help to keep the plants from being boiled.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I don`t know where you are located , but here in Australia we can get above 40+ Degrees C (around 104 F ) and the pond I had at my last house benefitted greatly from installing shadecloth , so I think you are very wise to do so !
The denser the better . 85-90% blockout. I took it down during winter months.

Good luck with your project . Please update if you can.

 

[reddhawkk]

I was wondering how everybody's tubs are working out this year? I have 3 going, two 110 gallon and one 40 gallon. In the 40 I put my last two elderly female purple Moscow guppies, and now there are at least nine in there, along with some dwarf water lettuce and a couple of Anubias. I can't see the Anubias any more. In one of the 110's I put a small group of red/blue grass guppies in there and now there are more than I can count. Also several water lilies, dwarf water lettuce, and a couple of other plants that I can't remember; I'll find out in the fall what they were. Finally, the second 110 was stocked with water lilies, dwarf water lettuce, Anubias, and some other assorted plants along with some Laetacara araguaiae. I believe there were 7 or 8. I only see them occasionally when I feed them but mostly it is like watching bass coming to the surface to eat; you only see the swirl and hear the gulping. Well, to my surprise while feeding them today I noticed about 10 inches down in the plant roots a swarm of baby fish! With all the issues of this summer, from long periods of high heat followed by long periods of heavy rain, the tubs are doing great! Oh yeah, all three are filtered by a sponge filter, mostly just for the water movement.

 

[mostly moss]

I did two for the first time this year! One 40 gallon stock tank on the patio, and one 125 gallon preformed pond. Would not recommend preformed ponds with any sort of area that juts out like a wing as they are nearly impossible to level. I lost serious spouse points when the first try wasn't satisfactory and we took it out and started over.

I was terrified putting the fish out. Everyone says this works, but actually putting fish in the great outdoors yourself is something else.

40 gallon tub: I have a papyrus, sweet potato vine, anacharis, and a tropical water lily. Got some leopard ramshorn snails by accident with the water lily, which I am super excited about. I added 6 Indian Ricefish (Oryzias dancena). They've been breeding like crazy inside, but I haven't been super successful in raising fry. None survive in the tank with the parents, and I'm not well set up to hatch them and grow them out. Two fish had an accident with an empty planting basket that I was using as a riser. The holes in the mesh were just big enough/small enough for them to get stuck. It was a male and a female so I think maybe they were spawning. We tried to rescue them but there was too much damage. Lesson learned... I also lost one that didn't look too good when I put her in, so I think she was on her way out anyway, though she made it through most of the summer. Everyone else is thriving, and there are literally hundreds of fry. I also threw in water lettuce from my indoor tank where there were still some ricefish and also some Emerald Dwarf Rasbora (Celestichthys erythromicron) who have been spawning like mad, so I think I have fry from both. Very hard to tell from above.

125 gallon pond: Papyrus, sweet potato vine, water sprite, and a tropical water lily. Also some "bonus" leopard ramshorn snails in here. I added 6-10 Least Killifish (Heterandria formosa). This was originally supposed to be the wildlife (frog, dragonfly) pond, and I was hesitant to add fish, but I couldn't find any concerns about aquarium fish transmitting disease to frogs, so I couldn't resist. I knew I might lose some fish to dragonfly larva, but figured the livebearers might reproduce fast enough that it wouldn't be an issue. I have no idea what I have for least killifish numbers right now. I made a couple caves, and I think they spend most of their time in there. I'm confident I have some. It will be interesting to see when I catch them in the fall if I have hundreds or 6-10. I've also been adding water lettuce from the indoor tank and the 40 gallon tub to this pond, so I have a bunch of ricefish and rasbora fry. We also have 4 resident green frogs, and a bunch of tadpoles which has been fun. Still working on the landscaping around this so I can hide the edge and make it more part of the garden.

Things I learned in my first year of outdoor fish:

• It works!!!! That totally justifies me getting an third (and fourth?) tub next year!
• It is really as low maintenance as everyone says! Mother Nature even took care of my water changes this year.
• I love having the ponds out there. I've been working from home. Before work, mid-day break and after work I go check on everyone out there. I've always been one to sit around and stare into ponds and creeks to see what's moving in there, so this is perfect.
• I was disappointed in how much I see the fish. The least killifish have pretty much hidden. The ricefish too, though there may not have been enough of them to feel comfortable. Since I don't tend to have super colorful fish, they don't show up that well either. From the side in a tank is very different from looking down on them with a black pond bottom. I'm itching for some colorful medaka ricefish now, but they are hard to find locally and so expensive to order.
• Water lilies are not going well. I got a late start with them, and maybe haven't fed them enough. They keep getting holes in their leaves and then the whole leaf dies. I don't see any sign of pests, and I don't think the ramshorn snails would do that? I've seen some reports of similar issues when there's water droplets on the leaves and the sun hits, but I think my leaves dry off before the sun hits them. Just hoping I can keep them alive long enough to overwinter them successfully.

I'm super tempted to just move the 40 gallon tub into our sunroom for the winter, but I'm not sure that's going to fly with the family. I'm already going to try to overwinter the papyrus and sweet potato vine inside, so why not the whole tub?

Next year I will work on making everything look a little more aesthetically pleasing, but for this year I'm just so happy it worked and everything seems healthy! Photos of various stages and inhabitants and struggling waterlilies attached.