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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.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I love the lily idea. It looks really good.
Will you be getting any moss or ferns growing on the surface of the gravels? Not suggesting it or anything but just curious.
Will you be introducing any fish or little frogs to keep the mosquito breeding down so is the plan to net the larvae out for your fish in tanks?
I mostly have whitecloud mountain minnows and firetail gudgeons in my pond.
I didn't think they would survive in a coldwater pond but my 2 chinese algae eaters and 1 cochu blue tetra have done surprisingly well and have grown last summer.
Since my pond will be dropping below 5 degrees celcius during winter, I have caught the fish and put them in tanks for the winter.

cool idea! never would have thought of something like that! did you have to wash the roots of the cala lily prior to intoducing it? and what is the aquatic soil like.. like pottin soil or more gravel like? also would this work in say a galvanized tub? i was avctually looking into doing osmethinglike this to farm plants and sellthem to the allt he Local LFS... save them soem money and make me some money!!!!and if you are planning on adding any live stock i would recomend some frogs... if you start with tadpoles you might get a few more for sheaper.. or you could get ADF... and a betta. is this "pond" going to be filtered or heated?

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

and if it is for display, you might want to get a powerhead of somesort (to keep water circulated) and one of those half o three quarters barrel things for planting... even a sealed earthen(terra cotta) would work well...not to be rude, but the bright blue tub is slightly ugly (but i understand the experimental purpose of it...)!

GOOD LUCK

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Will you be getting any moss or ferns growing on the surface of the gravels? Not suggesting it or anything but just curious.
Will you be introducing any fish or little frogs to keep the mosquito breeding down so is the plan to net the larvae out for your fish in tanks?

I do have some plants planted in the top of the gravel. I am not so sure how well they will do yet. I planted them after the photo shoot. I do plan on adding some fish here sometime soon. I think the first thing I am going to add is some cherry shrimp. After that I haven't picked out a fish yet. Probably will be guppies or whiteclouds. Later this summer I will add a couple baby BN. The water needs to warm up first though.

brandeeno,
I washed the roots before planting it. I am not sure how well it will do, but I have high hopes.

My only plans for filtration is plants. I don't have any power outside.

I picked the blue container because it was cheap. I don't care too much what it looks like.


55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

There was great article in the April Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine. On setting up and maintaining one of these ponds. Next summer I am going to give it a try myself.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

Yes I also saw that. It is where I got the idea. So far things are going well. Nothing has melted away yet. Some of the rotola is turning very dark red.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Yesterday I added my first fish to the tank. I picked up three white lyer tail mollies. One male and two female. The seem to be doing pretty well as of this morning.

The cala lilly on the other hand is not doing so well. Maybe it is too much water for it. I will have to go looking for another plant if it doesn't make it.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

if the cala doesnt work, try a banana tree or an umbrella palm or etc.. there are lots of "pond" or submersed oplants that do very well.....!!!! or you could put a trellis and a few pothos plants to climb up it...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

brandeeno,

Thanks for the input. Do you have any thinks to the plants you suggested?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

you could also use mangrove shoots (if you order them via ebay or another online retailier...)

here is a link of a bunch of plants that grow along the sides of ponds and lakes in nature (ie these are called marginal pond plants)...

http://www.world-of-water.co.uk/planting_marginal.htm

here is another, but lacks photos...

http://www.garden-pond-plants.com/plantselector.htm

GOOD LUCK!

(ps it says calas should be able to grow in there, maybe a slightly different species or try using a taller container for it with regular soil at the top and water it so it stays moist, but not completley emmersed... in other words let it grow out of the water, while still being a part of the pond... you also might want to throw some gravel or sand in the bottom and som MTS to keep the algae in check and the decomposing plant metter as well...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Thanks for the links! I will be sure to look into it sometime soon!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

could i do a pond like this inside and put a heater in it and lights? any advice for something like this? or maybe cold water with kois


i like feesh

Jbennet.. if you had enough light you could do that... would need some good shop lights though...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

could i do a pond like this inside and put a heater in it and lights? any advice for something like this? or maybe cold water with kois

You could do something like this inside. Light is the big issue though.

As for fish, I would not recommend Koi for this sized container. They get rather large and this thing is only 19G.

I have Mollies in mine. They seem to be doing well. They are quite active and have already had one batch of young. I was a bit worried about them last week as the temperature dropped to about 34F overnight. I covered the pond that night and it seemed to keep everything alright.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

i would probably get a larger container, how many gallons for maybe 3,4 butterfly koi? and i have a tank completely packed with molly fry ( i have had a breeding pair in my 29 for about 5 months) cool fish arent they? but ya maybe 3 4 koi how many gallon tubs i work at a super market and they sell some rather large ones

i like feesh

I would say for koi at least 200 gallons as they sure do poop alot! most people use large 1000 gallon ponds outside for fully grown koi.not to mention filtration is needed as koi will more likely than not destroy the green stuff in the ponds. koi are not the best choice for an indoor tub, but if you want to cramp them with good filtration it might be ok. but they wont reach maximum size or be as beautiful. koi get HUGE and i hope you are prepared for that challenge...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

A little update:

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.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric