Recommending a container pond book

[Eric R]

I figured considering the time of year of with all of the recent posts on summer tubbing, I'd make a recommendation for a book on the topic that I just picked up, The Tub Pond Handbook (3rd Edition) by Dr. Ted Coletti (I'm in no way affiliated with the author, just a fish hobbyist writing a glowing review for a recent book I picked-up, hoping other people may find the recommendation useful!). Though I love books, I very rarely buy them for the aquarium hobby, as I personally find that a lot of books at this point either contain outdated information, or that's it's easier to find what I consider to be more current and better information on forums like this or a handful of youtube channels.

However, Dr. Ted came to speak for an hour recently for our local aquarium club virtual meeting. I thought the presentation was packed full of very useful information (and excellent pictures, all of his own backyard tubs, of which he currently has 30!), plus he's been actually keeping backyard ponds for 20 years, all relatively small and nearly all above ground. He's a big proponent of using plants for filtration, and I don't believe that he runs filters or heaters for any of his tubs.

His book is an easy to read and reference how-to manual on planting a beautiful summer tub, with recommendations for containers, plants, fish, how to handle pests, timelines, how to overwinter plants, etc., and helped to answer a bunch of the questions I had about the process still after reading about it through online articles, on forums, and watching youtube videos. Some of the information on water quality and the nitrogen cycle is old news for anyone that's been in the hobby a while, but probably still useful and worth including for newer hobbyists. The 3rd edition of this book just came out this month, so it's very up-to-date. You can get it on Amazon and it's pretty reasonably priced I think for $18 (there's also a kindle edition): https://www.amazon.com/Tub-Pond-Handbook-Comprehensive-Container/dp/B091W9WLDP/

[Fish Folk]

4 minutes ago, ererer said:

I figured considering the time of year of with all of the recent posts on summer tubbing, I'd make a recommendation for a book on the topic that I just picked up, The Tub Pond Handbook (3rd Edition) by Dr. Ted Coletti (I'm in no way affiliated with the author, just a fish hobbyist writing a glowing review for a recent book I picked-up, hoping other people may find the recommendation useful!). Though I love books, I very rarely buy them for the aquarium hobby, as I personally find that a lot of books at this point either contain outdated information, or that's it's easier to find what I consider to be more current and better information on forums like this or a handful of youtube channels.

However, Dr. Ted came to speak for an hour recently for our local aquarium club virtual meeting. I thought the presentation was packed full of very useful information (and excellent pictures, all of his own backyard tubs, of which he currently has 30!), plus he's been actually keeping backyard ponds for 20 years, all relatively small and nearly all above ground. He's a big proponent of using plants for filtration, and I don't believe that he runs filters or heaters for any of his tubs.

His book is an easy to read and reference how-to manual on planting a beautiful summer tub, with recommendations for containers, plants, fish, how to handle pests, timelines, how to overwinter plants, etc., and helped to answer a bunch of the questions I had about the process still after reading about it through online articles, on forums, and watching youtube videos. Some of the information on water quality and the nitrogen cycle is old news for anyone that's been in the hobby a while, but probably still useful and worth including for newer hobbyists. The 3rd edition of this book just came out this month, so it's very up-to-date. You can get it on Amazon and it's pretty reasonably priced I think for $18 (there's also a kindle edition): https://www.amazon.com/Tub-Pond-Handbook-Comprehensive-Container/dp/B091W9WLDP/

Great recommendation!

I think Randy interviewed the author, Ted Coletti, on the Aquarist Podcast here:

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-aquarist-podcast-1108142/episodes/ep-77-ted-coletti-on-swordtail-57111284

[Eric R]

Thanks for sharing, I'll give it a listen! [Uh-oh, another podcast to check out now!]