Summer Toting Progress Blog

[Razberry910]

I'm going to be adding progress pictures and information on my tote setup throughout this summer and ask questions as I go.

For anyone wanting to see my setup they are under this forum post. 

Currently all 12 totes are full of water with sponge filters bubbling away, and random branches/logs from the yard partially sunk. One tote we'll call it tote #6 has 6 or so Rosy Red minnows that I netted from the goldfish pond(also they are the biggest most colorful Rosys I've ever seen).  I added a small bit of duckweed to Totes #7 and #8 these two totes will have Shubunkin goldfish so the duckweed can go crazy. I added some homemade spawning mops to tanks #6, #7, and #8. Fun fact the one set of spawning mops will not saturate and hand in the water even after soaking for a week or so now. The other mops I put in saturated and hung down within an hour of being in the tanks. 

I want to get a variety of floating plants water lettuce, water hyacinth, frogbit, red root floaters, spangles, and who knows what else. 

Questions. What should my water temp or air temps be before putting the floating plants outside? Also since most of these tanks don't have any fish in them yet should I fert the water for the plants. If yes what should I use? Keep in mind these totes are 300 gallons for squirting easy green in would be rather expensive I could toss a handful of compost into each. 

Tote Setup       

                                                      West

                                  #6                                       #12  

                                  #5                                       #11

South                        #4              Pavilion             #10                                North

                                 #3             Roof flows          # 9

                                 #2          <------------->      #8

                                 #1                                        #7

                                                       East

Tote Setup all totes have water, "driftwood", and sponge filters going water temps fluctuating 40-60F

#1 Empty

#2  Empty

#3  Empty

#4 Empty

#5 Empty

#6  ~ 6 Rosy red adults and spawning mops

#7  Empty

#8  Empty

#9 Empty

#10  Empty

#11  Duckweed

#12   Duckweed

Edited April 18, 2022 by Razberry910

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

ill be checking out your future updates, I wish I could set up some ponds but I'm moving in 2 months 😞. I've only set up one pond so I'm not experienced  but I've heard its good to fertilize the plants at the beginning but once you got fish in there and your feeding the fish you wont need a fertilizer and when I set up my pond I never used ferts and the plants grew like 5x as big as they were when I got them. I hope this helped 🙂 

[Patrick_G]

@Razberry910, we’re going to need some pics 😀

[PineSong]

That's a lot of ponds! I look forward to seeing what yours do this summer. This will be my first summer with a tub pond so I'm definitely in the learning curve.

[Minanora]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:08 PM, Patrick_G said:

@Razberry910, we’re going to need some pics 😀

I second this!

I need fuel for my own argument that I need summer totes/ponds/tubs! Lol. I can hardly wait to see your progress!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Those totes are sweet - agricultural water IBC totes are really cool and cheaper then the ones Cory uses. Used ones are on FB Marketplace all the time. 
I like your taste in fish and the ambition of this project. Thank you for taking us on the ride with you!

[Razberry910]

Quick update. About 2 weeks ago we had a string of 80 degree days the totes warmed up nicely. I moved a few guppies out side and they were loving it. I also locally bought some great floating water plants. Welllll then the weather changed for a week we had 40 degree days and nearly freezing nights. The guppies were looking good with the water down to the 50's but water temps in the 30-40 was to cold for them. Also my floating plants don't look great I'm hoping they pull through do that the weather is swinging back up. In the house I have some WCMM and rainbow shiners that should be going out in a week or two.  

[Razberry910]

Ok a good update. About two weeks ago we had a cold spell right after I bought some really nice aquatic plants. With a week of 40 degree days and near freezing nights the plants wilted back but I think they are all going to pull through. With 70-80 days with lows in the 50's on the extended forecast we made a trip to a couple fish shops and picked up Shebunkins, Florida Flag Fish, Golden white clouds, orange ricefish, and platinum ricefish. I water temps are ranging from mid 50s to mid 60s throughout the day. I was a bit nervous that the water was to cold for the flag fish so I tossed a heater in the tote set to 68 that tote was 65 this morning and about 71 this afternoon. Some tote have clear water and some have rather green water. We haven't seen the flag fish or Shebunkins since releasing them on Saturday but I have no reason to think they perished. I'm not sure if I can comment on each picture but I'll post a couple more pictures and update the table I have.       

[Razberry910]

Tote Setup       

                                                      West

                                  #6                                       #12  

                                  #5                                       #11

South                        #4              Pavilion             #10                                North

                                 #3             Roof flows          # 9

                                 #2          <------------->      #8

                                 #1                                        #7

                                                       East

Tote Setup all totes have water, "driftwood", and sponge filters going water temps fluctuating 40-60F

      Fish                                                                              Plants                                                                       Notes

#1 N Class Endlers to be added in 2-4 weeks                   Giant water lettuce, Giant Water Hyacinth

#2  Florida Flag Fish                                                           water lettuce, water hyacinth

#3  pink flamingo guppies to be added in 2-4 weeks

#4 Sunburst Platy to be added in 2-4 weeks                    water poppy         snowball

#5 Black Mosco guppies to be added in 2-4 weeks         frogbit

#6  ~ 6 Rosy red adults and juveniles                               water iris            watercress                                watercress is blowing up 

#7  9 shebunkins                                                              water hyacinth     I'll add more duckweed           green water haven't seen shebunkins yet  

#8  White Clouds to be added in 1-2 weeks                      water lettuce, water hyacinth

#9 7 Platinum ricefish                                                        water lettuce, water hyacinth                             They tend to hang out near the bottom and mid level

#10  Rainbow shiners  to be added in 1-2 weeks             water hyacinth                                                     Added an over flow in case the shiners are jumpers

#11   six orange ricefish                                                     water lettuce, water hyacinth                              orange ricefish have been hanging out near the top water 

#12   Golden White Clouds                                               water iris       water hyacinth                                this tote has very dark water possible from soil in iris pot. 

[Razberry910]

Inside the house my 65 has the rainbow shiners, white clouds, sunburst platies, and some floating plants to move out in a couple days. 

They floating plants came from Amazon and I'll have to really study them to make sure I identify them and put separate species in individual totes. 

In these pictures is velvet water water spangle, riccia water spangle, floating bamboo, giant duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce, spangles, and red root floater.

The floating bamboo and red root floater are easy to identify the others will take some work. 

[Razberry910]

The Shebunkins In tote 7 are coming up and feeding on pellet's, flakes and probably duckweed. 

[Razberry910]

I originally made an overflow for the Rainbow shiner tote since I was worried about them jumping out. As the water was over flowing from the other totes I think I would lose fish, fry, and floating plants so I installed an overflow on the Shebunkin tote and installed a large intake sponge over the drain. Version 2 works really well. I ordered another ten bulkhead kits and sponge intakes to do all the totes. The elbow on the outside of the tote can be rotated and that lets me adjust the water level by about 3 inches. I did notice that my garden hose on full flow was adding more water than the overflow could handle. 

Orange ricefish fleeing from me. The orange ricefish hang out on top of the water and the platinum ricefish are almost always in the midwater or near the bottom of their tote. 

Tote 12 with the golden white clouds had a very brow/red tint. I did dirt the pots that the water iris are in and I wonder if a ton of nutrients are feeding out those pots. If anyone has an idea of what it might be let me know. So far the white clouds seem happy. 

[Razberry910]

A huge storm rolled through and preformed a water change for me. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

It’s going to be fun watching you stock these. 

[PineSong]

We had a water-change storm, too. I enjoyed seeing my pond guppies get their first taste of rain 🙂

[Razberry910]

Update:

Everything is coming around nicely. I drilled and added the rest of the over flows and set them to allow about an inch of tote side above the water to keep fish and plants in. In the shebunkin and rainbow shiner totes I went about 2-3 inches as maybe they can jump?  The Shebunkins are growing FAST and eating alot now and I counted all 9 that I bought so that's nice.

I finally spotted a couple of the sunburst platies up high under a log/spawning mop/floating plants. I think the platies might be feeding on frog eggs and tadpoles that are in the mop. 

I added my Black Bar endlers to tote 1. 

Speaking of frogs they've moved in there are frog eggs everywhere. I'm not sure if frogs pose a threat to the fish eggs, fry, or adult fish but there's not much I can do about it. 

Also a friend gave me some large snails from his pond a few weeks back that I added to the totes and sorta forgot about. If you know the identity of the snails in the picture let me know. The snails are either POINTED CAMPELOMA, BANDED MYSTERYSNAIL, JAPANESE MYSTERYSNAIL, or CHINESE MYSTERYSNAIL.

I found this PDF to help with snail ID https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/wildlife/backyard-wildlife/Freshwater+Snails+of+Ohio+Pub+5512.pdf

I'll try to get some fish and plant pictures in the next few days. 

 

[L_goodei200]

The frogs are Gray Treefrogs, they pose little to no threat to your fish. However, Bullfrogs, Leopard Frogs, and other species of large frog, as well as Garter Snakes, and Water Snakes, should be removed immediately. Unfortunately, I can't help much on the snail. Maybe a picture in the sunlight would help?