Fish in a barrel/mini pond build

[Sliceofnature]

I thought it might be time for an update on the mini pond project now that summer round the corner again. The pond is still going strong and the danios are very healthy and seem happy. Im sure theyve been spawning but unfortunately the adults are very fast and seem to love snacking on any little ones so it looks like ill have to separate them if i want to breed any more. MTS and Assasin snails have been doing a great job as the clean up crew but id like to breed some cherry shrimp this year and add them as well.

Originally my goal for the mini pond was to use it to recycle all of the water change water from my tanks as well as cycling the water through hydroponic veggies and i wanted it to run completely on solar power. Some of that worked out and some didnt. The veggies and pond plants are more than happy to soak up all the nitrates they can get from my tank water changes. In fact i would need much larger tanks for the system to get enough nutrients so i am supplementing with ez green here and there to help out. The veggies last year did not work out as well as i’d hoped. The plants really struggled and the harvest was tiny but i learned alot. Im hoping now that i have some experience this year will yield better results. I planted much earlier this season and i already have some tomatoes on the vine so im hopeful that there will be a lot more to come. 

I also ended up running some electrical to the pond over the winter so that i could add a heater and an additional light. I found that with the small size of the pond, temps dropped much more quickly at night during winter than i anticipated. I believe the danios couldve survived winter without the heater but i decided id rather be on the safe side and ensure that they are comfortable and thriving. 

Hopefully ill be following up soon with photos of tons of peppers and tomatoes.🤞🏼