Project "SUBARU": Installation of SIX 15-gallon planters as nano-ponds

[Bill Smith]

PLANTS AND LIGHTS!

What did I find? Illumination...

 

 

Time to light up the ponds. After much thinking and searching, I settled on this set of Jebao lights I found on Amazon for $53. They're a little expensive and fairly cheaply made, but I'm still really glad I did:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IM80AWK  

(non-affiliate link)

 

The lights are separated by a 3-foot cord (wish it was 4 feet). The light itself can be separated from its weighted stand, although I ultimately chose to use the stands.

 

 

As it turns out those stands are weighted by a big chunk of metal embedded in resin. This means they can be mounted or hung with magnets! I picked up some extra-strength magnetic hooks from Amazon as well:

 

 

The hooks are attached to their bases with a swivel, and they held to the back of the lights' bases just fine. All I had to do was hook them on the rim of the planters at whatever height I wanted and angle them accordingly:

 

 

I then secured the cords between the lights with some of that metal foil tape which holds so well. The cords were a little too short to disappear completely...

 

 

...but you have to look for them.

 

 

All ponds, wired up for light!

 

 

And when it got dark last night, I turned them on!

 

 

Closeup of pond #1. The duckweed re-casts the white light as green:

 

 

Less so with the guppy grass in #4:

 

 

Here's a closeup of the Hawaiian blue Moscow guppies in #4:

 

 

Pond #6 has a large Daphnia magna culture I picked up from AquaBid, and fed with green water from another bucket that gets all-day sunlight:

 

 

The daphnia really flock to the light!

 

 

The next things to do are to grow out the greenery more, try to get some better pictures, and put the light on a timer. 🙂

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Bill

[Sliceofnature]

@Bill Smith those lights worked out perfectly. It really takes them to a whole new level at night. Makes ya wanna crack open a beer Kick your feet up and watch for hours. 

[Daniel]

So far does one pond stand out for good or bad? Do you have a favorite? Any particular fish that you like so far?

[Bill Smith]

4 hours ago, Daniel said:

So far does one pond stand out for good or bad? Do you have a favorite? Any particular fish that you like so far?

UPDATES:

1. I'm letting the floating plants of various styles grow out first before I decide too much on how I like the look, but I combined the moneywort from two ponds into one, and added a bunch of water sprite into the one.
    
2. The water hyacinths are REALLY taking off, so nitrates are not a problem anywhere.
    
3. As for fish, the most interesting pond is the definitely one with the blue guppies in it. The rest of the fish look pretty plain from overhead, but the guppies have a lot of personality. The clown killies look interesting from overhead as well, but they don't move around much. I plan to give it a few months, then pull some specimens out and see how they look. Hoping for big bold colors at that point!
    
4. I've been feeding frozen bbs in the mornings, micro pellets in the evenings, and occasionally supplementing daphnia from the daphnia pond. Some of the bigger bugs are still swimming around in the other ponds!
    
5. The daphnia pond seems to ebb and flow in population. I have to put in a 1/2 Tablespoon of spirulina powder every day, as they consume it so fast! My green water bucket just isn't enough!
    
6. I added a timer to the lights, so they turn on just before sunset and stay on till 10pm, encouraging me to go outside and get a better view. Definitely worth it!
    
7. I just added some elbow nozzles on the ends of the box filters to help direct water flow. That seemed to help a lot.
    
8. I plan to start cleaning the filter pads of the box filters, just one per weekend, to keep the maintenance low.

I'll post some new pictures hopefully this weekend!

Bill

[Bill Smith]

Here's a couple pics of the elbow nozzles I added to the box filters. They fit the tubing perfectly, they raise the water pressure and give the whole thing a little more "oomph":

Notice the bubbles emerging several inches away:

Edited August 28, 2020 by Bill Smith

[Bill Smith]

Okay, NOW I'm beginning to understand the appeal of ponds. Being outside in nature, with real sunlight, insects, plants and microorganisms, and life just...happens.

I took a closer look at them under the lights tonight and noticed pond #4 had half-inch guppies that I'd never noticed before!

One of the females must have popped right after I received them!

Better yet, in pond #2, I noticed several 1/8" sized leopard danios as well!

Driving home from work today listening to Aquarium Co-Op livestream archives on the Podcast App, @Cory made a point of mentioning: Always feed fry food in tanks where you HOPE to see fry; don't wait till after you see them. This has never been more true for me, and I'm very surprised and happy with the results!

I just dumped a gallon of green water in all 6 ponds!

Bill

[Bill Smith]

I am sorting through some new, nicer pics I took this weekend. These things are a delight, and squirt or two of Easy Green every now and then visibly accelerates the growth in a week!

While I prep the photos, here's something I can share that started doing: Because I'm easily topping off as much as 10 gallons a week just for evaporation; I ended up running a splitter off the auto-top-off for my larger pond so that I can fill the ponds directly with filtered water:

It's so much less disruptive than dumping in a couple gallons every few days.

This other thing cracks me up: Each of the ponds now has a ring around the front of it:

Guess my birdie visitors are appreciating the fresh water! I suspect when the water hyacinths grow in more, that kind of perching will be diminished.

Bill

Edited September 15, 2020 by Bill Smith

[jerseychef]

@Bill SmithThey look great.  I am hoping to do a pond in a year or so.  Just need to pick the right place in my yard for it.  Thank you for sharing.  I am looking forward to updates

[Bill Smith]

OVERALL PICS

First a couple comparison pics, from a couple different angles. Click to enlarge.

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #1

All the plants are growing in nicely. The one water hyacinth has become four, the dwarf aquarium lily sent three pads to the top, and I'm scooping off tons of duckweed weekly.

The ring is a 24" length of Aquarium Co-Op airline tubing, joined with an airline connector.

When the duckweed gets out of hand, I get a nice view through the porthole.

The cherry barbs seem to be active and happy. I feed them Hikari micro pellets and supplement with live daphnia. I also add a squirt of Aquarium Co-Op Easy Fry Food daily, in case there might be fry.

Click to enlarge!

[Ken Burke]

Nice.  I did my first summer tub this year, what fun.  Loaded it up with platty fish.  Used pathos tied to the sides for the bulk of my plants and a pond lily with s few other plant sprinkled in. Had to add a second tub ‘cause they sure were happy.  Wish I had documented the whole thing like you did.  Next year going epic  

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #2

This one's a little more sparse; I shared some water lettuce from #3, and let the water hyacinth and dwarf aquarium lily grow. Nice growth all around.

Interestingly, after an infusion of green water, it went all green!

It's the only pond that did this. But I'm glad, because it helps to feed any newly-hatched leopard danio fry.

But it's pretty murky:

Sadly, I had an unexpected die-off of leopard danios over just a couple days. It's possible the recent heat wave was too much. But I have one very robust adult danio left, and a few fry!

That last picture is from tonight. The fry in this pic is over 1/4" long! I've been holding off on the Easy Green, and the green water has really diminished.

I'm not giving up on leopard danios just yet. I'm going to restock with a dozen as soon as a LFS has some.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Bill Smith

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #3:

This one's out of control. Water hyacinth, water lettuce, and some invading duckweed!

 

For the nighttime shot, I removed a lot. Shared the water lettuce to #2, and fed the duckweed to goldfish in my larger pond.

The green kubotai rasboras are doing VERY well, eating well, handling the temperature swings. Couldn't be happier about that.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Bill Smith

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #4:

This is probably my favorite of all 6 so far. Simply water hyacinth and guppy grass for the growing population of Hawaiian blue Moscow guppies.

They move so fast in the dark for my phone camera to do them justice, but there is so much life and activity in this pond!

There are also several juveniles now approaching 3/4"!

Easily my most successful pond, and it's also the one I've touched the least!

Edited September 16, 2020 by Bill Smith

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #5:

Probably one of the more interesting, this one has the water hyacinth and some floating salvinia on top, and a bunch of floating water sprite just below. I didn't know it did this, but the water sprite is growing some of its stems straight up out of the water.

It houses several clown killifish, which all seem to be doing very well.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Bill Smith

[jerseychef]

@Bill SmithThe ponds look great.  The plants are filling in really quickly 👍

[Bill Smith]

NANO-POND #6:

Last, but not least, the daphnia culture. It's still going strong! I harvest heavily every couple days to feed all my tanks.

The foam you see here is from the spirulina powder I use. When the water begins to clear I either dump in a gallon of green water or a heaping tablespoon of spirulina powder (usually pre-stirred in a cup of water).

The dark patches you see are what happens when I don't pre-mix the powder. 🙂

As you can see, still going strong after several weeks. Two secrets with daphnia: Harvest heavily to keep them from over-populating, and keep the water slightly murky with food.

Thanks for looking at my little slide show!

Bill

[JimmyGimbal]

Had mine running for a month or so.. Love it!

[Alesha]

These are SO fab, Bill! Thanks for sharing them with us!

[Bill Smith]

Okay, ponds are officially the coolest thing ever. You throw them together like aquariums, drop some fish in, give them lots of floating plants for cover, and nature does the rest.

I have clown killifish fry!

I obviously missed these guys for awhile, because they're all about a quarter-inch long. But I've been feeding Easy Fry Food and frozen baby brine shrimp; clearly that has paid off.

When trying to breed, always feed as if you have fry!

I'm tempted to take them out and raise them in a small tank, as I know the juveniles will prey on the next generation, but I'm thinking/hoping I have enough plant cover for future fry to do all right. I'll grow these juveniles as fast as I can.

For those keeping score, that's now THREE OUT OF FIVE nano-ponds making babies!

Bill

 

[Grey]

I am so inspired! Thank you for the detailed share!

Could this work in areas with four seasons? With maybe a more insulated pot?

 I rent in an apartment complex but have always wanted a “pond”.

[Bill Smith]

15 hours ago, Grey said:

I am so inspired! Thank you for the detailed share!

Could this work in areas with four seasons? With maybe a more insulated pot?

 I rent in an apartment complex but have always wanted a “pond”.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you like!

Typically, people bring their tubs inside for cold weather. Mine never drops to freezing, so I think my overkill heaters will keep the temps up if I leave them outside. But I'm not positive, so I'll have to report back during my own colder weather!

More insulation does help your water resist temperature changes, but unless your weather on a cold day warms up at some point, the water will eventually reach air temperature regardless of its insulation.

Other common techniques involve things like running an air pump from inside the warmer room so that you get "warm" bubbles of air, but I'm not sure how effective that is.

[Nick Y]

Hi Bill.  Love the ponds and love the thread.   I’m currently mulling over whether to start a 45 gallon porch pond.   I was just wondering if you could update us on the ponds now. Do you recommend a certain type of fish or plant for a small pond like that now that you’ve had them running a while?  For stocking I’m debating platys, guppies, rosey barbs, or three goldfish (which may be too overstocked for 45 gal)

[Bill Smith]

18 hours ago, Nick Y said:

Hi Bill.  Love the ponds and love the thread.   I’m currently mulling over whether to start a 45 gallon porch pond.   I was just wondering if you could update us on the ponds now. Do you recommend a certain type of fish or plant for a small pond like that now that you’ve had them running a while?  For stocking I’m debating platys, guppies, rosey barbs, or three goldfish (which may be too overstocked for 45 gal)

Hi Nick:

Thanks for the kind words!

I ended up taking down these ponds, mainly because they became a lot of maintenance work and I had less time to enjoy them than before. As the weather gets colder, sure I'm set up for the fish to be fine in Southern California, but that doesn't mean I want to hang out there all that much. Something to think about, even for the warmer climates!

So I distributed my fish among my tanks and am now only running the daphnia culture, which is still thriving quite well!

So let's do a post-mortem...

What worked well?

Heaters, man. The 200 watt heater in the 15 gallons of water kept the fish nice and toasty even on the coldest mornings. I think this stability encouraged breeding. There were babies showing up in every tub!

On the same note, feeding fry food every night, regardless of whether I saw fry or not, probably helped as well.

The lights were great. I would NOT do a pond without a light, because I want a better view!

What would I do differently?

The box filter was a bad idea. In practice, it's just too much maintenance. Quite honestly, I should have just used sponge filters, or better yet, probably nothing with just an airstone. I think I would have even started to play with HOB filters, adapting them to the weather and angled sides of the tubs.

Duckweed was a bad idea. It got everywhere, whether I wanted it or not. I liked the frogbit.

I would have started with more plants up front. I should have put in a LOT more guppy grass at the outset, to prevent the algae from taking hold. Alternatively, I could have planted a lot of water sprite, but I think the floating plants were most conducive to breeding and protecting the fry.

I would have used finer gravel. The cheap pea gravel is just not very attractive.

I would have made the "electrical boxes" easier to service. The USB-air pumps don't last more than a couple months outside, and changing them was very difficult.

I should have centralized the air to a single air pump.

What about the fish?

Honestly, I found most of the fish in my nano-ponds to be fairly boring. While they did breed, they all looked the same from the top.

The exceptions to this were the clown killies and the guppies. I'm not a huge guppy fan, but they were far more interesting to watch than most, because of their more vigorous activity and waving tails. The killies weren't so active, but they are pretty to look at form the top, with the silver dot on the top of their heads really grabbing attention.

I think if I were to do it again, I would definitely try platies, especially if I could find some interesting colors.

Hope that helps!

Bill

[Daniel]

As we think about the upcoming anniversary one of the main posters who carried the forum for the first couple of months was the always helpful and always kind @Bill Smith, (member number 105). He published several ongoing journal/articles including the famous Pex Pillar, The Solar Powered USB Nano Pump, and many more (including Project Subaru above).

Plus he also managed to put those fancy Aquarium Co-Op guys in their places by winning the first few days on the forum.