Summer Tubbing - Lets see your outdoor mini and large ponds.

[Kendall’s Aquarium]

Only running two currently. In the process of my 3rd which is a 140 gallon pond. Both of them are housing guppies and shrimp!

[Ryan S.]

Below is my first ever outdoor tub.  I've really enjoyed it so far though Covid has put a damper on doing a lot of plants and fish that I wanted. I opted to try to breed out a cool guppy hybrid I've been getting in my main tank.  

[StormyRen]

I've had this setup since it started getting warm in Illinois. It's a 100 gallon stock tank with sponge filter for water surface disturbance. Unfortunately I don't think my lily bulb was any good. I'm super sad about that. I have guppies in this tub with water lettuce and duckweed. I was hoping the water lily would grow, but nothing. For added shade during this hot summer I've added an umbrella in front of the tank just enough to keep it partially shaded. The guppies are loving the shaded areas. Not only do I have guppy fry, but I've also seen tadpoles. 

[Cory]

Thats some epic water lettuce there.

[KBOzzie59]

Getting a late start.  Two 110's, we have a couple ideas on where we want to go from here.  Thinking next year I'll paint this slab green!

[Ryan S.]

On 7/15/2020 at 6:01 PM, Ryan S. said:

Below is my first ever outdoor tub.  I've really enjoyed it so far though Covid has put a damper on doing a lot of plants and fish that I wanted. I opted to try to breed out a cool guppy hybrid I've been getting in my main tank.  

Exciting update.  I had put two florida flagfish in my pond back in early May as the first inhabitants that of course hadn't seen since.  I had tried to sex them at the LFS just in case this pond breeding stuff works, but it was a complete guess.  Well today when looking at my pond with the air pump off, I finally caught glimpse of them for the first time.  And not only the two adults, but I could tell that some of the fry, now getting bigger, that I thought were only guppies are Flagfish fry as well!  Victory! My first time breeding a fish other than a livebearer!

Now I just need to figure out a plan to breed my rainbow shiners, but thats an indoor project and likely much more difficult to figure out. 

[Robin]

I've often thought about a pond but don't know how I would keep out the cats and raccoons. The area has lots of both. Any ideas?

[Pete]

Dropped in a extra air stone. I love that you can plug 2 usb nano air pumps in to one power adapter 

 

[Speakeasy]

110 gallon tough stuff stock tank...breeding long fin leopard danios in it. They're tough to see but if you expand the pics there is a ton of fry in there.

 I leaned a 12x12 tile against the wall of the tub, gives them a bit of a cave to hide in. It has an unattended benefit of becoming a fish and snail buffet as it catches food before it hits the bottom.

 Aq.Coop med sponge filter and air line, ziss no clog stone and nano air pump combo works great. I tuck the air pump under the ledge of the tub (nice snug fit) and clipped it to to a hole I drilled in the lip. This helps protect it from the weather and should it ever come loose it wont fall into the dirt.

Feeding Extreme krill flake food and nano pellets, Aq.Coop fry food and hikari first bites as well as some hikari frozen foods.

My first attempt at breeding fish, and its awesome. 

[Sliceofnature]

This is my first mini pond. Im still setting it up. I know its a bit late in the season but i live in a very warm area of los angeles so it should be fine. I ordered some plants from aquarium coop last night to get it started. 
 

[Daniel]

That is so cool!

[Pete]

Any suggestions for floating Pothos in a summer tub? I'm looking for suggestions that'll keep the roots immersed but keep the leaves out of the water enough that I can get them to vine over the side. I tried wiring a basket over the edge but the plant kept falling in to the tub, soaking and rotting the leaf. And with evaporation it was hard to keep the roots in the water.

[ForestJenn]

On 7/20/2020 at 5:06 PM, Pete said:

Any suggestions for floating Pothos in a summer tub? I'm looking for suggestions that'll keep the roots immersed but keep the leaves out of the water enough that I can get them to vine over the side. I tried wiring a basket over the edge but the plant kept falling in to the tub, soaking and rotting the leaf. And with evaporation it was hard to keep the roots in the water.

What about a berry bowl or stoneware colander?   If it's deep enough, the roots could pass through the holes in the bottom.  You could put a hook on the outside of the pond, wrap a wire around the bowl (if it's got a rim, that would be easiest) and attach it to the hook.   Lots of beginner (and advanced) potters like to make these, so I bet you could pick one up at any local craft market (if they're open near you).  Etsy might be another good source but they might be a bit pricier than buying from a local hobby potter. 

I throw pots when I can get to my community studio but I don't currently have anything with a rim that I could give you.   It's a sanity maintenance thing for me so I'm always giving pots away.   And now I'm excited by this idea!   These ponds are inspiring me and I may just steal my own suggest to do this very thing. 😛

Edited July 22, 2020 by ForestJenn

[Speakeasy]

On 7/20/2020 at 8:06 PM, Pete said:

Any suggestions for floating Pothos in a summer tub? I'm looking for suggestions that'll keep the roots immersed but keep the leaves out of the water enough that I can get them to vine over the side. I tried wiring a basket over the edge but the plant kept falling in to the tub, soaking and rotting the leaf. And with evaporation it was hard to keep the roots in the water.

Fabric pot and a milk crate. The fabric pot can be folded down the what ever depth of substrate you want to plant in and the milk crate can be trimmed with a hack saw blade (every easy, soft plastic) to accommodate the water depth, that how I'm doing it, just not with pothos. If you look at my earlier post the lager plants are in fabric pot sitting on trimmed milk crates 

that being said pothos grows underwater. The pic with the neon has a vine of pothos along the back. I just jammed a piece of vine into the gravel about two years ago and it rooted and  grew around the tank rooting in different places and is now coming up and out of the tank over the side and hanging down to the floor. In the beginning it did need a bit of time to convert to the aquatic life. 

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Speakeasy said:

... that being said pothos grows underwater. The pic with the neon has a vine of pothos along the back. I just jammed a piece of vine into the gravel about two years ago and it rooted and  grew around the tank rooting in different places and is now coming up and out of the tank over the side and hanging down to the floor....

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I didn't know it would grow underwater. This is perfect!

[Sliceofnature]

On 7/19/2020 at 3:10 PM, Speakeasy said:

110 gallon tough stuff stock tank...breeding long fin leopard danios in it. They're tough to see but if you expand the pics there is a ton of fry in there.

 I leaned a 12x12 tile against the wall of the tub, gives them a bit of a cave to hide in. It has an unattended benefit of becoming a fish and snail buffet as it catches food before it hits the bottom.

 Aq.Coop med sponge filter and air line, ziss no clog stone and nano air pump combo works great. I tuck the air pump under the ledge of the tub (nice snug fit) and clipped it to to a hole I drilled in the lip. This helps protect it from the weather and should it ever come loose it wont fall into the dirt.

Feeding Extreme krill flake food and nano pellets, Aq.Coop fry food and hikari first bites as well as some hikari frozen foods.

My first attempt at breeding fish, and its awesome. 

Those plants are looking great. Breeding Leopard danios is what inspired me to start this mini pond In the first place, theyre such crazy little fish.

[Bill Smith]

On 7/19/2020 at 3:10 PM, Speakeasy said:

110 gallon tough stuff stock tank...breeding long fin leopard danios in it. They're tough to see but if you expand the pics there is a ton of fry in there.

Did you do anything special to enable the danios to breed? Plants or moss in the water to help hide the scattered eggs?

[Speakeasy]

1 hour ago, Bill Smith said:

Did you do anything special to enable the danios to breed? Plants or moss in the water to help hide the scattered eggs?

I laid a layer of pea gravel (from home depot) as a substrate...I was told that the lager than standard stone size allows the eggs to gather between them, protecting them from the adults eating them. I also have water hyacinth floating on the surface, of which the root structure allows the the fry to hide in. 

[Bill Smith]

6 hours ago, Speakeasy said:

I laid a layer of pea gravel (from home depot) as a substrate...I was told that the lager than standard stone size allows the eggs to gather between them, protecting them from the adults eating them. I also have water hyacinth floating on the surface, of which the root structure allows the the fry to hide in. 

Ah, nice, thanks! That happens to be exactly what I've done with my 100g Rubbermaid tote: Home Depot pea gravel and water hyacinths. I also dropped in some Java moss for good measure!

I hope to see baby gold white clouds in the near future!

Bill

[Speakeasy]

1 hour ago, Bill Smith said:

Ah, nice, thanks! That happens to be exactly what I've done with my 100g Rubbermaid tote: Home Depot pea gravel and water hyacinths. I also dropped in some Java moss for good measure!

I hope to see baby gold white clouds in the near future!

Bill

Yeah I have some water Sprite planted in a small pot on the bottom. Do to the water hyacinth and the duck weed that came with it I'm having a tough time keeping sun light on it. All things given, not exactly a bad problem to have. 

I wanted white clouds, but they just not available locally to me...I hope you breed a swarm of them, maybe I can buy some off you 

[Bill Smith]

2 hours ago, Speakeasy said:

Yeah I have some water Sprite planted in a small pot on the bottom. Do to the water hyacinth and the duck weed that came with it I'm having a tough time keeping sun light on it. All things given, not exactly a bad problem to have. 

I wanted white clouds, but they just not available locally to me...I hope you breed a swarm of them, maybe I can buy some off you 

Yeah if I'm fortunate enough to breed a swarm, I'll definitely need to unload them! The gold white clouds are so pretty. I started out with two dozen from Aqua Huna, and they came in larger than expected at 100% survival rate!

[Daniel]

Added rice fish to the pool today. @Cory suggested them in an earlier post and I was skeptical, but I was also wrong. The rice fish look great and school playfully. The colors are nice with some white, some blue, some orange.

[MattyIce]

Grandparents old pool, was out of use for several years, areas around the skimmer box is starting rot, and other damage, it needs a good bit of work to become a usable pool.

Murky green water, snails and tadpoles were the only thing living in it for some time, i was just tossing random trimmings from my tank into the pool hoping something would grow but it would always melt except for some hearty vine like floating plant that i got from my friends old natural pond.

A month and a half - 2 months ago I drained it, rinsed out the dirt and muck, filled it up about 6-7 inches with well water, added about 20 water hyacinth, lots of duck weed, lots of guppy grass, lots of riccia floutia, just about anything that i had lots of of, i also put in a banana plant that i didn't want in one of my tanks. 

Almost everything started melting back at the start, though the banana plant, duck week and water hyacinths made it though and are doing well now.  The guppy grass and everything else are have become huge clumps of algae.

With moving 20 water hyacinths out of a rubber maid pond, it made way for a dwarf aquarium lily to take over to the point where the lily didn't have room for itself anymore.  With plants actually doing OK in the pool/pond I ended up moving the dwarf aquarium lily out about a week ago and it is doing well.


 

my banana plant has been flowering, checked it out the other day, found that it was growing new plants too:



This is my first year doing outdoor ponds/water gardens, I am just growing plants and do not have any fish outdoors.

[Alesha]

On 7/22/2020 at 2:28 PM, Speakeasy said:

that being said pothos grows underwater. The pic with the neon has a vine of pothos along the back. I just jammed a piece of vine into the gravel about two years ago and it rooted and  grew around the tank rooting in different places and is now coming up and out of the tank over the side and hanging down to the floor. In the beginning it did need a bit of time to convert to the aquatic life. 

Ok, well that is so very cool! I had no idea it would do so well underwater, but your picture is proof enough! I wonder if it would do as well indoors, where there isn't as much sunshine and the temps are different. I think I see a trip to the garden center in my near future! Thanks for sharing!

[Logan Kendrick]

Have really enjoyed our first pond season!