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

[PineSong]

On 4/14/2022 at 3:54 PM, Jacob Hill said:

I know summer tubing is coming up and I just wanted to share my last years pond cause I wasn’t on the forum. There’s a lot of things I would do differently but it was a good learning experience and my white clouds bred so I was happy. 

 

Beautiful video, loved the calm music. I would love to have canna in my pond this summer--did you just plop the pot in the pond? This will be my first summer with a tub pond and I'd love to have flowers as well as shade the fish that way.

[Kara C]

It has been a hot minute since I've been around here. Life just gets in the way. Update on the 40 gallon- the white clouds and flag fish have survived 2 winters and have a resident frog. I unplugged the pump for the spitting frog for winter last year and never plugged it back in. Should probably get around to removing it from the tub lol. 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:33 AM, PineSong said:

Beautiful video, loved the calm music. I would love to have canna in my pond this summer--did you just plop the pot in the pond? This will be my first summer with a tub pond and I'd love to have flowers as well as shade the fish that way.

the cannas are beautiful and have amazing flowers but I wouldn't do one again because the more it grows it gets really top heavy and can fall over with the slightest amount of wind. also with the the pots I would recommend using a heavier dirt, don't use anything super light cause it will float through the gravel and I just placed the pots on top of upside down pots for Hight. if you have any more questions ask away. 🙂  

[Kara C]

40 gallon is doing fantastic. The brazilian pennywort is flowering and creeping over the sides.. The 110 gallon looks super sad but the flag fish survived winter and are happy and thriving. Set up a temporary one (maybe 20-25 gallons?) to try and breed my stubborn dwarf neon rainbows. They're expensive and I can't find just females. So I'm taking a chance and putting my last 2 females and 1 of 4/5 males outside. Yanked the plants from the 40. There's a bunch of hornwort floating and a few yarn mops in the bottom with river rock. Still a few tweaks left to make it look nicer. How's everyone else's tubs and mini ponds going?

[Streetwise]

Outdoor tubs are a great opportunity to test organic soil with a gravel cap. Make a mess, add wood and plants.

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I saw this book and thought anyone who likes doing mini ponds might be interested. The author is really knowledgeable in ponds cause he has kept so many. he also knows a lot about breeding fish outdoors cause he puts every fish in his fish room outside every spring.   

the book link CAD: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B091W9WLDP/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_4?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

the book link USD: https://www.amazon.com/Tub-Pond-Handbook-Comprehensive-Container/dp/B091W9WLDP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2C9KPXV6UZUVZ&keywords=tub+pond+handbook&qid=1653438436&sprefix=TUB+POND%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-1

[OnlyGenusCaps]

After totally stealing the shelf idea from, I believe, @Kara C (correct me if I am wrong), I have finally got my tub set up.

A little trickle of water come from the rocks, which makes a nice sound when I am hanging out on the deck.  There is just a dwarf lotus in there for now, barely getting started for the season.  I still need to track down the fish I want (tubbing fish seem to be in low supply currently, but living in Minnesota I am accustomed to everyone getting to all of the spring purchases before it's even close to spring here.  I should probably also grab some hornwort or something as well. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

I don't know how anyone else's summer tubbing is going, but my first effort seems to be going alright.  I put in 4 Hong Kong yellow fin WCMM when the mosquito larva started getting thick.  They've been amazing at dealing with chowing on those, as well as the temperature swings in the water.  I got a bit of an algae bloom early on but as the dwarf lotus (Nelumbo) grew in, the water is now crystal clear!  Hopefully the fish will spawn, and then I just have to figure out what to do with them this winter...

For now, here is a photo of when the dwarf lotus was producing it's first emergent leaf:

And recently as it has begun ti fill in the tub (don't mind the kid's toy lawn mower in the background):

Hopefully I'll have an update later this summer with it blooming.  Wish me luck!

[fishinacage]

Here's my first ever outdoor mini pond.  It has koi swordtails, pygmy sunfish,  one kissing gourami that is on vacation after being rehabbed, flagfish, and glo danios.  The plants are out of control and I'm constantly thinning the water hyacinth.  Since there are so many fry in here,  when I pull out a few clumps of water hyacinth I keep it in a 10 gallon aquarium for about a week to see if I've accidentally grabbed some fry or eggs that were tangled in the roots.  By the time the water hyacinth melts away inside,  i usually find newly hatched glodanio fry. 

I have an underwater camera in there so I can watch since the only fish that are ever visible from the top are the glo danios and swordtails. Here are a few more pictures. 

 

A small temporary viewing tower being visited by the kissing gourami and pink glofish.

My youngest enjoys snail hunting in the pond and loves that the glofish nibble her fingers. 

Swordtail fry everywhere

Glofish fry inside

 

And some low quality underwater pictures...

Male pygmy sunfish

 

Kissing gourami on vacation after being healed from fin/ body rot.  He goes back to my dad's tank when I drain the pond.

Kissing gourami when i first got him. 

 

Already making plans for a bigger pond next summer!

[jamieterrin]

This was my little setup in my small flat in cape town during lockdown 

https://youtube.com/shorts/-ENLHPunfmM

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Well, my first season is definitely drawing to a close.  I want to get a few more days, maybe a week or so out of it, but I needed to get through a freeze to do that.  So, I plunked a heater in to try to precent the water from getting too cold.  Set it at 10C.

Then I covered it with a painters tarp folded a few times

Worked out well as it turned out.  Now I have a 10 day forcast that suggests I can keep the fish out there a while longer.  Hopefully enough time to get a tank together for them to over winter in my basement.  Off to PetCo!!!

[K McZongo]

On 9/29/2022 at 1:24 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Well, my first season is definitely drawing to a close.  I want to get a few more days, maybe a week or so out of it, but I needed to get through a freeze to do that.  So, I plunked a heater in to try to precent the water from getting too cold.  Set it at 10C.

Nice. How big did the lotus roots/rhizome get compared to when you got it? I was thinking about getting a dwarf lotus for next year.

[PineSong]

My water was 55 degrees yesterday. There are currently four WCMMs, one uncatchable (so far) swordtail, and one goldfish still out in my tub. I’d like to keep the WCMMs out until I get another goldfish through QT so the little guy won’t have to be alone. He’s still very shy and hard to catch a glimpse of. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 9/29/2022 at 9:51 PM, K McZongo said:

How big did the lotus roots/rhizome get compared to when you got it? I was thinking about getting a dwarf lotus for next year.

I loved having the dwarf lotus in there!  It didn't bloom for me, but I suspect that has to do with the amount of sun I can provide it where the tub is located.  I've not yet dug the tuber up, but there was substantial leaf growth, so I am hopeful.  I'll post what I end up being able to extract from the tub when I take it down; both for fish and lotus.

[Sherry]

I was just watching MD Tanks’ video on using landscaping blocks to terrace in an aquarium.

Has anyone tried blocks or bricks in their aquariums or ponds? MD said soaking in water for 8 days will remove any chemicals. What’s your experience with leaching into the water? TIA

 

[tuculover]

I am so tempted to wake up the pond for the summer. The nice weather in Seattle had my pond sitting at 78 degrees last night. I don't quite trust the weather to keep it up yet though. Did a bit of maintenance on it and found that there's a huge mat of java moss on the bottom and some of the other plants put leaves to the top. I think I'm going to get a lily bulb going now, but wait to put it outside until I have a good sprout on top. The pond started as a bare bottom, but now has about 1/4" of mulm and such. Thinking about adding aquarium gravel to better anchor plants, thoughts on keeping that sort of clean?

Whiteclouds have done great overwintering for the last two years. Hoping to add some platinum rice fish and shiners this year.

[tuculover]

On 4/17/2023 at 10:44 AM, Sherry said:

I was just watching MD Tanks’ video on using landscaping blocks to terrace in an aquarium.

Has anyone tried blocks or bricks in their aquariums or ponds? MD said soaking in water for 8 days will remove any chemicals. What’s your experience with leaching into the water? TIA

 

I haven't tried landscaping bricks but did try a cement figurine once. Did not do well. Clay pots are great to lift things off the bottom and I've used plastic shelving before too.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

I really want to get my summer tub up and running.  I already pulled out out of under the deck.  But that I really need to do is to see if my lotus tuber made it through the winter soon.  That's probably the right speed for this project.

I know better than setting up my tub this early in MN:

[Ken Burke]

For me?  Yeah it’s that time of year again!

but this year I’m going bigger - 300g. Adding a fountain and a cute chubby gater ‘cause, Louisiana!  Moving fancy goldfish in at the end of month.  

[Ken Burke]

made a couple tweaked a couple things. Can’t have a pond without a gater and a pelican. Hope to finish the bricks at the front.  Can’t wait to add the goldfish at the end of month.