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In Store Saltwater Pool. Const.
12/5/12
Looking for pond graphics 4/25/07 Hi I am wanting to build my own above ground liner pond. I went on your website and it was a lot of help. I was wondering if you could send me so pictures of wooden above ground liner ponds. It would help a lot. <No such word> Thanks Mark <Mmm, no time to search for or make scans... Other than what is on WWM is what you get... or books... there are some nice pix in "Ortho" and "Sunset" publications on ponds... Bob Fenner> Plywood tank +pond liner 12/19/06 i am building a 180 gallon plywood tank using 3/4 wood and 3/8 glass. i was going to use a pvc pond liner instead of the epoxy. how can i make a seal between the liner and glass? <Best to use an intermediate "race" that can/will hold the liner... make this water-proof and to adhere the glass viewing panel in turn onto this race-frame. Do take a look on the Net, "Yellow Page Directories" for your area for the "Liner Swimming Pool" companies, tools, materials here. Bob Fenner> Overwintering Koi in a cold locale 9/19/06 Hi: <Hello there> I have a rather small pond about 5' x 4' x 20" - I am worried about my beautiful young Koi. There are 3 - 7" Koi and 4 babies that are about 1" each - they were born this year. I have been told I can leave them in the pond if I use an aerator to keep water moving or a deicer. <Mmm, no... unlikely... too much chance this volume, size/depth basin will freeze all the way> At 20" I am afraid the water will freeze solid. Should I buy a 100 gal Rubbermaid trough (or bigger) and move the Koi into the garage for the winter. <Yes, I would> We are going to expand the pond in the spring and will make an area that is at least 3' deep - I know they can survive throughout the winter at that depth. If the garage stays between 20 and 30 degrees throughout the winter, would the Koi be better there and then what do I need for the trough. <Store it... incorporate it into the pond/bog filter...> The aerator - do I need to run a filter - I have no idea what to do. I need help <I would run a large sponge filter and a Tetra Luft pump to operate it... Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubhttp://www.wetwebmedia.com/pdmaintwint.htm and the linked files above, and: FWSubWebIndex/spngfltfaqs.htm Bob Fenner> Thanks a million Jacque Re: Overwintering Koi in a cold locale 9/19/06 Thanks for your response. I went to the web site but I can't identify the large sponge filter you are referring to in the e-mail can you be more specific? <Mmm, let's see... http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/smartlist_106/tetra_pond_filters.html> Also, will a 100 gal tub be large enough. <Should be... with a cycled filter in place, careful to no feeding when temperature is below 55 F... Bob Fenner> Jacquelin A. Moody Moving goldfish indoors for winter 8/17/05 Help me....... please, I'm losing sleep and winter's comin. We have a wonderful garden pond that has roughly 20 large goldfish, 6 Shubunkin, and 15 multi colored babies that survived the breeding and eating season. I've come to the realization that I have to bring all of them inside to enjoy over the long Minnesota winter. Would either 2 150 gallon or a single 300 gallon tank see them through the winter? Joann <Yes... depending on how "large" is large, about this volume should do... you might save some money by looking for Rubbermaid troughs... and investigating filtration for these on WWM. Bob Fenner> Large fiberglass or polyethylene tanks 8/12/05 Hello- <Howdy> Can you point me in the direction of some businesses that sell large fiberglass or polyethylene tanks? <Mmm, two critical questions... how large is large, and where for? The U.S.? Shipping can be expensivo... Here's the Google response: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-27,GGLD:en&q=large+fiberglass+and+polyethylene+tanks+in+the+U%2ES%2E Bob Fenner> Thanks- Mark Pond Construction Good evening crew! <Later afternoon in HI now> Hope everything is going well with you. <Yes, thanks> Just a quick THANK YOU! for all the help in the past. My 75 GAL is running pretty smoothly and the 200 is almost ready to fill (YAY!). But, now, I need some info for pond construction. <Okay> I am upgrading the wife's Koi pond this year. Going from a pre-fab 150 GAL from Lowe's to a dug, liner pond. <Much better> Now, on to the question. The pond is going to be 21.5" above ground with a 2' X 4' X 2' deep underground part. Pond will be 8' X 4' rectangle. I am going to use 6X6 lumber for the walls and wanted to know if the pressure treated wood will pose problems for the fish. I know that they no longer use cyanide for pressure treatment, but don't know what they use in it's stead. Will water run-off from rain, etc leach anything from the lumber into the water and affect the fish? <Should be fine... there are other ways/types of treated wood that can be problematical, but the crushed/pressure treating is not toxic> Thank you so much for your time. <Welcome. Bob Fenner> Pond liner in tank Situation: Excellent site with good
faq's but mine is a bit specific... Built a plywood tank and used
pond liner (instead of epoxy), and sealed it up with GE 1200
Silicone. (I got it from a tank builder so I assume its
aquaria safe). <Is, but doesn't adhere well to
liners> I just poured RO water and after 2 days the water started
clouding a bit. Is this a result of the silicone?
<Nope> Is this normal and will running the water through carbon
clear it up? <Is normal, carbon will help... but really the
"system" needs to cycle... this takes a few weeks... can be
sped up... a "break-in" biological period.> Right now the
water is just standing with no movement. <Better to recirculate
it> Or, is the EPDM pond liner giving something off.... I assume the
liner is safe to use for fish seeing as they use it for
ponds.... Do I need to prepare it before use? Please help!
Thanks Lee <EPDM is very safe... Please read on WetWebMedia.com re
cycling of aquariums... the same series of events occur in all aquatic
environments. Bob Fenner> Way-above ground pond Hi I've done a lot of landscaping in my relatively small yard... and it struck me that one area would be perfect for a pond. <Okay> The location is a rectangle between my house, my deck and my fence, about 5 ft wide and 10 ft long. (i.e. one ten ft side against the deck, one ten ft side against the fence, one 5 ft side against the house.) The deck is 24 inches above the ground. Where this gets hard is that I would want the surface of the pond to be well above the level of the deck....18 inches... so I'd like to have the surface of the pond about 42 inches above the ground. <Can be done> My thought was to use railroad ties, joined with rebar, to bring the ground up... about 12 inches. Then bring it up another 12 inches around the edges. Then make a box of landscape timbers on top of that. End result would be a 10 by 5 foot pond, 18 inches deep around the sides with a 3 by 8 ft , 30 inch deep trench in the middle. <I would add some plywood in the insides... including the bottom... and good three inch screws through it, into the railroad ties... and some steel anchors (can be had from Home Depot, Lowe's) to join the RR ties at the corners> Am I fooling myself if I think this is doable. Rob, near DC. <Is doable, and sounds like a very nice project. Will you be adding a filter? A pumping mechanism? Time to think about plumbing, electrical et al. before constructing the basin itself. Bob Fenner> Roof Rubber - Pond Liner 7/18/04 Hello all!!! <cheers> Now that both my saltwater aquariums are running smooth I thought I'd take on a new challenge----a pond. I have a few ??. <have you read the DIY pond article we just ran in the last issue of our electronic magazine? If not, do check it out: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/cav1i1/pondDIYCalfo/diy-pond.htm> Is there an easy formula for estimating pond liner size? <the minimum is the length in each direction, plus 2X the depth, plus an extra three feet for folds and pleats. Thus a 10X10 pond that was 3 feet deep would require a 19X19 liner(10+3+3 plus 3'extra) I will have 2 pools (3'x7'x12" and 4'x7'x24") with a waterfall between them the pools are about 4 inches apart. I obviously can use 1 piece for both or 1 per pool - any recommendations? <tough to say without seeing the lay of the land. I'm guessing 2 separate pieces will be much easier to make proper/clean folds and pleats> Can you use roofing EPDM as a pond liner? <yes... if is aged and clean, or if new is first washed and rinsed with mild acid (strong vinegar is fine)> Can you make a waterfall without liner under it or does it need to have a lining as well? <it absolute must have a liner> My waterfall is 2/3 complete using flat stones with 100% silicone connecting the stones, but I didn't put liner under it...yet. <the silicone will fail soon... a personal guarantee> Thanks for your time, Jeremy <before you dive any deeper my friend... you REALLY need to get some sound construction advice and tips. Do consider John Dawes "Book of Water Gardens" and James Allison's "Water in the Garden". Fantastic books. Anthony> Moving Sucks!!! Use of pond liners Hi Anthony, Bob and Crew:
<Hello Gregory> Thanks for the great support and
books!! You guys can truly be a godsend at times. Sorry if
this is a silly question...I tried to search the faqs re: moving, etc.,
but did not find a definitive answer. I am in the process of
moving my 110 tank to a new house. Unfortunately, I will
have to spend 3-4 months in an apartment while the house is being
finished. Since I am afraid to set up the 110 in the
apartment, I have decided that I will temporarily house everything in
the oversized soaking tub in the apartment's second
bathroom. This is the largest container (approx. 60-70
gallons I think) that I could think of for keeping everything
healthy. Anyway, I thought that I would line the tub with
plastic pond liner (because of soap & chemicals), but the guy at
the garden store said that it might be toxic to marine
animals. Is this so, or is there a certain type of liner
that I should use and/or avoid? <No problems in using any type of
liner intended for pond use. All, EPDM, Butyl, Vinyl, composite, are
chemically inert, non-toxic to marine life. Bob Fenner> Thanks for
all your help. Take care, Greg Re: Moving Sucks!!!
Thanks for the info Bob! That's a load off...I thought
that I was going to have to rethink this whole process midstream so to
speak. Great new book BTW (I have told Anthony so, but have
never been in touch with you directly). I think it really
fills an interesting niche that is, of necessity, skipped or lightly
treated in most of the marine "standards." Very shrewd of you
guys to include so many (!!!) quality photos as well. <Agreed. Must
need "get the attention" of folks as an a priori step to
"introducing them" meaningfully to informational content. In
our interest this is supremely easy... with so many gorgeous,
interesting life forms> I think that alone will broaden the audience
that you reach. I've read it through once, but have
flipped through the photos too many times to count. I look forward to
Volume 2. Take care, Greg. <Thank you for your input. Bob
Fenner> Pool liner question Hello Mr. Fenner, I've been reading your website ALL day and I have soooooooooo much :*). I started out trying to learn about the Bichir fish family as I just bought a Senegal Bichir for my son. I had never seen one before (after 35 years of aquariums) and I was simply fascinated by them. They are such cool fish. My son has a beautiful 75Gal E series tank that he has fashioned after the Public aquariums. I looks like an exact slice of the Amazon or Niger River... very nice. He had a beautiful Clown Knife fish which we > both loved, but didn't particularly care for how nocturnal they are... so we found him a good home with a friend and I got my son the Bichir and an Arowana (sp). They are doing beautifully and we have learned tons about both of them thanks to your incredible website. I printed out the pages about the Bichir and Arowana for future reference and will add it to our aquarium books. The question I have is about my own fish hobby. I have made a wonderful outdoor pond using a 300gal livestock (horse/cattle) trough. <Neat> They are maid by Rubbermaid and very hard black plastic and thick. <Yes, very fine products> I so very much and it is doing perfectly. I have many aquatic plants growing in it. I especially enjoy my water lilies and aquatic forget-me-nots. I also have some beautiful Koi, goldfish, Dojos, and a Channel Catfish. I use to have crayfish but they ate or tore off most of my water lilies, so into the lake they went. My plants are propagating and my fish are getting bigger. So... my question is... have you ever heard of anyone making an outdoor above ground pond out of the pools like they sell at Costco, Sears, or Wal-mart? <Oh yes... very fast to build and inexpensive per gallon... a bit hard to maintain re temperature fluctuation sometimes.> I have a huge one that is round and is 15' across, 3' tall, and holds 1700gal. It would make the best pond... if the liner is proper for a pond. It is set up using a white tubular PVC pipe frame that supports it and has the blue PVC liner used by most of the flexible pools. It is not the hard plastic type, but the thick liner material/fabric kind. The pool top has slots sewn into it and the PVC pipes are run through there and then snapped together, so the pool is essentially hung from the PVC pipe frame. I have had this pool in my yard for 4 years now and it has never had any leaks (knock on wood :*) ) and the water is always crystal clear... even without chemicals and no filtration at the time being. My kids used it for two years and then told me that they were too old for that kind of thing now. Not wanting to take it down and not wanting to create a huge mosquito hatchery, the next year we went out got tons of tadpole eggs and hatched out frogs. It was great fun. We've always had tree frogs on our farm and it was nice to help them out with a breeding place while keeping the mosquito's in check. This year I've thought about putting feeder goldfish in it... then when I was working on my 300gal pond and wishing I had more space for my plants and fish to get bigger... I looked at that pool and thought... Hey, that would be perfect! If you have any information on this at all, I sure would appreciate it. My concerns are; 1- if the liner is the right type... although it is very strong to take the beating that kids can give them and uv resistant. It is just not the sold in the garden stores as pond liner. 2- is there a possibility that my plants could growing through the bottom of it and cause a leak. I would like to fill the bottom with sand and then smallish gravel and then set the plants in new larger containers on top of the sandy bottom. <The liner should be fine (non-toxic) and the sand is a very good idea. May well prevent puncturing by pots et al.> I know that the plants will outgrow their containers and soon grow into the gravel and sand becoming naturalized. I like that but I am worried about the roots being strong enough to actually puncture the bottom. I would love to get some freshwater clams to live in the sand. I would build a wooden wall/frame around it to protect it more and line the inside of that (between the liner and wood) with insulation of some sort. That would give it good puncture protection and also help if we get a hard freeze in the winter. I also would use a water heater to help also. The pool liner already has through hole fittings for the filtration system that was used for the pool so I could use those for the pond filtration also. <Yes> This would be SO awesome if this would work. I read all your articles on your pond info but I could find nothing on anyone ever trying this. I value your expertise and opinion and would love to hear what you know and think about this. A 1700gal pond!... I would be in heaven... so would all my fish and plants. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for all of your incredible work and information on your website. It is truly the BEST on the Internet... you've done an amazing job. Thank you again... talk to you soon. Oh yeah, I live in Port Townsend in Washington state on the Olympic Peninsula. Typical Pacific Northwest weather up here... cool and rainy :*). Sincerely, Lee Ann Hightower <I do think your plan is sound, and exciting. The weather in your area is likely mild and non-fluctuating "enough" to not cause troubles. Bob Fenner> Pool to pond info Hi again Mr. Fenner,
I just emailed you about making a pond out of
an above the ground pool. I found a website with a
picture of what I have. It's made by Intex and is called
the PVC Frame Pool 15x3 and I was wrong... it holds 3,170gals not
1,700. WOW... this will be awesome I think. Here
are the links for what the pool looks like and some info on what the
liner is made of. Sounds pretty thick to me and it does feel
very thick too. Nothing has punctured it in 4 years so far.
http://store5.yimg.com/I/nationaldiscountpoolsupplies_1746_619262
http://www.qualityinflatables.com/images/58404large.jpg
Q: What material is the pool made of? A: Made with 3 separate layers of
material for extra strength and durability- two outer layers of
heavy-gauge PVC laminated to an inner layer of polyester mesh for extra
reinforcement - a total thickness of 28 gauge (0.71mm). 12' and
15' pools have a 16 gauge floor, 18' and 24' pools have a
28 gauge floor. Q: How does UV affect the materials used? A: All
PVC's degrade over prolonged exposure to excessive sunlight. Intex
pools are manufactured with UV inhibitors to delay the degradation
caused by sunlight. Thanks again... please let me know what you think.
Lee Ann <Does sound like a top of the line unit. The thickness of
the polyvinyl liner and its mode of construction are excellent. Thank
you for sharing. Bob Fenner> Temporary housing for pond fish Hi Bob. I hope all is well with you and your family. You have greatly assisted me in the past regarding my 92 gallon reef set-up, but I now have a question regarding my outdoor pond goldfish. I currently have a 100 gallon preformed pond that I have had for about 5 years. In addition to various plants, I have around 5 Shubunkin goldfish that average about 1 to 2 inches. We have decided to have a new 300 to 400 gallon pond installed in our backyard in conjunction with a custom landscape installation. What would be the best way to temporarily house my pond goldfish? Because of the amount of work that will take place in our yard that will include application of grass killer, I will need to house them either in my garage or house for up to 4 weeks. Thank you. John Rowe <A Rubbermaid container of sufficient volume with an airstone/small powerhead should work. Cover it temporarily even in the garage while applying any chemicals. Good luck! Craig> Housing fish while new pond is built Thank you. Should 100% of the water be water from the pond? Thank you again. John <Depending on how long this will be, you may want to transfer some pond filter media to a filter running in the temp holding tank to provide bio-filtration. If shorter term (days and the end home being a plastic pond) then water changes (no chlorine/chloramine, temperature matched) will suffice. Pond water is fine if it's testing free of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Craig>
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