Converting Water Fountain into Fish Pond

[spoon]

I just moved into a new house in San Antonio. We inherited, what I think, is a pretty neat water fountain in a courtyard area right outside the front door . It's about 5 feet in diameter and 1 foot deep. Right now it's only equipped with a pump to circulate water up to the top basin. The water then trickles down to the bottom. The fountain is nice, but I don't like the idea of running it off the AC power to keep the water flowing. But without the circulating water, it's going to attract mosquitos. I'd like to keep some goldfish in there to keep out the mosquito larvae, but I don't want to send the fish to their demise no matter how cheap they might be.

So, would it be possible to convert this into a sustainable little pond? I'd love to take the pump off the AC power, use solar and run the pump for a minimal amount of time to keep the fish healthy. I'd also like to add some sort of plants (a few water lillies perhaps) as well if possible.

Is this too ambitious for such a small fountain? I'm sure I could figure out what works but would like some advice from others before I go throwing time and money at this.

Thanks

 

[fishin4cars]

try mosquito dunks. a pond pretty much needs filtration and a turn over rate of at least once a hour. Trying to keep the fountain algae free is going to be a constant battle. solar pumps are not going to sustain life and running a pump for a short time each day very seldom works.

 

[gardengimp]

Ah, but the pleasure of the sound of the trickling water is worth a few cents a day of the pump. Make yourself a seating area along side!

Seriously, you will need some circulation to keep things healthy. The fountain is lovely. It would certainly support some plant life and a small fish load. A few comet goldfish, or sailfin mollies. Depending on how protected maybe paradise fish. The water trickling of the top portion is providing a lot of your filtration and aeration. You could pull the pump out to get its make and model and look it up online to see just how much power it uses.

How much sunlight does it get? You could put the pump on a timer to turn it off morning and early afternoon and with enough sun use a solar aerator.

With the drought this year, our water garden has been a haven. It is beautiful, supports wildlife and uses much less water than any of our other gardens.

And welcome to the forums! You might want to pop over to introductions and say hi.

 

[sissy]

I was thinking plants also and one foot deep is not very good if you get any kind of freeze .Not sure how cold it gets there .A pump to run it being it will be a low gph should not cost to much and having it running all the time would look really nice and shining a light up on the pond would add to the night enjoyment of everyone viewing it .

 

[gardengimp]

San antonio very seldom gets extended hard freezes. That courtyard will provide a lot of protection. Depends too on what side of San Antonio as towards the hill country does get colder for longer. Still water will not freeze that deep. Sailfin mollies I **think** are local there. Tx extension probably has recommendations.

 

[sissy]

But we do have to remember the 2010 winter and it hit a lot of states hard ,it is part of the unexpected and you never know .Still will need an opening in ice and for that size a small aerator would work well .All you would need to do is protect it from the weather.I bought a 4 port one at petco and after all these years it still works great and less than 30 dollars with everything included