Greenhouse ponds

[minnowman]

We have a 23'x38' greenhouse with a concrete floor. The wood is very old Cypress wich was salvaged from an old lumberyard building. The in-ground, lined ponds are are bordered by concrete pavers to cover the liner edges. Total water volume is about 5,000 gallons. A 3,600 gph submersible pump in the 10'x9'x2.5' Koi pond pumps water through 2 pvc pipe to a 100 gal. home made, unpressurized bead filter. Filtered water exits the top of the filter through a 3" pipe, then through 2" pipe to a fountain made from 2 glazed ceramic pots in the 16'x10' x3' waterlily pond. Water gravity flows through a 2' wide 90 degree semicircle with a 6" deep pea gravel bed with 2" of water over the gravel. It then falls about 6" back into the Koi pond. We have 7 Koi and a few small goldfish in the Koi pond. The largest is about 18" long and about 10 years old. There are several shubunkins and comets in the waterlily pond, along with quite a few mixed babies.
The Koi stir up all the sediment in their pond,and the bottom stays clean. Sediment tends to stay in the waterlily pond and float up on sunny days, so I recently added a small submersible pump to create some current and a 3" airlift to move water from the bottom to the stream. That seems to be helping with the sediment problem. This Winter I will modify the bead filter to get better solids capture. I had lots of experience with bead filters in my brackish water minnow business, which I had to sell, but I changed a couple of things in this filter design that didn't work out so well. I'll post pics of the filter rebuild this Winter. The biggest advantage of a bead filter is that you don't have to take anything apart to clean the filter media. Backwashing only takes about ten minutes and is done by opening and closing a few valves.
Two tropical Philodendron plants have dropped aerial roots into the water in the waterlily pond and an umbrella plant is rooted into the gravel stream bed. These roots are taking up most of the nutrients in the pond water, and have kept the water clear of single celled algae for a year and a half.
Since the water level is 6" lower in the Koi pond, I made a floating planter out of 1/8 " abs plastic to cover the exposed liner. We planted several bog plants, but wild ferns seem to be taking over. They look nice, so i'll leave mother nature alone. Here are a few more pics.

 

[taherrmann4]

That's a really neat looking pond or should I say ponds. Great job.

 

[addy1]

very nice set up, love your ponds

 

[stroppy]

very nice ... what a great idea .. is the greenhouse heated in winter ? would love to see photos of your filters and how its all set up

 

[minnowman]

Stroppy: It's not heated, Last Winter water temp got down to 53* F. Almost killed the tropicals. This year I've caulked the cracks and will buind an air-to-water heat exchanger using black plastic film and a small pump. It gets pretty hot in there, but not much heat gets down to the water.

 

[stroppy]

53 ... thats not so cold ... are you able to feed your fish all winter ? i just love the idea of a pond inside a green house

 

[minnowman]

We stopped feeding for about 1 month. A greenhouse does have its advantages: no leaves, no predators, less insects. The downside is that it can get to 120* F with 100% humidity on a bright day in February. I need to get an exhaust fan and a thermostat for those days.

 

[taherrmann4]

Stroppy: It's not heated, Last Winter water temp got down to 53* F. Almost killed the tropicals. This year I've caulked the cracks and will buind an air-to-water heat exchanger using black plastic film and a small pump. It gets pretty hot in there, but not much heat gets down to the water.

Minnowman have you ever thought of doing a geothermal system for your pond. This might help you keep the temp above 53 degrees in the winter and cooler in the summer. Not sure the feasibility or cost someone would have to incur to do something like this.

 

[minnowman]

I checked in to that years ago for the house. Long term payout would be good,but the up front cost is pretty steep.

 

[taherrmann4]

I also saw on some show where this person heated his pool with a simple pump and 100' of black 1" tubing. He put the tubing on a 4x4 sheet of plywood painted black to absorb the suns rays then took and spiraled the tubing starting from the outside and going to the center about 1 or 2" apart. Then it was hooked into the pool system and they said it heated the pool quite nicely.

 

[j.w]

Very,very nice greenhouse and love the idea of no leaves, predators or bugs in the pond. I just have a small 8' X 12' that I use mostly for tomatoes, green and hot peppers. Not big enough for a pond tho.......too bad. Just have to manage my pond w/ mother nature always budding in, lol! You have such beautiful looking ponds to die for!