My first Porch Pond

[Minnow_man]

Hello There,
I was at the thrift store and I found this crate and I decided to get it and convert it into a porch pond. I have never done this before, so I just wanted to make sure I am doing this correctly.
I am going to put wood on the bottom of the crate to make a flat bottom, I will then put a pond liner in the crate to keep water in. I will then put a hang-on-back filter on the side. I was not going to add any substrate, but I still wanted plants, so I will get pond plant planters. I wanted to put an Egyptian Papyrus in the corner then water lettuce, and finally a water lilly. After getting the water parameters correct was going to put in mosquitofish. I am going to place this on my porch where it will recieve full sun exposure for about 6 hours each day.
The main cause for my concern is that I calculated the size of the crate without anything and it is 14.43 gallons, is all that want to do too much for this?

 

[addy1]

You are too small for a lily, unless you go with one of the dwarf varieties. Lilies can have a large foot print of leaves. I would skip the water lettuce, get a dwarf lily and the papyrus. Put in rosy reds (minnows) pretty pink they will inhale mosquito larvae.

 

[Tara]

Sounds like a real nice project, I bet it will look great on your porch.

 

[Grin4joy]

Welcome to the forums, I am new here also. Your porch pond sounds beautiful and I think you are right to be thinking about size and dimensions. Papyrus can get huge, but you can get dwarf varieties that might be better in balance. At the pond store or nursery I will often arrange my plants next to each other to see how foliage and size look together. If you get something you don't like put it somewhere else and try again. The fun thing is, you really can't make a mistake! Make show to show us how it turns out.

 

[Minnow_man]

Thank you very much

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome to the forum! Such a small porch pond would be best ‘fishless’ especially if exposed to sunlight. I wish you success. Please ask us for any assistance. This is a very friendly forum.
Stephen

 

[Stephen Noble]

Fishless porch ponds are very easy to take care so placement is not critical. They are mostly unaffected by water heated by the sun and you can keep virtually any small aquatic plant. No worries if the plant gets big, for example, Dwarf Umbrella Palm. Put a small sample in the porch pond and as it grows, divide it and give the unwanted part to another pond keeper. Also, consider an aquarium plant, the Dwarf Banana Plant (Nymphoides aquatica) which can live in high 60 to mid-80 degree (F) water. It will send up tiny, heart-shaped floating leaves and if happy, flowers.Cleaning fishless porch ponds couldn't be easier. Since there are no fish, empty it out and refill with a hose. Spray off the mini-pump with the hose and away you go. Keeping fish in such a small container that will get 6-hours of sunlight is just not a good idea. They will greatly suffer from the temperature extremes. But you certainly can create a beautiful, miniature fishless water garden. I have had a porch pond for many years so please feel free to ask for my 'lessons learned' if you need help.
Stephen