KINGART253
KINGART
Living in Arizona in the Greater Phoenix area we have about a week or two of Winter, a day or two of Spring and Fall and the rest, as you can imagine, is Summer with sometimes Hot, really hot, days and nights. But it's a dry heat.
I built an above ground pond about the size of a bathtub a few years ago, but it soon was obvious that plants and fish needed more room. So I added a 6'x5' addition, slightly deeper (actually higher) and the water falls from the bigger into the smaller. The smaller tank also has a 2' high water fall over rock. Added some small baby Koi (3), baby Shabunkins (3) and a few Gold Fish. Plants such as Yellow Flag and some other reed type plants grew and grew as did the fish. It was decided to build an additional pond, but instead I just extended the 6x5 to 20x6 and deepened it about 8" to 30". Used a rubber liner for this extension. The original tub pond is concrete.
At the end of the smaller pond is a tank about 12" wide x 15" deep x 30" long. This tank is my filter. It is divided in two with a small skimmer type waterfall into one side, a couple of filter pads made from fiber pads that are used for floor cleaning in the middle, and then a pump to send the water back up to the waterfall and the far end of the big tank. Oh yes, at the far end the water falls over a Trickle Tower in which there is Lava Rock and bags of Carbon pellets.
The plants are mostly kept in the smaller tank, but a few are also in the big tank with all of the fish. I plan to add more plants in the spring.
Water is clear even in the Spring and Summer when String Algae has to be harvested almost daily. However I believe I now have the answer to the String Algae problem as I intend to use some Viresco bacteria which will starve the String Algae and not hurt the fish or other plants.
My only problem is that I must make sure the pump works 24/7 as sometimes, like when it rains, there is an overflow that wets down by back yard to a flood like situation.
When I learn how to put pictures into my correspondence I'll give you a better idea of what can be done in a limited space of a 50' long by 10' wide walled in back yard.
I'm open for discussion.
KingArt
I built an above ground pond about the size of a bathtub a few years ago, but it soon was obvious that plants and fish needed more room. So I added a 6'x5' addition, slightly deeper (actually higher) and the water falls from the bigger into the smaller. The smaller tank also has a 2' high water fall over rock. Added some small baby Koi (3), baby Shabunkins (3) and a few Gold Fish. Plants such as Yellow Flag and some other reed type plants grew and grew as did the fish. It was decided to build an additional pond, but instead I just extended the 6x5 to 20x6 and deepened it about 8" to 30". Used a rubber liner for this extension. The original tub pond is concrete.
At the end of the smaller pond is a tank about 12" wide x 15" deep x 30" long. This tank is my filter. It is divided in two with a small skimmer type waterfall into one side, a couple of filter pads made from fiber pads that are used for floor cleaning in the middle, and then a pump to send the water back up to the waterfall and the far end of the big tank. Oh yes, at the far end the water falls over a Trickle Tower in which there is Lava Rock and bags of Carbon pellets.
The plants are mostly kept in the smaller tank, but a few are also in the big tank with all of the fish. I plan to add more plants in the spring.
Water is clear even in the Spring and Summer when String Algae has to be harvested almost daily. However I believe I now have the answer to the String Algae problem as I intend to use some Viresco bacteria which will starve the String Algae and not hurt the fish or other plants.
My only problem is that I must make sure the pump works 24/7 as sometimes, like when it rains, there is an overflow that wets down by back yard to a flood like situation.
When I learn how to put pictures into my correspondence I'll give you a better idea of what can be done in a limited space of a 50' long by 10' wide walled in back yard.
I'm open for discussion.
KingArt
