Hi all,
I am looking for some inspiration and advice for my tiny 50 gallon pond. It is located in a small, 14' X 8' greenhouse in the mountains of Colorado. We are at 8300' here and I have put a lot of thought into the greenhouse design to try and extend my growing season. Last year I installed a small oval 50 gallon pond to help with humidity and it has 2 depths, about 8" and 18". There is a small upper tub with a waterfall effect and I built a homemade filter using filter media, pea gravel, and bio balls in a 5 gallon bucket. I have currently stopped using the filter since I do not have any fish and my water is looking really nice and clear. I also have a foldable workbench over the pond to cover it from direct sunlight in the summer...I suspect water temp does not get above 70F or so but will need to monitor this over the next couple months.
The greenhouse has a subterranean circulation system, where air is sucked up from the apex of the roof and blown underground through a series of 4" perforated drain hoses embedded in 2-4' of coarse cobbles (fan runs 24/7 and cools during the day and heats at night). This is all underlain by EPS foam and duraskrim plastic, and its covered with mulch overlain by raised beds and other plants. Last winter the temperature rarely got below freezing inside, but there were a couple days where I started to get just a little ice developing on the waterfall feature. However, I only recently added the apex air intake so I think this winter I should almost be able to avoid freezing temperatures year round but it could still dip on the coldest nights, especially if we have cloud cover for a couple of days (I have electric out there, so could easily add a small pond heater if necessary).
Last summer I put in a water lily (bought dry and it came to life). The lily wintered well and looks great now. I also started with a few goldfish, but they did not last more than a couple months, probably because of water quality but they also might have been sucked up by the pump! (I had just filled the pond from my well, which has hard water). I plan to buy a kit and test/condition the water before adding any more fish. There is a good layer of black-green leathery algae on all of the pond surfaces, and I am assuming this is a good thing?
Anyway, I would love some recommendations for adding some diversity to the pond. I know its quite small so in terms of fish I can only probably have a few. The question is what ...goldfish, shubunkin, koi, catfish other ideas? Ditto for plants...I would like something to grow in the shallow end and maybe make it a bit more boggy and interesting, but dont want anything that will get too out of control. Also, how about other stuff like snails or crawfish?
Anyway, thanks for reading this and I would love it if you throw me some advice (I have also been reading through other threads etc). In the longer term I may try to get a bigger/deeper pond in there but there is just not a lot of real estate to work with; perhaps an IBC tote may fit and that could make things a lot more interesting (all of that would probably have to wait until the end of the growing season as it is soon to be a jungle in there
I am looking for some inspiration and advice for my tiny 50 gallon pond. It is located in a small, 14' X 8' greenhouse in the mountains of Colorado. We are at 8300' here and I have put a lot of thought into the greenhouse design to try and extend my growing season. Last year I installed a small oval 50 gallon pond to help with humidity and it has 2 depths, about 8" and 18". There is a small upper tub with a waterfall effect and I built a homemade filter using filter media, pea gravel, and bio balls in a 5 gallon bucket. I have currently stopped using the filter since I do not have any fish and my water is looking really nice and clear. I also have a foldable workbench over the pond to cover it from direct sunlight in the summer...I suspect water temp does not get above 70F or so but will need to monitor this over the next couple months.
The greenhouse has a subterranean circulation system, where air is sucked up from the apex of the roof and blown underground through a series of 4" perforated drain hoses embedded in 2-4' of coarse cobbles (fan runs 24/7 and cools during the day and heats at night). This is all underlain by EPS foam and duraskrim plastic, and its covered with mulch overlain by raised beds and other plants. Last winter the temperature rarely got below freezing inside, but there were a couple days where I started to get just a little ice developing on the waterfall feature. However, I only recently added the apex air intake so I think this winter I should almost be able to avoid freezing temperatures year round but it could still dip on the coldest nights, especially if we have cloud cover for a couple of days (I have electric out there, so could easily add a small pond heater if necessary).
Last summer I put in a water lily (bought dry and it came to life). The lily wintered well and looks great now. I also started with a few goldfish, but they did not last more than a couple months, probably because of water quality but they also might have been sucked up by the pump! (I had just filled the pond from my well, which has hard water). I plan to buy a kit and test/condition the water before adding any more fish. There is a good layer of black-green leathery algae on all of the pond surfaces, and I am assuming this is a good thing?
Anyway, I would love some recommendations for adding some diversity to the pond. I know its quite small so in terms of fish I can only probably have a few. The question is what ...goldfish, shubunkin, koi, catfish other ideas? Ditto for plants...I would like something to grow in the shallow end and maybe make it a bit more boggy and interesting, but dont want anything that will get too out of control. Also, how about other stuff like snails or crawfish?
Anyway, thanks for reading this and I would love it if you throw me some advice (I have also been reading through other threads etc). In the longer term I may try to get a bigger/deeper pond in there but there is just not a lot of real estate to work with; perhaps an IBC tote may fit and that could make things a lot more interesting (all of that would probably have to wait until the end of the growing season as it is soon to be a jungle in there
