Salt Water Pond Anyone??

[krzyphsygy]

I am thinking of doing it, i just moved into my first home and have a huge back yard. Thing is I really have no idea where to start. Any ideas.

[krzyphsygy]

bump

[tropicalfishguy]

Well I would think a major concern would be you would have to have it covered to prevent rain from lowering the salinity. And then it would have to be large enough to resist over heating in the summer. Not sure what your winters are like in FL, but heating could be an issue as well( I know its nice weather, but what is the average temp in winter months?)

[tcmfish]

in the new reefkeeping mag the thread of the month has to deal with a reef pond

[KyleO]

I would think temp control would be the most difficult........but I have to say that when I upgraded my show tank from 180ga to 210ga, I put everything in a 179ga pond insert in the middle of my living room for 3 days. It was actually quite stunning. It was like a big, teaming tide pool!

If you can pull it off I definitely want to see pics!!!

[krzyphsygy]

I have a lanai on the back of my house that is pretty big and is screened in. I was thinking of creating a saltwater pond out there. I would just keep Stingrays maybe some bamboo sharks and have it filtered by a huge skimmer and just make asump right next to and part of the pond!

[BeanAnimal]

Fertilizer and other chemical runoff is something to consider as well. Water changes and filtration are also something that need to be well addressed.

[tropicalfishguy]

Well if its covered, that eliminates the rain problem. Having a good heater/chiller, should fix the temp issues, go for it, I think it would be cool, I thought of trying it, but gets pretty cold up here and would be a pain to dismantle it and bring inside every winter.

[Dwarf Seahorses]

You might want to search for "Sun Powered Reef". There was some guy in Portugal who made an outdoor reef. Though his was completely covered and basically an outdoor tank, not pond-like.

[tcmfish]

Like I said earlier that sun powered reef is in the new reefkeeping magazine online.

[bahhareef]

I think your idea is possible although you would have to build a greenhouse type thing around it- some kind of glass encasing. With a salt-water lake I feel that evaporation would be your biggest problem. This greenhouse would effectively create an environment for your reef which you could control. The pond would also have to be more like a pool in that the sides would need to be built of concrete. You cannot make the reef as you would a pond because it needs to be seperated from all other environments. A salt water pond reef is possible- you just need a lot of money.

[mojoreason]

water quality would be such a huge issue it would almost be cost-prohibitive the measures you'd need to take to ensure it's pristine conditions.

even if you were to just get a large pond with saltwater to toss a shark into - it wouldn't work out so well. i think over time you'd find that it would cost you more than the worth/enjoyment you'd find in having it.

my $.02

[Hormigaquatica]

He did it: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Since you're not going to be worried about using light, you wouldn't really need to have any kind of glass covering over it, but you would want to have something to prevent rain water from entering it. You'd probably be best off building some kind of wooden roof over it. You'd have to build some kind of barrier or use some method to keep the rain water from seeping into the tank as well. This could be accomplished with a short brick and mortar wall surrounding it (say 2 feet high). Then your biggest problem will be regulating temperature. Having it rest fairly deep in the ground will help maintain a somewhat steady temperature, but you're probably still going to need some powerful heaters and chiller to keep it ideal.

[TTSupra]

Well, it's almost 100 here in FL today. So, I'd imagine keeping the water temp stable would be kinda hard.

[DaltonJames]

do it

[BeanAnimal]

Originally posted by DaltonJames
do it

Gotta love it when people cheer projects on just to see somebody spend money and do something that they would not do themselves

[KyleO]

Originally posted by TTSupra
Well, it's almost 100 here in FL today. So, I'd imagine keeping the water temp stable would be kinda hard.

I wouldn't say it would be hard...........I would say it would be very expensive!!! Can you say Chillers with an "S"???

I vote for investing in something else.......maybe an indoor tidepool. Same ideal just different location.

Just my 2 cents

[KyleO]

Oh, BTW...........I live in an area where it gets to 100+ during the summer so I know what kind of heat that is

[Randall_James]

Large ponds are not that hard to keep cool with aerators and auto topoffs. I have seen two 1000G+ setups outside with sharks and rays and they evaporated around 100G per day is all. Temp was steady as well.

Also, Tropicorium (Dick Perrin), located outside Detroit has a number of 1000G semi-outdoor tanks and they do great. (also has nurse sharks)

The only thing I noticed on all of these is that there is not a lot too look at from the surface other than that big fish swimming around Perhaps if you dig out a below ground level viewing area with a window?.... (charge the neighbors to look )

[dleggett]

What sort of dimensions were you thinking of? (For instance, a 10' x 10' x 4' pool would be about 3,200 gallons.)

[triggerfish1976]

I have considered doing this in FL as well and found the following issues that eventually led to me deciding otherwise:

Temperature - large 10' deep swimming pools with screen enclosures avg. 86-88 degrees in the hot summer months. The pond I was considering was only going to be about 2000 gallons so if the pool got this hot I can't imagine how hot a small pond would get.

Predators - I know several people with FW ponds that lose several fish a year to the native bird population in FL. The birds down are expert fish hunters and can decimate a pond. I would hate to lose a $100 fish to a bird.

Evaporation - As noted earlier, you stand to lose about 10% water volume/day to evaporation. Its not that big of a deal to just run tap water into a FW pond but having to replentish 200g/day of RODI water can get expensive.

Like most have said, the only way to really do a SW pond in FL would be to have some sort of cover on the tank but the utility bills to run it were just not cost effective even with a cover.

[bahhareef]

I really dont think this would be that hard- although it would be expensive. With a tank this size (Im thinking 7,000-10,000 gallons) you would want to power it yourself i.e. solar generators and wind power. Picture this- a greenhouse (totally enclosed) with a big pool in the middle of it. The pool of course is the salt water reef pond. Outside the greenhouse are solar sheets which generate the power to operate the pumps, etc. If needed, extra power could be generated via wind. Electric bills would make the salt water reef pond impractical (this of course eliminates that factor) Depending on where you live you would need lights--but if you live somewhere like FL, CA, etc. you wouldnt. If you think a little bit out side the box this doesnt seem so far fetched. Imagine snorkeling in your own reef!

When I get rich Im gonna build this thing...and you guys are all invited as long as you arent weirdos,

[KyleO]

Originally posted by bahhareef
When I get rich Im gonna build this thing...and you guys are all invited as long as you arent weirdos,

I guess that counts me out!!!

[Dell2go]

Bad idea.