saltwater pond...possible?

[Anonymous]

Welp, since moving to Myrtle Beach and now having a yard, I now have space to put in a pond. Leave it to Tyler (fiancee's son) to say, "You know, it'd be cool if you could do a *saltwater* pond."

So, now it's in my head.

How feasable would this be? Yes, I'd have to bring the fish in for three months around Dec/Jan/Feb, but what are the logistics otherwise? Has anyone here ever seen/done this?

I'd be looking at 500 to 1,000 gallons at least.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

Just some thoughts - a true pond exposed to the elements. Well you can get torrential rains there in spring and fall - keeping it cool would be an ordeal as well as heinous amounts of evaporation would all make for fluctuating salinity / chemistry.

I'd also not be keen on catching and moving fish every winter - instead maybe think of a small , elegant greenhouse and plan for auxiliary heating, cooling and top off water. You could use the space surrounding the pond to grow plants and such - maybe put a nice little table in there you can have tea in during he height of winter.

Would be neat project but I've seen many threads on this over at RC and most have been fraught with problems. There are a couple of people here in town who have really nice indoor saltwater ponds on the order of 10k gallons or more but they are financially capable to put it mildly - paying for all the salt , chemicals etc could be a drain.

As for fish I'd play it safe and put hardier species in like maybe groupers, lionfish etcetera. Maybe a small catshark if the pond is large enough.

 

[Anonymous]

Keep a saltwater pond full of temperate anemones, seastars and some outrageously gorgeous Australian fishes. DO IT! Someone must.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and a manatee.

 

[Anonymous]

Is it do-able? Well, yeah - the romans did it 2000 years ago. Although many of their set ups cheated by relying on the tides to create semi-open systems, not all of them did. For the most part, though, they were considered to be tremendous hassles that were often huge money pits (heh, sound familiar?).

Besides salinity fluctuations due to rainfall, what about ground run off (especially if you use fertilizer in the yard)? I'd think that could be a real problem too.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, this would be really cool Chip! The ONLY thing that in theory would be more impressive would be if you could engineer a way to keep the fish in such a way so that they're visible from the sides, heck maybe even more than one side...or even indoors! That would be REALLY cool...the ultimate indoor fish pond. You can even coin your own name for your invention...'Aqua' something maybe. It would require some sort of clear material I think, and it would have to be arranged in such a way as to make a sort enclosed waterproof container, or "tank" if you will....hmmm...food for thought.

But yeah, start simple and make a saltwater puddle.











There are a myriad of reasons why I wouldn't do this Chip, not that you can't do it, but I wouldn't because of expense, incoming freshwater due to precipitation, and the very fact that I'm going to move the fish anyway in the winter...also the "why" factor. I mean the only reason to do a pond would be because the fish in question are too large or too great in number to keep in a tank.
If you could keep some large morays, groupers and such, and keep them there year round, that would be one thing. Right now all you have going for this project is the novelty factor in my opinion.

Bottom line, I think the fantasy is better than the reality. I've seen it done right, a tidepool setup, but by a public aquarium that has more resources than you.

I'm all for ponds, but throw some large Central American cichlids in there, or a group of mbuna - they'll breed and you can leave them there year round in your climate. I used to know a breeder who would throw cichlids in ponds in the summer, and they would emerge looking incredible.

Or a Redtail catfish. 8)
I guess what I'm saying is, if I'm going to set up a pond, I'm going to keep something in there that warrants that amount of space, which means I'm probably keeping out there 365.

Aside from all of that, I see no reason why you can't do it.

 

[Anonymous]

Great to see ya posting again, Jim!

You know, I used to breed mbuna, so this would be an awesome idea. The african cichlid pond ideal would be equal in 'novelty' to a saltwater pond, and much less expense/maintenance.

Hrm...definitely food for thought...

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chip.

If you go the Mbuna route, do lots of research as many new species and morphs are out there now. Psuedotropheus is now Metriaclima for the most part, and other species have been lumped or seperated.

Mail order only, you won't find nice stuff in stores unless you're lucky and have a very unusual store nearby. You want nice wild or F1 stuff.

I'd throw a group of Zebra Chilumbae in there(M. zebra Chilumbae now), and some White Top Afras (Cynotilaipa Afra) Also some nice Haplichromis, although most are not Haplichromis anymore technically. :roll:

I wish I could do this. One of the coolest things I've seen was in Balboa Park in San Diego. I sat next to a large, ground level concrete pond and peered in. Instead of Koi I saw Convicts, Texas Cichlids, firemouths, etc defending territories on the bottom.

Space allowing I'm going to do an indoor pond one of these days.

 

[Anonymous]

For those monsoons... maybe you tent it with some green house plastic.

 

[SnowManSnow]

its called a lagoon

 

[Anonymous]

Is it do-able? Well, yeah - the romans did it 2000 years ago. Although many of their set ups cheated by relying on the tides to create semi-open systems, not all of them did. For the most part, though, they were considered to be tremendous hassles that were often huge money pits (heh, sound familiar?).

8)

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=84629

 

[Anonymous]

Is it do-able? Well, yeah - the romans did it 2000 years ago. Although many of their set ups cheated by relying on the tides to create semi-open systems, not all of them did. For the most part, though, they were considered to be tremendous hassles that were often huge money pits (heh, sound familiar?).

8)

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=84629

:lol: I missed that when you posted it...I'm still laffin' at G S.'s final post in that thread!

 

[bleedingthought]

One of the LFS here in Atlanta have an indoor lagoon with aggressive fish in it. It's pretty neat, actually!

http://www.thefishstore.com/about.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chip.


I wish I could do this. One of the coolest things I've seen was in Balboa Park in San Diego. I sat next to a large, ground level concrete pond and peered in. Instead of Koi I saw Convicts, Texas Cichlids, firemouths, etc defending territories on the bottom.

I've had convicts, they are sooo fun to watch and they spawn every 3 weeks or so. Mine did. I had so many babies, and the LFS wouldn't buy any back. I had to get rid of the Male (cousin's aquarium now). Pretty cool. They spawn albino's too.