Tank plans/ideas

Thanks!

 

Hey HB, maybe also look at a shallow section if it will fit in the place you have in mind.
You can ad a large rock/s that will warm up nicely in the sun, and act as a radiator during cold nights.
You can have your water outlet coming in at the shallow end, and have many plants, pebbles etc as as biofilters for filtration

Please note the architectural masterpiece below is copyright, but you can use it for non profit purposes, or even profit, if you find someone willing to pay for it.........

 

Thanks @Radesh , will keep that idea in mind.
Thanks for the awesome drawing - I will keep it under lock and key until the building commences!

In the meantime, I have measured the veggie patch and if I go with that size i'm looking at around 2.1m x 1.2m x 70 or 80cm high (I would only fill the water to 60cm high, but want some height above that so it's not too easy for cats to sit on the wall and go fishing.
I have also emailed The Pole Yard just to get an idea of the right type of wood to look at and the costings. Not to say i will definitely go with them but I figured it was somethign i could do in the meantime and will let me know if this is a feasible option financially or if it's gonna be way out there with the price of wood.
If I go by the above measurements I'd be looking at a roughly 1500L pond which would be awesome and basically exactly the right size for 11 goldfish. Would mean they could live there for a good long time.

 

I regret digging my first pond instead of doing a wooden pond. you can move it, and it is very easy and simple to do. I did a 1sqm, and it had 1000L capacity. worked very well. Will see if I can still find a pic

 

https://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/solar-pump-for-a-small-pond.27697/#post-350174
here is the one I did a few years ago. I even took it with me when I moved to Japan for two years. My Employer paid for a 16m2 container for me to fill. I labelled the pond as a wooden chest. Eventually I could not bring it back with me because due to Japans humidity the base went rotten. Faarrkk the quality of fish in japan was amazing.

 

To make your decision more difficult, my other pond

 

Thanks! Those are awesome!
Where do you guys get your metal for your ponds?

Have shown hubby the raised wooden ponds and he approves.
Now to just see what the cost of wood is to see if it's a realistic option or not.

 

Do you think CCA treated pine decking would work?

 

You can use pine and treat with woodoc

 

Ahh, I see that you are going above ground. This one will only work for below ground.

 

For the metal ponds, a place i found is: https://www.rainqueensa.co.za/garden-products/koi-ponds-pools-2/

They have a price list for everything too. I'm contemplating a bunch of their raised beds for a veggie patch, just need to price it vs a raised wood bed.

 

Another option you can look at for the veggies is a sort of aquaponics system integrated in to your pond

 

I don't have a pond (yet ), and it will also be about 150m away from where the communal veggie patch will be, so not really viable.

@HugBug The pond in place of the veggie patch sounds awesome. I was thinking of suggesting going deeper than 70cm, but i vaguely remember something about goldfish not doing too well with depth. Not sure how true that is, as Cory at Aquarium Co-Op kept goldfish quite happily in a tank 100cm deep. The deeper the water is the less it will be affected by solar heating, as the surface area would stay the same but with a greater volume of water.

If interested, definitely see about doing some kind of wetland/bog filter, similar to @Radesh 's idea. Basically a smaller "pond" attached to the main pond that water flows through which is packed to the brim with gravel and wetland plants. The gravel and plant roots will sort out mechanical and biological filtration, and keep algae at bay. Also will provide a great display come summer time. @A new day 's pond looked glorious.

Good luck!

 

I used them, good service and quality

 

Thanks. I was trying to figure out how to incorporate that design into a basic wooden rectangle and was coming up short. Knowing it's only meant for below ground ponds puts my mind at ease.

My goldfish are currently in a 45cm deep tank and generally i feel that's a good depth for them. There is one that struggles even with that depth (she's always had a bit of a swim bladder issue though). I would like it a bit deeper than that just to give the fish place to hide if need be (cats/birds etc), and also so it doesn't get too hot with the sun on it, but I'm hesitant to go too deep. I also remember hearing on one of the videos I watched (I still need to watch a ton more) that you shouldn't go deeper than 1m with an above ground wood pond because it puts too much strain on the wood and is more likely to cause bursting. Something like that. As I said, I need to watch and read more on the subject.
I then also want around 20cm minimum between the top of the water and the top of the pond so it doesn't become an easy fishing ground for the cats. But I don't want the final product so high that we can't see over the edge of it and enjoy the fish.
So whilst no dimensions are set in stone yet, I'm currently *thinking* 60cm deep water sounds good and 80cm height pond would look good. I might up that to 75cm deep and 1m high though. Will see. Still need to do more research and stand with a tape measure (I'm far better when I can see things for real than trying to imagine heights etc).

The little "mini pond" filter is exactly what I'm aiming for. It's similar to Rabubi's biological filter I think.

 

So you can always combine things if you don't plan on moving it the structure later on. You can have it half in the ground which will make it very strong.
And give you flexibility on depth.