300 Litre Heated Pond!

[DaveyG]

I have a small (300 litre) heated pond in my garden. It’s been running for about 4 years and I maintain the temperature at about 24 C. It’s built with sleepers and has 25 mm insulation at the bottom and sides. It’s covered with clear insulated plastic. Filtration is via a standard pond pump and pressure filter. It’s heated using a 300 W titanium aquarium heater with a suitable thermostatic controller. A second 300 W heater / controller is also installed as a backup system. It’s monitored for temperature / ammonia etc. Heating is on for approximately 6 hours per day during cold spells.
Current inhabitants are mainly Swordtails with some Golden Barbs, Diamond Tetras, White Clouds and Guppies. There is also a colony of Cherry Shrimp a few Amano shrimp and Nerite snails. Its planted with Nymphae Tiger, Aponotogen Henkelianus, Java Moss, Crypts and Hornwort.
Few picture attached.

 

[DaveyG]

Here’s a few pictures of the pond before and after the plants have been cut back. I will probably need to do this on a weekly basis with the increase in natural daylight.
Pond inhabitants are all doing well. Swordtail, Guppy and Shrimp populations are expanding at an alarming rate. I’ll have to find a home for some soon.
Pictures are stills from a video I create at regular intervals to check how the fish/shrimp are getting on.

 

[DaveyG]

Here’s a few graphs from the Pond monitoring system. Temperature is starting to increase with the warmer weather. The pH is fairly stable at the moment. I use to get a massive fluctuation overnight. Having modified The filtration slightly the oxygen levels ‘t seem to fall so rapidly during the hours of darkness.
I have also included the PAR readings and Kelvin.

 

[DaveyG]

Here‘s my latest video of the pond. This was taken at feeding time on Friday 25th March 2022.