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Outdoor tubs

Myrtle

Member
Joined
21 Aug 2008
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827
Location
Basingstoke
With spring not too far away (I've seen the birds gathering nesting material so it can't be that far off!) my thoughts have turned to the garden. I've been gifted (well, removed from a skip with permission) 2 x 80l tubs so thought I'd add to my 4 existing ponds with a couple of container ponds which can house fish safely out of reach of the heron. Initially, I was thinking Medaka but having read a few threads on here I'm rather tempted by the Aphanius mento or paradise fish. One tub is black so I think I'll stick with medaka for visibility, but the other is green which I thought may be better for seeing the killifish/paradise fish. Ideally, I'd need a fish which can stay out all year as tank space indoors is limited to tanks of 40cm x 30cm or smaller, though this may be suitable to raise youngsters it's not going to work for housing fish over winter.
Would an 80l be enough for either of these (my lfs can source the aphanius) or is it pushing it with the territory size?
 
I was planning to wrap them in loft insulation and bubble wrap, keep them in a sheltered spot and hope for the best!

If it’s anything like the winter we just had they’ll freeze solid. Sadly, I learnt the hard way.

That said, I don’t know where you are, if you’re in Penzance you’ll probably be fine.
 
If it’s anything like the winter we just had they’ll freeze solid. Sadly, I learnt the hard way.

That said, I don’t know where you are, if you’re in Penzance you’ll probably be fine.
I'm in Hampshire, so pretty far down south and we tend to avoid the worst of the weather here. Perhaps I'd better stick with ricefish - at least I can accommodate them indoors during really cold spells, though how moving from cold to the relative warmth of indoors, then back to cold will affect them, I don't know. I do have a small, unheated porch which would be less of a temperature change for them...
 
Were they insulated at all or just free standing?
Just free standing. I know you’ll insulate. Was just giving an idea of how much water can actually freeze in our part of the world.

Why not build a raised flower bed around d them? Let the soil insulate the tubs with the benefit of having something nice to look at.
 
Just free standing. I know you’ll insulate. Was just giving an idea of how much water can actually freeze in our part of the world.

Why not build a raised flower bed around d them? Let the soil insulate the tubs with the benefit of having something nice to look at.
Ordinarily I would consider that, but sadly I'm incapacitated and carrying a bucket of water is about my limit right now!
 
You can surround the container with wood chips and leaf mould . When these break down with a little added greenery like grass cuttings they will heat your tubs. you could surround them with chicken wire and canes just like a compost heap .With the added benefit can use it in garden in the summer.
 
Jean Pain (who used the heat from compost for various household heating tasks) and solar water heaters might be worth investigating. I'm planning on trying a solar hot water heater coupled with a thermostat and sand battery to make a 'tropical' tub this year, in the hope I can put some corys outside over the summer.
Parabolas are another option but they can produce some serious heat and I'd be a bit worried about pressure in a thermostatically controlled system, so would need more thought (and brain power than I can probably muster) to get it to work safely.
 
in the hope I can put some corys outside over the summer.
Go for C. paleatus and low temperatures shouldn't be a problem (high ones might be though). Most cory species from the south, or around the Andes (like C. panda), could probably handle occasional dips down to 15C at least though. Not entirely related but I accidentaly raised some Fundulopanchax gardneri fry in an outdoor aquarium one summer, during nights the temperature would hover around 15C, then rise to 30C at midday. The fry didn't seem bothered, they just grew slightly slower, it all goes to show that a lot of "tropicals" are a lot hardier than we give them credit for.
 
Go for C. paleatus and low temperatures shouldn't be a problem (high ones might be though). Most cory species from the south, or around the Andes (like C. panda), could probably handle occasional dips down to 15C at least though. Not entirely related but I accidentaly raised some Fundulopanchax gardneri fry in an outdoor aquarium one summer, during nights the temperature would hover around 15C, then rise to 30C at midday. The fry didn't seem bothered, they just grew slightly slower, it all goes to show that a lot of "tropicals" are a lot hardier than we give them credit for.
Most of the pseudomugil luminatus I have, have come from unheated ~16c tubs that I've just left moss in and forgotten about, only to find little glowing eyes zipping around in a few days later.
I'm hoping that with ambient summer temps and a sand battery consisting of an insulated emersion tank (I'm not storing water in the tank just running the hose repeatedly through the sand, to store heat), I'll be able to keep temps fairly stable and mid to low 20c. Don't know how realistic that is but my garage door is brown and gets to 19c on a sunny day in the winter so I'm hoping it's not too unrealistic.
 
That sounds like a good plan @ScareCrow , if you wait a bit with putting the fish out I don't think you'll need any extra heating with a system like that, and it should work great at avoiding spikes in daytime temperatures. Considering the thermal intertia of water though, it might be more efficient to loop the hose through damp soil rather than sand, although it wouldn't be as easy to work with.
 
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