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Round indoor pond project queries.

sciencefiction said:
Lol How come?
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People like to enjoy looking at their fish sitting next to the pond.. If it's to deep they wont see much in the view angle if you sit.. At least that's my best guess and only practical reason i can think off.. Noticed it myself once when i sat beside such a rather very shallow setup myself that it was a pleasant view. If it is constantly pleasant for the fish i do not know.. Guess not always, when it's it's very warm weather. 🙂
 
sciencefiction said:
iberglass round koi tanks for a reasonable price but they are only 35cm deep
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I've only seen these used as sale tanks - ie short term living arrangement with excellent viewing/photographing of sale fish - large fish might be transferred over for a photoshoot etc
but no koi would thrive for long in such a shallow set up (if company is actually selling them as such, I'd report to animal welfare 🙁 - if placed outdoors the rapid/extreme temperature shifts would be a cruelty)

(note those affinity ponds also come in a plain rectangle 🙂 - not that I'm trying to convince you of them, I just liked the rectangle the best of the lot :lol: )

You can always pick up some of those underwater pond lights as they'd make great fish viewing (when main light is off)
 
The website just says "Round Fibreglass Pond". How can that be used as a koi pond is beyond me.

alto said:
note those affinity ponds also come in a plain rectangle 🙂 - not that I'm trying to convince you of them, I just liked the rectangle the best of the lot
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Ha, ha alto. I like how they look too. I just cant' deal with the pond liner thing 🙂 I can't make myself trusting such a set up.
The polyethylene round tanks are used in aquaculture and aquaponics so they must be good enough containers. I of course prefer fiberglass... Who wouldn't want a lifetime guarantee 🙂
The polyethylene ponds are produced in bigger sizes too, over 5000 litre, so if the material can hold 5000, it will surely hold 900 litre without flexing. They are perfectly fine as above ground ponds. The woman on the phone said they are also high impact resistant. In her words she said that unless you drive a car or exercise similar force against them, they should be fine. The manufacturer's warranty is 10 years too which is good enough to me.
 
Hey everyone. The tank is now ordered. So are the lights and the gooseneck for it.

I am excited that my fish will finally be back in a larger home. I would love to see them dancing up and down the sides again. Fingers crossed it goes ok for them. They have not been lucky owner wise. I am a little bit apprehensive at the same time because 900 litres of water sounds like a lot to me.... but at least that means healthier tank considering that the bioload won't be that much for the size of it.

I just gave the clowns some bloodworms. That's the only time I see a bit of them since they've been in the plastic containers. One of them was hiding in a big bunch of anubias.....

I am going to have to move all smaller plastic tanks in that room away in order to place the large one which will take quite some space because of its shape. The idea is that I move all the fish into this one. I am going to shut down my two remaining small glass tanks also...

I can't make up my mind if I want to put a soil layer under the sand or just place whatever plants I want in pots with soil....I also have tons of anubias and I noticed the clowns really like to hide in it. I do want underwater plants but on another hand it is so much easier just to stick to emersed... and keep the bottom clean enough.

Long term I am also looking forward to getting some fish for the top layer. Right now with the exception of a few surviving platies, all my fish are bottom fish...I may have to get un underwater camera sooner than later....
 
I received the flood light today. It looks really good quality. I can't test it yet because it needs the power cord but I am impressed. I hope the looks justify the performance but I am pretty certain it will. It is far from ugly as well. I'll take pictures at some stage when I start setting everything up.
 
It didn't come with a power cord 😕

LED considerations:
- does warranty cover any LED loss, or do you need to experience 20% - 30% "burnout" before the warranty kicks in?
(they aren't hugely expensive so easy enough to replace ... just curious to know warranty details)
- Epistar-SMD2835 (I was going to ask that question & found the answer 😀 )
- 30watt / 80LED / 30 000 hours so I'd expect PAR at 45cm depth to be low & pretty much inadequate at 73cm - that should answer question re what to plant at the substrate level 🙂
If the lens was 60* - 90* you'd get some depth penetration back but then beam is narrow so you'd need 2-3 lamps over the pond (don't know if it's possible to change out the lens on these) - you may still want additional lamps depending on what/where you want to plant

I agree it looks decent even in the website photo 🙂

Given this light, I'd be inclined to just use a couple cm's sand bottom (clowns & cory's will appreciate some substrate) & then start plants at about mid depth
Depending on the plastic used, Eheim suction cups may still stick like the devil, so you can just screw these onto your wood as Tropica has done in their "Bankwood" or if you've a large piece of wood that can be lodged across the pond diameter etc & then plant from there
You can also hang planters from the top of the rim of course but choose materials carefully to avoid fish havoc
I'm sure that zozo has much better ideas on this than I 😀
 
Hey alto. Thanks a million for your comments.

I was only hopeful it would do the trick but the knowledge on my side is lacking. I don't mind getting a second one or a different one... Is there one you'd recommend that I can look into maybe? It has to be flood light wise or anything that can be attached to a gooseneck and won't kill the bank although I can afford a range of prices as long as it can light up my plants sufficiently

The onus is on external plants so I hope that gives enough of light for them for now. I got 3 of those round baskets zozo/Marcel suggested. I have plenty of my old ones too. The more plants on top, the better for my fish because I am going to be using filtration way below what I would do in a smaller tank.

Edit: By the way I threw most of my driftwood in the heat of the moment after the last tank broke. I whish I had it now...The bottom will be sand for sure. I might use the manzanita wood I bought and never used. It cost me a fortune years ago....
 
re filter - you only need enough biomedia for your fish load - which sounds fairly low to me at the moment, you'll need to see what happens with your clowns in the new larger space (& watch out for them suddenly taking tankmates that they previously ignored - feed small (?) meals frequently when you move them, also maybe check on LOL to see what others have fed/observed in similar circumstance) & then debris collection
Flow can be sorted separately

I'm pretty basic on the LED's - I suspect that Marcel can better suggest some brands
1watt LED is the minimum you'd want for a 50cm depth/height tank with 3watt LED being able to pretty much "grow anything"
Given the 73cm height, I'd look for 90* lens rather than 120*, & see what's available in the 2-3 watt (high intensity) LED
 
The idea of this tank is to keep my current surviving fish for their life span. or at least until something better comes out on the market, or they die because of mistreatment, despite my best intentions. My loaches went through hell from a normal tank to a hugely overstocked tank that killed many, to small plastic containers.

As a matter of fact I hated them when I first got them some years back (not my idea whatsoever but I became the life time carer). Over the years when I got to know their character, I started adoring them. They are smart fish, as smart as a cat or a dog can be. They chase a laser beam and they learn what time the lights go off, or the dinner comes and which side of the tank it goes into. It took them years to overcome their fear of me. They used to hide the moment I walked into the room. For a period of time it was difficult to look at them even for a moment and impossible to get a picture or a video. Then at some stage they relaxed and got completely friendly with me coming to my hand like puppies. The strange thing is though they never ran away from my dog who used to stick her nose to the glass and lick it. They totally ignored her, and at the same time they feared me..... And they have really bad and long memory. The moment you have to handle them physically by grabbing them, they don't forget for a good while...I can't blame them.

I am actually aware that the 120 spread is too wide. Flood light wise it is pretty impossible to get anything with better penetration and less spread. At least with this shape of tank, if I point the light in the middle, it will pretty much illuminate the entire tank without too much light spill.

But as you say, it won't be enough at the bottom of the tank. It is going to be a deep enough tank specs wise although I am not intending to keep it topped up to the surface because of the planting baskets. But it will be pretty much deeper than majority of glass tanks out there.

P.S. Sorry for the rambling...
 
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sciencefiction said:
Filter wise I am still in a dilemma
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look at sumps of course
- they're not for me - the trickle drives me mad - but they are incredibly versatile

Again Marcel has gone off & done his usual mad DIY skillz versions
(I've no DIY skills at all 😛 )
 
If you can hold a drill your good to go, much more skill isn't to it.. 🙂


If you put plants at the top, you got as Darrel says the Rolls Royce of filters..
 
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