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Summer Tubbing

Hmm... how about now? Repost:


Couple of questions for you: have you. Even heating during the cooler days we’ve had? Is there a substrate? How did you start off the lobelia cardinalis?


There’s a 300W heater in the tub on a timer to come on for 15 minutes every 3 hours. The CPD’s are from Myanmar and live at 1000m altitude in Inle Lake. Cooler water is not a big issue to them similar to White Cloud Mountain Minnows. If you decided on other species then obviously take their needs into consideration.

Here’s the PM I sent @CooKieS . Outline of the setup:


Kept it simple mate.

- The plasterers tub is 1ft deep (4ft length and 2ft across)
- The tub gets 6-7 hours full light but less probably wouldn’t matter.
- It has an Eheim dual air pump running one sponge filter and one Eheim air diffuser.
- The sponge for the sponge filter I put in one of the indoor tanks for a few days to seed it
- The sand at the bottom is just dirty sand siphoned out from the indoor tanks (think using dirty sand with diatoms/bacteria/other stuff on has helped get the other wildlife going)


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Plant wise I walked into the garden centre pond section and felt like an utter newbie again 😂

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From what I’ve understood an Iris and Typha was a good idea. Any species of Typha will filter the water efficiently and the Iris flowers attract butterflies/dragonflies. The Lobelia Cardinalis was bought as it’s a plant I’m familiar with but it could be replaced with anything I guess or left out.

The rest was an Amazon sword, then some frogbit and Guyana cuttings from the indoor tanks. I just used plastic punnets (with holes) you get fruit in and put aquarium soil in it as a make shift pot:


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The Guyana has turned out to be a pretty decent oxygenating plant species for the tub. The Guyana was planted in the soil just like normal, the swords I put in to the punnets with the rock wool and tipped soil over the rock wool to hold it down.

Last thing is a waterproof box for gear:

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This one came with a 10 metre, four socket extension cable and has proven to be very waterproof in the recent thunderstorms. Air pump fits in there and it can’t be completely airtight as air pump can draw air, but not found a drop of water inside.

Cost wise:

- Tub £30

- Weatherproof electrical box and extension cable £20

- Pond plants £20

- Sponge Filter £5

-Air pump (whatever you want to use)

- Plus whatever plants from your tanks you want to try


Fill it with rain water and fit an overflow into a flower bed for when it rains.
Just use sand underneath the tub to make it unlevel and tilt it towards one edge. When it rains it will gently overflow ... free water change.

Since the above message @hypnogogia have put the rocks in the middle with some Pinnatifida and a small internal filter to provide some circular flow. The heater is off now entirely.

Hope that helps.
 
I think because that other post was a copy and paste from a PM it won’t display the images. I can see them when logged in but not if I log out and look... not sure why that is though.
The permissions will only allow those photos to be seen in the particular private post. If you want them in a public thread you will need to upload them again.
 
Any problems with predatory insects?
Dragonfly nymphs etc

Yes, beetles. Up until now the Celestial Pearl Danios have been fine living alongside a load of pond life and the frogs.

Found a few CPD’s half eaten. Drained the tub... a few beetles but no more fish unfortunately. Happened very quickly as fish were fed at the surface less than 48 hours prior to that.

The frogs come and go from the tub all day long, current count is twelve so the tub is exclusively for them from here on.
 
Yes, beetles. Up until now the Celestial Pearl Danios have been fine living alongside a load of pond life and the frogs.

Found a few CPD’s half eaten. Drained the tub... a few beetles but no more fish unfortunately. Happened very quickly as fish were fed at the surface less than 48 hours prior to that.

The frogs come and go from the tub all day long, current count is twelve so the tub is exclusively for them from here on.
That's a shame. Maybe some predatory fish could help? Or some livebearers? Maybe wont be effected as much by the beetles
 
Hi all,
Dragonfly nymphs etc
I think it is inevitable. You get Pond Skaters, Dragon/Damselfly nymphs, Water Beetles, "Pond Olive" Mayfly nymphs, Water Boatmen, Smooth Newts, Caddis, Water Veneer Moth etc. <"really quickly in any suitable pond">.

Some relatively <"large Dragonflies"> are small pond specialists, and actively seek out small, new ponds.

I record moths and you get a remarkable number of adult aquatic insects in moth light traps.

cheers Darrel
 
Just took a load of daphnia out of our summer tub for the fish. They were very happy. No sign of frogs yet. Guess I was a bit late setting it up.

Awesome @hypnogogia :cool:

Would wait and see what turns up in your tub, been really surprised how much wildlife has been attracted to such a small body of water here.
 
I have my summer tub set up this year, small filter and some plants. the water has gone green, which it hasn't done in previous years. Already carried out a water change but that's not helping. there were some tadpoles in there as well which I can't even see. Anything that I can do?
 
I have my summer tub set up this year, small filter and some plants. the water has gone green, which it hasn't done in previous years. Already carried out a water change but that's not helping. there were some tadpoles in there as well which I can't even see. Anything that I can do?

Glad to hear you’re keeping it going @hypnogogia 😉 Sorry for the delayed reply.

Obviously depends on specifics really, being presumptuous but… if you are using tap water that happens to be high in nitrate and phosphate, water changes may potentially be adding to the green water problem. Agricultural runoff at this time of year is reflected in our tap water here in Cambridgeshire, could be similar in Oxfordshire. It isn’t a matter of too much, but an imbalance amongst other factors.

If it is tap you’re using…. You could try partially replacing some of the water out with rain water for a bit rather than tap. Let the available nutrients descend. Put in floating plants like frogbit to use up that nutrition to accelerate this process rather than the green algae in your water currently. If you have a TDS/conductivity pen you can track this descent.

Personally, shoot for a TDS between 50-100 in the tub and had minimal issues. This is 90-95% rain water and 5-10% tap to cover Ca, Mg and some KH. Plants in rich soil and dose 1/4 EI in the tub. This is to attempt to maintain lower concentrations in the column, but keeping EI ratios and comprehensive nutrition. If TDS remains consistent then cool, if it begins rising then leave more frogbit in to mop it up then adjust the dosing the next week.

No idea about your specific tub so apologies if this is a bit broad and/or mostly irrelevant. Just didn’t want to fob you off with ‘buy a UV steriliser’ as that’s treating a symptom, rather than preventing an issue.
 
@Geoffrey Rea thank you. It’s actually filled with 100% rain water. I put frogbit in at the weekend. I’ve not added any fertiliser, but have used some water change water from Ei fertilised tank when I did water change on the tub. Conductivity is 190, so TDS of about 120 at the moment.
 
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