My Amazon Garden - Planning stage

[MFG]

My Amazon Garden - Planning stage

i am thinking of building a DIY pond with discus in it rather than koi. i understand the temperature needed. i also know that the beauty of discus cannot be seen from the top.

i may intend to integrate a tank & pond style. tank with discus but with water over flow onto the pond. then pumps it back into the tank. when winter comes, i can seal off the tank and heat it up leaving the pond empty. i have half a year of planning time.

the pros are - i will have happy discus with larger swim area.

secondly, anyone knows where i can get cheap arcylic plastic? though of using arcylic instead of glass.

any comments/ thoughts on this? or has anyone been through such massive project b4?

regards
Scott

[axl]

hey,
is the water going to be heated where are discus are going to be swimming in?? thats my first question, sounds pretty intense. Cheers Axl

[yakfisho]

It will be a costly and very time consuming project. I have no idea what your tank setup is like at the moment but my vote would be to upgrade your discus tank to something nice and big, massive planted tanks are absolutely stunning. Then you can build a pond and keep koi or goldfish in it. Everybody wins inluding the fish IMO. Good luck if you do go ahead with discus in ponds, it will be very cool if you pull it off. As you said you have 6 months so dont rush anything.

[MFG]

Hi,

i believe that the tank water will be heated thru out the yr, the pond will only be heated in all seasons other than winter - too expensive and too much evapouration.

yes, it will be a costly and time consuming project. i had been thinking about this for the last 2 months til i found this site and now, i am able to get more ideas.

my idea to link tank to the pond is by using some waterfall feature. tanks are normally higher and pond sits at ground level.

MFG - Scott

[ILLUSN]

Discus in ponds is a great idea, they grow much faster and you can keep more of them, they're harder to see but they prefer it that way, make sure you keep it covered, cause they jump!
if you use bulkheads isolating the tank from the pond wont be hard, and if you keep your overflow near the top of the tank (where you'll get a surface skimming effect) you wont have to worry about it when isolated.

I'm building a similar setup for my turtle enclosure which will be 1 pond (900L) raised, over flowing into a second pond (650L) then pumped back up.

I'm using a laguna max flow 6500L/h pump and a laguna 12000 pond canister filter, in addition to a diy scoria filter.

what capacity are you looking at having? my indoor pond was 900L and 3 300w jager heaters kept them at 29C (the power bill for that quater was $890 it was only running for 6 weeks, the usuall bill for the fish room is around 780-800).

[Matt15]

the power bill for that quater was $890 it was only running for 6 weeks, the usuall bill for the fish room is around 780-800
Geesh thats huge mate :P
I salary sacrafice all my power bills so I only endup paying about 2/3 of the bill.

[ILLUSN]

Geesh thats huge mate
I salary sacrafice all my power bills so I only endup paying about 2/3 of the bill

thats what happen when you heat 5000L of water to 30C in sydney LOL

hence the pond is shut down now :(

[MFG]

wao. that is a high running cost... something to consider.

honestly, i have not consider the volume yet. the pond should be around 1.5m wide x 3m length x unknown depth. i have not decided not the depth. i reckon that it will be sloping from where the waterfall is to the end of the other edge. any advisor on the depth?

secondly, how do you cover your pond? do ou/can you use glass or fibre glass to cover your pond yet retain the beauty of the pond?

i have seen Perth koi society members' pond pictures. they have an elevated pond and at the side of the pond, they have a glass to view into the pond just like a tank.

i am acutally thinking of a L shape tank and overflow from one end to the waterfall and then into the pond.

what do you use to heat your pond system? couple of heaters?

cheers
Scott

[ILLUSN]

i used 3 300w jager heaters by eheim, it did the trick, as for depth, atleast 45cm deep for discus, also the plants will grow better as you'll have more light penetration, proably 60cm max if you want to plant it.

I covered my pond with bird netting from bunnings, it looked terrible, but did the job