Author Topic: Setting up a 'Temperate' Pond (Read 9764 times)

daveyng · « **Reply #100 on:** October 12, 2018, 11:29:12 AM »

The pond is now a year old and doing well. The most problematic period was during the hot spell we had. Finding ways to keep the pond cool without dramatic changes in water parameters (pH mainly).proved challenging. During the cold spell the insulation used and heater wattage (2 x 300w titanium) proved more than sufficient to keep the temperature stable.
I was always concerned about algae growth but have never had any real problems with this as the plants I used have grown profusely keeping algae at bay.
The mainly riverine fish are all doing well as I installed a high turnover pump / filtration system. The pump turnover is about 10 x per hour taking losses into account.
I think that treating the pond more like an “outdoor aquarium” has made the difference (50% water changes weekly). It’s tiny in comparison to standard ponds and thus easier to manage.

Littlefish · « **Reply #101 on:** October 12, 2018, 08:00:53 PM »

Happy Pond Anniversary/Birthday

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. I've thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your pond, and seeing the pictures.

daveyng · « **Reply #102 on:** October 29, 2018, 05:14:29 PM »

Hi All have created some still pics from the pond video's I have taken.
The brighter pics were from July and the others from October.
The Rainbow shiners have lost their metallic blue sheen in the October pics.
Rest of the fish are Red Shiners, Odessa Barbs, Golden Barbs and WCMM
Plants are aponogeton henkelianus, Anubias Barteri (nana), Hornwort, Elodea and a couple of lilies
There are a couple of more pics in the next post.

daveyng · « **Reply #103 on:** October 29, 2018, 05:17:20 PM »

Last couple of pics attached.

Robert · « **Reply #104 on:** October 29, 2018, 05:51:11 PM »

Great shots!

Helen · « **Reply #105 on:** October 29, 2018, 08:14:21 PM »

Looks great.

fcmf · « **Reply #106 on:** October 29, 2018, 08:58:24 PM »

Oh, I do love your photos. Stunning fish!

Littlefish · « **Reply #107 on:** October 29, 2018, 09:39:36 PM »

Great pics of your pond & fish.

daveyng · « **Reply #108 on:** October 30, 2018, 05:03:54 PM »

Latest set of readings from the Pond (last 7 days).
As you can see the cold spell has "kicked" the heating into life.
pH and Ammonia (NH3) are stable.
I have also added the Kelvin reading from the Seneye for info.

daveyng · « **Reply #109 on:** November 01, 2018, 09:00:04 AM »

Had a report from the Seneye to say the Web Interface wasn't available. Found that the RCD on the Pond had tripped. I subsequently found out that one of the Heaters had failed. I have ordered another one, but I have others I can utilise if required.
Currently I'm just using the 1 300w heater which appears to be coping extremely well (see graph).
Temperature dropped to about 17.3 C, however, the Seneye is reading about 0.6 C below the actual Pond temperature (measured using a mercury thermometer). I could trim the Seneye but I don't as it gives me some leeway.

daveyng · « **Reply #110 on:** November 01, 2018, 09:04:04 AM »

Got that wrong 17.1 (From Seneye)

daveyng · « **Reply #111 on:** November 08, 2018, 04:00:53 PM »

After a thorough check I found that the heater I thought was suspect is fine (I now have a spare). I think the RCD may be the problem. I am running on 1 heater currently which I now believe is more than capable of sustaining the pond temperature on it’s own (based on the heating gradients I’m getting from the Seneye). I have increased the Temperature to 22 C with a drop of 1 C before the heating cuts in again. I will monitor this closely to see how much more power consumption I’m getting as the weather turns colder. I think the increase will provide more of a safety net if I have a failure again.
I have left the 2 heaters in situ and will utilise both by swapping them over on a weekly basis.

daveyng · « **Reply #112 on:** November 19, 2018, 10:19:38 AM »

Latest Seneye readings from the Pond. I'm still running on 1 x 300W heater at the moment and it's coping fine with this current cold spell.
I'll be doing another Video soon to check the status of the inhabitants. Will post some stills when I do.

daveyng · « **Reply #113 on:** February 11, 2019, 04:24:26 PM »

Hi All, just a quick update on the pond.
I just had to take a picture of a the lily that started flowering last week. The bud appeared about 2 weeks ago and I just presumed it would die off because of the cold.
Bad news is that I lost one of the Red Shiners. I think they are nearing the end of their lifespan. I will probably buy another couple each of Red / Rainbow Shiners in order to keep the numbers at a reasonable level.

daveyng · « **Reply #114 on:** February 11, 2019, 04:48:24 PM »

Temperature/pH and NH3 / NH4 graphs for the last 72 hours.
Currently the Heaters on coming on about 3 times a day for approximately 1 hour. Temperature here is about 8 C during the day dropping to around 3 C overnight.

Littlefish · « **Reply #115 on:** February 11, 2019, 05:12:03 PM »

Great to see the beautiful lily that has bloomed on your pond.
Sorry to hear that you lost a shiner, and I hope that the rest of your gang are all doing well.

Matt · « **Reply #116 on:** February 11, 2019, 08:50:47 PM »

Really interesting temperature graph... I'm assuming that you thought the heater would be on more often?... I certainly would have done!

daveyng · « **Reply #117 on:** February 11, 2019, 10:33:26 PM »

I must admit I thought that maintaining water temperature in winter would be more energy consuming than it is. I think the 25mm of insulation plus the thickness of the wood (100 mm) works well. I have to be more concerned during summer with the escalating temperatures.

daveyng · « **Reply #118 on:** February 13, 2019, 06:10:35 PM »

Although the outside temperature only got up to about 10 C a bit of sunlight on the pond has kept the temperature up.
Heating has only come on once in the last 24 hours. The pH increases slightly as well.

Littlefish · « **Reply #119 on:** February 13, 2019, 06:26:52 PM »

It looks like you did a great job with the insulation when building the pond.

Helen · « **Reply #120 on:** February 17, 2019, 08:23:37 AM »

That lily is beautiful.

What volume of water have you got in your pond? Also, it strikes me as quite square, so perhaps it is also a really good shape for minimising heat loss.

daveyng · « **Reply #121 on:** February 17, 2019, 06:25:45 PM »

Pond holds 300 litres of water approx. ( including filter). It’s rectangular (950 x 550 x 575) actual internal dimension.
I am going to push up the temperature to 22 C and modify the heating to include another temperature controller as a ‘failsafe’. I have found that 1 of the 300 W heaters is perfectly capable of heating and maintaining the temperature even during the recent cold spells. I can run one of the controllers at the same temperature setting (22 C) with a slightly increased heating / cooling differential (say 1.5 C). If the main heating circuit fails the backup will take over.
I can change them round occasionally to allow each heating circuit to operate.

daveyng · « **Reply #122 on:** February 21, 2019, 09:53:55 AM »

Latest video of the pond inhabitants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIGiTqJSE7k
Looks like I have mainly female Rainbow Shiners. Have to pick up more males if I can.
I think I'll also add a few more WCMM as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIGiTqJSE7k

Littlefish · « **Reply #123 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:17:59 AM »

I had stopped for a coffee after cleaning the tank that contains my rainbow shiners, and watching your gang in your pond made me chuckle with joy. They all look so perky, and with great colours. Your plants look lovely too.
Well done.

daveyng · « **Reply #124 on:** March 26, 2019, 04:53:52 PM »

Just started slowly "cranking up" the temperature in the Pond (see pic of last 7 days).
Its on 23 C at the moment. The Sunny weather were having is helping enormously.
I will probably start transferring a few of my 270 litre tank inhabitants next week.

daveyng · « **Reply #125 on:** March 30, 2019, 08:15:29 AM »

Temperature is now set to 24 C. A bit of Sun on the pond yesterday and the temperature crept up to 25.1 C (red warning on the graph). I had the high temperature warning limit set to 25 C so I set it to 26 C to cater for the increase.
I might have to get the fan out sooner than I thought.

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Setting Up A 'Temperate' Pond

Setting Up A 'Temperate' Pond

Author Topic: Setting up a 'Temperate' Pond (Read 9764 times)

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