NANFA-- indoor gar pond

R.W.Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Tue, 25 Jan 2000 02:07:56 -0600

Over the weekend me and my friend Matt built a gar pond in the fishroom.
the total cost was around 200 dollars, and it took about 6 hours total. I
had a lot of the supplies on hand, and we had to make it up as we went, so
it only cost about 65 dollars ( the line price), and another 10 dollars for
some wood and too k most parts of the weekend to do. It turned out really
nice. It is bascially a 2X4 box frame covered with press wood, then a
shelf 8 inches deep along the back to hold plants, and a 4 inch by 4 inch
deep channel along the side to divert the flow of water created by a water
pump . A shop light was put over the pond 6 inches up from the top of the
sides using a 2x4 frame. The pond is about 400 gallons and makes it the
largest " tank" in the fish room. This was very easy to build with the aid
of a circular saw, power drill with screw driver bit, and some simple tools
like hammers, tape measure and square. After the liner was put in and
situated, a 2x6 lip was put around the top. the light frame was built off
of that. I will be adding waynes board around that , to match the
fishrooms wall and the pen that houses my pet monitor, Elizabeth. the pump
is a 165 gallon per hour, and rests on the bottom, pipes waterup and over
the top back of the "channel" and dumps out of this by the front of the
pond. this disturbs the surface just enough to keep it from being
stagnant. One neat thing is a chunk of a tree that had moss growing off of
it that was put over the inside edge of the channel. this really
naturalizes it, and riccia was planted on the wetter parts of this wood.
Our two gator gars and spotted gars will get to go back outside to the big
gar pond the end of next month when the water warms up again. Then the
indoor pond will be used to breed killifish and possibly some other small
fish, until the possibilty that next december the gars may be brought in at
the sign of stress of water quality combined with cold.
Ray

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org