Aquarium Hobbyists

Beautiful tank. Your anemones look fantastic! I never had much luck with them, but strangley I had success with soft corals.

 

Switching hobbies so figure I would list this here if anyone was interested. Have learned a lot and it's been really engaging. Set up is pretty self sufficient. No feeding, just topping off the water about once a week. On top of the main components, I have a lot of extras and hardscape which you know is the most expensive. Link below for the craigslist. Located in Denver, CO.

https://denver.craigslist.org/for/d/denver-full-aquascape-aquarium-setup/7855888454.html

 

Beautiful set up!
Hope you are gonna feed those fish tho

edit: nvm, read the link

 

Btw, are you anchoring the rock work somehow or just stacking it?

 

F'that...
Chick came home with a huge tank for African cichlids,
then 1 tank turned into 4 tanks...
then we started strapping on large external canister filters, bitch led lights, etc....

Electricity bill got pretty stupid so after a few years when we moved, we ditched it all....

 

Superglue when setting it up. It becomes inert when it drys. Learned a lot from this channel. Was just interesting to watch and then I just had to try.

https://www.youtube.com/@MDFishTanks

 

But you can leverage that stupid-high power bill into justification for a big battery-solar set up.
At least you can try to limit recharging off the grid to off-peak hours.
In for a penny…

 

Folks living in areas that get hit with hot temps - are you running a pond outside?

A part of me wants to run an above ground pond/tank out in the backyard, mainly to fill some room in the backyard.

We just got some concrete poured to extend our covered patio, as well as some artificial grass as this is all for our small family to hang out in. The grass is mainly for the kid really.



On the top right of the picture to the right of the concrete, I've got some 3' (wide) x 15' (long) of dirt that I originally planned to cover with a weed barrier and rock. But I'm also considering in adding a pond in a sort of planter box style setup.

Just worried about the 100+ degree weather we get in the summer, how deep of a pond do I need in order to maintain some sort of safe temperatures for a few fish. I understand the temperatures will vary with certain species but something like a gold fish or the sort with live plants. I mentioned the dimensions because that will narrow down the actual width of the tank being inside an enclosure.

 

You would have to monitor the situation.
1 thing is the spike in day time temps, but another big factor is how much cooling down overnight can occur.

Generally the time it takes to water to heat up gives the fish enough time to acclimate.

Volume is your friend. Shading the water can help.
Fountains are important to help cool but also aerate the water which is critical because warm water holds less oxygen.

Having said that 3x15’ is a pretty good chunk of real estate. If you can get an average depth of 3-4’ (shallow end at 1-2’ —>4-5’ at the deep end) the depth will help shield the pond form direct exposure. And that fairly substantial volume will resist rapid temp changes.

Goldfish/coi are natural choices, but alternatively you might be able to keep some hardy tropical fish.

 

sun exposure will likely play a bigger part in the temperature than water volume. if you can put at least part of the pun under ground level, the ground temperature will do wonders for water temp regulation. goldfish and koi are hearty animals, so they will tolerate higher summer temps and colder winder temps well. it's more about fast temperature swings. another alternative if you have a fully above ground pond would be to run a pump for a waterfall feature. you'll need something regardless to agitate and oxygenate the water. from the pump, run a a long length of hose, that you burry a few feet under ground, and then have it return to the waterfall, back into the pond. that's essentially a year round temperature regulating "radiator".

i keep koi, jumbo golds, Plecostomus, and mosquito minnows in out pond. it's three tiers. the upper two tiers are probably only 20 gallons each. they have aquatic plants that help filter, but are really just there for aesthetics. third tier is about 450 gallons 5'x4' x3'deep. the front and both sides are mostly above ground, but the back is not. we don't get much more than the mid 90s during the summer, but we have a very long summer. Frequently have 80 degree Christmases

we've gotten snow twice in the last 10 years however, this past January being one of those. all of the fish survived.

 

The only plus side is that the temperature doesn't exactly spike. I'm constantly watching the temps on all our devices for the outdoors and earlier at 9am, it was 67. It hit the mid 70s by 10am and now at 1pm, it's 84.

When it's hot during the day, it's warm in the evenings still. Think if you went outside last night at like 10pm, it was still in the 70s - 80s.

But you are right about water depth, I do know I need a good amount to allow for a "cooler" area at the bottom, I just don't know the numbers side of it to see what is safe.

I think I'll revisit this idea once we get a gazebo in place; I'll have to watch if there will be any exposure to sunlight there.

 

@colinb17 you just touched on something I need to consider but didn't mention originally.

Sun exposure, so once we get a gazebo in place I'll have to monitor like @ssd_dan mentioned.

Then I can come back to you guys with more information.

I had only considered gold fish due to koi fish getting really big. I know gold fish do as well but not as large as many koi when given the room.

 

I've loved having koi in my pond. don't count them out, especially since 3x15 is far bigger than mine.

Sun is tough because it's great for the plants, but can cause algae to grow like crazy, on top of the temperature risk. if the pond is under the gazebo, you won't have much to worry about. if your plants struggle, it'd be easy to add a plant light, but i doubt you'd need that.

 

You couldnt give me solar.....