Re: Above Ground Pond

["Edward Venn" <e_venn at hotmail_com>]

I'm thinking about setting up an above ground 85 gal. pond,

What are the dimensions of this pond? How much surface area and water depth?

where I'm thinking about putting it, it will get about 4 hours of direct sun 
, what plants would,Ê or couldÊ I use and would I need gravel.

In my experience a good clay substrate is most beneficial to plants, I am 
currently growing various species of amazon swords, aponogeton, crinum, 
vallisneria, hygrophilia, cambomba, sagitteria, nuphar and anarchis 
outdoors. I use a mixture of common potting soil that has been soaked for a 
week or more to ensure nothing floats up from it, this is capped with some 
finely crushed gravel I collected from a disused jade quarry in Tochigi 
(jade has a high iron content and the iron slowly leaches out of the stones 
and into the soil).

The soil is placed into plastic pots, the rooted plants are planted into the 
soil and then a layer of gravel is placed over the top-of course being 
careful not to cover the crown of the plants. Plants such as the crinum, 
lilies, aponogeton and vallisneria are placed into tubs that measure 1m x 1m 
x 1m deep and receive minimum of 8 hrs direct sunlight a day and have an 
average temp of 28¼C during June-September.

Other plants such as the swords, sagitteria, hygrophilia, cambomba and 
anarchis are planted in styro coolers I got from the local shop. These 
coolers are 30cm wide x 150cm long by 30cm high (used to transport tuna 
fillets) and allow the plants to grow along the surface and produce emersed 
growth. The soil and gravel mixture is laid down into the bottom of the box, 
the plants are planted directly into it and allowed to produce some growth 
before fish are introduced.

I was thinking about swordtails, some corydoras catfish and a few molly's in 
the way of fish

The fish I currently stock/will be stocking into these tubs are as follows: 
Brachyraphsis terrebinus, Alfaro culturatus, Betta splendens, B pugnax, 
Macopodus chinensis, M operculus, Xiphophorus maculatus (wild no locality), 
Trichopsis vittatus and Colisa lalia. In most cases I keep maximum 2 species 
to a container, with B splendens, pugnax and T vittatus I keep them separate 
and make allowances as they are consumate jumpers-as are most swordtails.

no filter or air pump. After I get it set up would I need to do water 
changes?, If so, how often and how much. Also how many fish do you think I 
should have in the pond?? Are there better fish than the above that you 
would have?

I live in New Jersey so I'll be taking the fish in or selling them off in 
mid October just before it gets cold.

I don't use a filter or an airpump but, I do make weekly water changes, 
collect out as many young fish as I can and thin the plants out once a 
month. My local clubs JLA and JBA benefit from this surplus at our bimonthly 
meetings.

I hope this is of help.

Ed in Japan

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