10' Pond Build

ken6217 said:
Ae you going with no rock at all or did I mess this?

What skimmer are you going with?
Ken
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Definitely going to be adding rock. I'm going to do a few hundred pounds of live base rock set up like coral heads. I want to give it the impression of being a reef, so I've been working on making my own coral rock (polymer clay "corals" attached to dry rock) to go on top of the base rock. I did some research on some polymer clays, and the overall impression that I got was that since the manufacturer switched from petroleum based ingredients, there was nothing in it that would make it unsuitable for aquarium use once it was fully cured. I've had a couple of 10g aquariums set up with a lot of it relative to water volume. I didn't make any corals with it, just used different shapes/textures (large, small, flat, ground into sand size pieces etc...) for the better part of the year to see how it would hold up in saltwater, and if there would be any negative impact to water quality. I also have a 10g "control tank" set up with the exact same equipment/livestock (sans the polymer clay of course). So far, so good...

Here's a pic so you can get an idea of what it will look like. Still trying to work out how elaborate I want to make the corals, and trying to find a happy medium between not enough detail so that you can't tell what they are, and so much detail that they take forever to make.

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As for the skimmer, I still haven't decided on which one I want to go with. Will probably sort that out in the next few weeks.
 
Water still has a little clearing up to do, but I think my polymer clay coral rock looks half way respectable in there. Might play around with making some SPS this weekend.

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Thanks for the compliments! I added more sand, so it's quite cloudy once again. I'll take some more pics once it clears up. Started the cycle using a few shrimp. I also transferred some LR from my established tanks to the sump to help get things moving along.
 
With the pond cycling, I thought that now would be a good time to come up with some stocking possibilities. I will be transferring most of my fish from my 120 and 240g tanks over to the pond, but will still have some real estate available to add others. I wanted to run my list of current fish along with some potentials by you guys, as well as to get some suggestions. FWIW, I will keep at least the 240 up and running so I will have a place to keep fish that don't play nice with the rest of the group.

Here is a preliminary list: (Keeping some from this list may exclude others, and I may add/subtract from it as time goes on, but it's a start).

Large Angels:
Pomacanthus maculosus (already have)
Queen Angel - Holacanthus ciliaris (already have)
2 Pomacanthus Annularis (already have, and are getting along well enough for now).

Dwarf Angels:
Centropyge loricula - Flame angel pair (already have)
Centropyge flavissima - Lemonpeel angel pair
Centropyge bicolor
Centropyge eibli

Basslets:
Serranus tortugarum Chalk bass (several)
Gramma loreto - Royal Gramma (have one, would like to add others)
Gramma melacara - Black Cap Basslet (my wife's favorite fish, and a must have)

Butterflyfish:
In my 20+ years in the hobby, I have never attempted keeping any species of butterflyfish. Definitely looking for suggestions here (would especially love to do a small group of a Heniochus spp.).

Chromis:
Chromis cyaneus - Blue Reef Chromis (group)
Chromis viridis - Green Chromis (group - if I can find healthy fish, which seem to be few and far between as of late)

Clowns:
Amphiprion Ocellaris (pair)

Damsels:
Already have several, and will likely keep a few groups of smaller more docile species to add color/movement.

Filefish:
Acreichthys tomentosus (already have)

Gobies:
Valenciennea strigata - Sleeper Goby (pair) - would add later once the sand bed matures

Tangs:
Naso unicornis Unicorn Tang (already have)
Naso lituratus **any thoughts on keeping these with N. unicornis?**
Acanthurus mata - Mata Tang (already have)
Paracanthurus hepatus - Pacific Blue Tang (already have)
Zebrasoma flavescens (would like to do a group of 5)

Wrasse:
Choerodon fasciatus - Aussie Harlequin Tusk (already have)
Gomphosus various - Green Bird Wrasse (pair)
**Looking for some other wrasse suggestions.

Triggers:
Odonus niger - Red Tooth Trigger **This is a fish that I keep bouncing back and fourth about adding. O. niger is one of the two fish that first got me interested in the hobby (the other was Rhinecanthus aculeatus) but I've never had the "right" system to keep one (for one reason or another).

Again, I'm sure as time goes on my list of fish will evolve/change a bit, but I thought it would be good to have something down "on paper" in terms of stocking. Please feel free to give criticisms/suggestions!
 
Cool idea and those corals look well done. I'm a little confused about how you will be able to really see whats going on inside the pool? Won't there be some kind of surface agitation/rippling going on to kind of disturb your vision?
 
xkon said:
Cool idea and those corals look well done. I'm a little confused about how you will be able to really see whats going on inside the pool? Won't there be some kind of surface agitation/rippling going on to kind of disturb your vision?
Click to expand...

Thanks!

There is a bit of agitation, but it's mostly on one side. My plan is to have 2 different "zones" in the pond. The side with a lot of agitation will be made to resemble a reef crest, and the side without will be more of a lagoon. Here are a couple pics to show what I mean.

This is what the water looks like on the side that will be the reef crest. Lots of surface agitation and very high turbulence/flow. I plan to do this side with lots of SPS, etc...

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This is the other side (lagoon) with the filtration running exactly the same as in the first pic. Very little surface agitation, but still a good amount of flow under the surface.

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And one showing most of the pond (sorry for the poor lighting in this one).

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For times when I want a better view of both sides, I did the plumbing where I can reduce the flow from the filter and have a very strong underwater current without much surface agitation.

It's difficult to get an idea of water movement from a picture, so I'll try to post a video sometime in the near future.
 
Awesome job, I don't like most fake coral but it looks great in this application. For fish you have to get a school of butterflyfish, schooling bannerfish (heniochus diphreutes) would be perfect. They would look really good top down. You could also get a bunch of raccoons with this much room.
 
inigomontoya said:
Awesome job, I don't like most fake coral but it looks great in this application. For fish you have to get a school of butterflyfish, schooling bannerfish (heniochus diphreutes) would be perfect. They would look really good top down. You could also get a bunch of raccoons with this much room.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! Will start with a pair of bannerfish for sure. I've always liked these, and think that they would make a nice addition.
 
If you are looking to get a small school, go with an odd number of fish. In a tank like that I would do 3-5 depending on what else you are going to stock it with.
 
moriarty said:
Thanks for the suggestion! Will start with a pair of bannerfish for sure. I've always liked these, and think that they would make a nice addition.
Click to expand...

Butchhe said:
If you are looking to get a small school, go with an odd number of fish. In a tank like that I would do 3-5 depending on what else you are going to stock it with.
Click to expand...

I'm with him but even more, like 5-9. They would look awesome from the top as a schooling group that you can see from a distance, like one huge fish. Like all fish they tend to schoal more as they realize the aquarium is safe, but they are supposed to group tighter than a lot of aquarium suitable fish.

We'll have to live vicariously through you. I was going to do 3-5 in my FOWLR but won't have enough room with other fish.
 
inigomontoya said:
I'm with him but even more, like 5-9. They would look awesome from the top as a schooling group that you can see from a distance, like one huge fish. Like all fish they tend to schoal more as they realize the aquarium is safe, but they are supposed to group tighter than a lot of aquarium suitable fish.

We'll have to live vicariously through you. I was going to do 3-5 in my FOWLR but won't have enough room with other fish.
Click to expand...

I'm sold! I did a bit more research on the species, and think that 7 sounds like a good number! I'm still not used to the idea stocking a system of this volume and tend to stock my tanks conservatively to begin with, so it's going to be an adjustment for sure! I'd like to add them all at once, so this will be something I'll do around the 6 month mark should all go well with the pond. Thanks again for the great suggeston!
 
mnkykng77 said:
Man I wish I could have a saltwater "pond" haha. If I ever win the lottery I plan to do this with a side view window.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that! I was actually playing around with the idea of adding some sort of window when I was in the early planning stages. Decided that it wouldn't be worth the extra effort/expense as you would probably have to be laying on the floor to look through it. However, a little lottery money may change my viewpoint a bit :)
 
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