Saltwater Pond Project

B

Boat_Drinks

New member
Hey all...

I have been keeping reef aquariums for quite a while, and had the oppertunity to install several ponds while working with my brother's landscaping company. I decided to put the two together and make a saltwater pond. After all, who can resist the idea of having corals growing under natural illumination in an outdoor setting. Okay, I am getting ahead of myself. This will be an ongoing project and I need to take baby steps if I am to have any sort of success with this. I don't plan on adding livestock of any type until I'm sure that I can maintain a stable environment. Hopefully if done right, and if my plans are carefully thought out, this will be a rewarding project rather than an excersise in frustration. Anyways, here is my plan, and what I have thus far...

My soon to be in-laws have voulenteered a portion of their property where this pond will be built. My father in law to be built and has maintained a small koi pond on the same property for over 30 years. He is helping me out with construction, and was actually very excited about the idea of having this new addition. We figured the worst case scenerio, is that we will have yet another koi pond rather than a coral reef.

Pond dimensions (give or take) will be approx 84" X 60" X 48".

Because I live in the Fort Lauderdale area, keeping a cooler, stable temperature is going to be one of my major obstacles. It is much easier/cost effective to heat water than it is to cool it. I will most likely still need to employ a chiller, but digging the pond at least 3 feet into the ground should be a good start to a more stable water temperature.

I am also looking into ideas for some sort of awning to keep out rainwater. Something that can be easily rolled out/retracted will be the best way to go. Also, I may need to eventually work on something to shade corals assuming light shock may become a problem. Again, I am getting ahead of myself.

The pond it's self will be made of concrete, and I am still weiging out my options for support (cinderblock vs. rebar vs. wire mesh).

We started digging out the pond last weekend. After about a foot of digging, we ran into a layer of limestone/coral rubble. After digging it out, I am either going to clean it and use it as base rock, or cement it into the outer edge of the pond to create a little "curb appeal" (most likely will do the latter).

This will be a work in progress for some time. Please offer any advice you can as there is very little information available when it comes to building and maintaining saltwater ponds.

I will take some pictures this weekend and try to post them
so you can get a better idea...

Thanks in advance for any feedback/advice you can offer!
 
Just to give you an idea of my progress so far, I have a pic of what I have done so far in my photo gallery. This is about 1/3 of the depth. I have a lot of digging to do this weekend....
 
Aqua, Thanks for the link! That actually gives me more than a few ideas, especially when it comes to plumbing and filtration. Hopefully I can put something together as nice looking as that one!

AC, Yeah, I would love to someday set up a greenhouse, and is something I plan to do later on down the road. It may be a bit hot down here especially during the summer months for all that trapped heat, but it would definately solve my problem when it comes to eliminating the rain. My fiance's parents are cool with me putting a pond in their back yard, but might not be quite as excited with the idea of an actual greenhouse! We are currently shopping around for houses, and I am using the idea of a south facing wall that has enough space for a lean-to greenhouse as a deciding factor...
 
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All I know is that I'm going to subscribe to this thread now. :)
 
Oh, and using the IMG tags, you can make pictures from your gallery appear in your posts, like this:

117097Pond1.jpg
 
Melev, Thanks for pointing out how to make pics appear in my posts. I'm going to save myself some embarassment and not mention how much time I spent trying to make that happen...
 
No worries. Once your images are in the gallery, look at the very last line in the description fields. It says "Use this URL with IMG tags" or something to that effect.
 
SOunds like an awesome idea. I guess the biggest problem I see is the salinity.I guess I have never checked into how much rain water it takes to throw it off. And secondly what about thoese days where you get 3-6" rain in a short period, how will you deal with this?

I love the ideas of ponds but it is way too cold up here in wisconsin. But there was a really good thread about a guy in Portugal about a month ago. Good Luck!!
 
Keeping a consistent salinity is definately something that I will have to contend with. Florida weather can be pretty unpredictable especially in the summer. Along with the rain, I have to factor in evaporation when monitoring the salinity. The pond will hold a little over 1000 gallons, which will hopefully give me a little bit of stability and any salinity swings shouldn't be too great in either direction. Of course it's always better to be prepared, and I plan to always have back up containers of seawater and freshwater should problems arise. I am also considering other options such as a retractible awning that I have easy access to for both rain prevention and shade should the pond get too much sun. I plan to monitor and record salinity levels very carefully and experiment with rainfall and evaporation for some time before adding any livestock.
If you have any ideas that I may not have thought of, I would definately be interested in hearing!
 
You may need some type of drainage around the pond to assure that excess rainwater is diverted away from the pond instead of pouring in. Something like a french drain or lots of gravel like the Portugal tank.
 
I am actually building the pond 36" below ground level, and 18"above. (I think I forgot to mention that in my original post) I wanted to avoid any run-off from the surrounding yard from entering the pond. The area that we are building on is on the upward slope of the property, so I'm hoping that, combined with an 18" high outer wall will eliminate the need for additonal drainage.
 
Maybe automate a powered awning that swings off the house via a rain detection device and some relays/timing circuit.

My biggest concern is hurricanes, In that case I would assume you need to build a top that is very secure to brush off debris and water but allow for ventilation.

Wonder if you could mod a evap cooler to cool the pond?
 
My 2Cents..

Concrete will NOT work to make as the pond. Concrete can change the PH of the water if you mean the water will be the concrete.
I assume it has very edgy digging so what I would do is put blocks inside the hole and put a black rubber mat inside. with little parts sticking out. Put the blocks ontop of the little parts sticking out. to hold it down. An automated top will be very expensive to the least. You can make a "NET" over the pond to stop any extra debris coming in on sunny days. You have to be careful, if it rains and the water around is wet then.. it could collapse into the pond. what you can do is have someone custom build an actual window to your pond. so you can slide it up for opening and feeding time etc. then you can silicone it down to the ground or use any other glue substances. Me? I only have an indoor pond
 
tke, Yeah, hurricanes are something that I definately have to contend with living in south florida. If everything goes according to plans, I wont' have any life in the pond until well after this hurricane season is over. That should buy me some time until next season to figure out a way to keep the pond safely covered. The only thing that comes to mind at this point, is that my parents have a cover on their pool during the winter months that is very strong and allows for ventilation. I was thinking of using something like that which I can bolt down prior to a hurricane.

Ono, I was recently looking at the effects of Concrete on Ph. From the information that I got, concrete does raise the Ph of the water quite a bit. Do you have any info on how drastic this is? I guess my main question is, do you think that it will raise the Ph to levels far above that of natural sea water? If so, will this be a lasting effect? That may be something I need to look into a little more... Thanks for pointing that out!
 
When people make their own rock with concrete, the pH is around 9.0 or higher. It takes many weeks to bring it down. I don't know how long it would take if the entire container is concrete, but it can't be forever because I know of at least two greenhouse coral propagation companies using concrete sumps.
 
Hello,

one problem will be that due to the water motion for the pond you will not see the corals and fish unless you put a glass atop as Victor from Portugal did with his tank which he built in the ground outside his house. Or you have to use a special device to look through to see the the fish and corals of the tank....

regards

Markus
 
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