Indoor Ponds ?

[Guppy]

does anyone got any info on constructing an indoor pond ?

[RedTail]

I would also like some info on these.

[cutters]

Measure out your wood to the sizes you'll need. It's up to you to figure out how big you want the pond.


Hammer the two longer walls of the frame together. Both of these walls consist of two 4x4's with two 2x4's connecting the 4 by 4's.






Stand those two walls up vertically like they will be in the end and measure out so that they're both standing the same width as they will be in when the pond is done. Now place the 2x4's of the shorter side of the pond across so that the bottom ones are in place. Now nail these on so that the frame is free standing. Now nail on the top two horizontal 2x4's. Now you'll have the frame done!

Now it's even easier. Nail the plywood onto the outsides of the the frame. Don't underestimate the importance and stability that this plywood brings to the ponds structure. You should nail a lot of nails all the way down the sides of the 4x4's, connecting the plywood to it really good. Now you can move the whole thing up to a wall. Just lift one side up from the outside and walk backwards towards the wall. The you have to squeeze out from in between the wall and the pond. If you want it right up against the wall, this may be difficult.


Now nail on the plywood to the inside walls of the pond. You'll barely even have to nail these on, just enough to keep it in place. There is no floor to this pond except your own floor and the liner so it's basically done now. Just take your pond liner and put it in. This is harder than it sounds. Get it nice and flat on the floor of the pond and put a rock or weight in each corner. Now on the center point on the top of each wall, bring the liner flat up against the wall and use a staplegun to stape the liner onto the very top of the inside playwood. Do this for each side, right in the middle.


This is the fun part. Start filling the pond up with water. Just let the hose pour the water in. Let the water fill quite a bit and pay attention to the staple on each side and make sure the weight of the water doesn't pull on the liner and rip it at the stapled point. This means put lots of slack in the liner at first and you can take the staple out and pull the liner in later.


The pond should be almost full, the water line about 6 inches under where you'll want it. Now work your way to the corners, putting staples in every five inches or so. Tuck the excess liner into the walls, in between the plywood pieces. You'll have to fold up the excess really good and tight on the corners and cut the excess and tuck the rest into the walls.


Stick 2x4's into the walls vertically to add strength to the walls.


Now for the finishing ledges on top of the walls. If you are skilled enough, or can get the cut somewhere that can do it good, cut them so that they meet in the corners at 45 degree angles and fit in nicely, like is shows in the picture for my main pond page. You'll probably want to put insulation into the walls so that the pond doesn't lose heat as easy. You'll also probably want to paint or stain the ledges with a nice finish, before you permanently put them on. Then paint the outside visible walls of the pond. It looks good if the ledge sits over the outside and inside, two inches. That's a ledge that's four inches thicker than the walls, which are probably six inches thick.


The pond is done now. For heating you'll probably want to mount some sort of Plexiglas® that goes from the inside of the ledge, into the water a couple inches. On this Plexiglas® you can mount a powerhead and heaters or anything.

For filtration and lighting well, it's up to you. Personally I'm buying a pond filter that sits in the bottom of the pond and has a little fountain at the top. You don't want too much water movement at the top cause it makes it difficult to see your fish. The surface area of the whole pond is so big that it'll naturally have lots of oxygen in the water so surface movement of the water isn't very important, it just makes water evaporate quicker. A simple light bulb hanging from the roof can light up a whole room so why not your pond?

Finally, use some common sense..if you think you can make a little improvement to make the pond turn out better, by all means do it.

[Concrete Kid]

My cousin Russo has made alot of ponds he could hook you up

[SwordFish]

Russo is awesome the guy is like the fountain of knowledge.