plans for a 1000 gallon concrete pond in my back yard

Jessielynn1024

New Member
Hopefully this summer ill be putting in a 1000 gallon custom home made concrete pond for my red tail cat. Any suggestions? Anyone attempt this before?
 

Anthraxx

New Member
over engineer EVERYTHING, watched a cpl really nice pond builds fail horribly because for some reason they didnt think that the massive water weight might put additional pressure on them (was a half above ground pond) imho just hire urself a really good engineer to come out and take a look at your property, a nice solid bedrock bottom would be the best place to put such a big amount of weight. i dont mean to be a downer here but an extra cpl hundred to be SURE vs. x amount of dollars wasted due to a failure.
 

lloyd378

Administrator
Staff member
Contributing Member Level III
I agree with anthraxx. Hire a professional. I put in two ponds for my mom (the prefab plastic ones) and I had issues with them sinking and shifting after I filled them completly up, and then came the overflow of water from the unlevel ground. On the same note, my aunt put in a huge pond with waterfall in her backyard about ten years ago. it is about 3.5 feet at it's deepest and about 20 feet in diameter. needless to say, she hired a professional to build it, and she hasn't had any problems except the herons fishing for her koi. lol

good luck,
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Jessielynn1024 said:
Hopefully this summer ill be putting in a 1000 gallon custom home made concrete pond for my red tail cat. Any suggestions? Anyone attempt this before?
This is a good topic to start the spring out...
I too purchased a home with no landscape. Im imagining a large pond with an outbuilding next to it to put 50 gallon barrels into for filtration. The outbuilding will double as yard/garden tool storage with a small green house attached.

Already this thread has brought up issues I may have not thought of!
 

Madness

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Agreed with all above. Very good info, keep it coming. Im thinking of installing a 900 gal above ground pond. Im sure there wont be as much of an issue with this but you never know. 8000 lbs in a 10' round area is a ton (4 tons actually) of weight.
 

CrazedAce

New Member
I'm also planning on putting in a small pond on my family's house that I will be moving into in a few months. I'll be struggling with putting it in the right place (finding septic, and making sure its not in am area that will flood). I didn't think of the impact the weight would have, but I think getting a truckload of gravel would be a great idea to try to prevent sinking. Doubt that doing that will help the bigger ponds though. But definitely a good topic to follow. :D
 

binbin9

New Member
Mike who owns Aquarist world in West Seattle bought some Arapaimas from a person who did a backyard giant tank for his monster fish.

The arapaimas eventually grew to about 5ft in length and were being fed hotdogs.

I think the tricky parts are heating, filtration, and controlling algae. Here's some photos of the fish.

http://aquaristworld.net/
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
binbin9 said:
Mike who owns Aquarist world in West Seattle bought some Arapaimas from a person who did a backyard giant tank for his monster fish.

The arapaimas eventually grew to about 5ft in length and were being fed hotdogs.

I think the tricky parts are heating, filtration, and controlling algae. Here's some photos of the fish.

http://aquaristworld.net/
I've researched heating an out door pond a little... It seems intence. The submersible heaters I would need are like a couple hundred a piece. There are whole water heater systems as well if you have a separate room for it... Thousands of dollars :(

If anyone has suggestions for heating an out door pool efficiently I would be interested. My 1st ideal was to grow out Oscars outside... But that was just a pipe dream...
 

Anthraxx

New Member
at around 4-6 ft underground temperature really doesnt change much all year long, and we have relatively mild winters compared to most. have you considered doing sort of a green house type roof over it in winter? not only would it keep the water lvl high, but all the light absorbed by the water (which creates heat) wont be able to escape nearly as easily. all you REALLY need to do is select fish that can stand annual drops in temperature to around the 40-50f region. cant imagine with everything ive suggested that temp would drop much further then that.
 

Anthraxx

New Member
id have to say its going to depend on the seasonal changes in their native waters, i am by no means a monster fish lover so unfortunately i cant help you there. im sure a quick search via google and youd be off to a great start :)
 

Jray33

New Member
Red tail cats come from warm places... i highly doubt it could survive in that cold of water. I have seen a person with a 28" turushukin in a 900 gallon pond and he was sitting around 60... but 40-50, thats just is cold.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Jray33 said:
Red tail cats come from warm places... i highly doubt it could survive in that cold of water. I have seen a person with a 28" turushukin in a 900 gallon pond and he was sitting around 60... but 40-50, thats just is cold.
:cyclops: . o O {One must remember to closely match our friends natural environment. Even if the fish could survive extremes does not mean fish isn't suffering. RTC evolved in tropical climates. These are waters above 75 deg F. )
 

CrazedAce

New Member
Pond shark ftw. Though I've heard mixed reviews on their ability to survive the winters. If anything, you could always use it as a seasonal breeding contraption. I'm planning on moving some guppies into my small pond this summer and let them go at it. You could do that with bigger fish. :D
 

bassetman

Member
I just put a 1500 gallon Dovii pond in my shop 2/3 below ground. I was luck as there was an old mechanics pit built into the floor. I just had to have an 18" high wall with a rounded top put in around it to keep people from falling in and install some plumbing and it was complete.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
bassetman said:
I just put a 1500 gallon Dovii pond in my shop 2/3 below ground. I was luck as there was an old mechanics pit built into the floor. I just had to have an 18" high wall with a rounded top put in around it to keep people from falling in and install some plumbing and it was complete.
Wow!!
 
Top