Does my outside Marine Pond count

[Henn]

Hi, I am new to the R2R Community. The Marine Ponds in my backyard are for soft corals ( lots of Gorgonians ). My frags are with odd stuff like Green Lip Mussels and Ricordea. There is also a Dwarf Seahorse Breeding Colony. The stuff grows and it gets cut up before it reaches the surface. Hard Coral goes away slowly due to Phos Levels. The system I use might do hard coral frags it it was not full of fish and inverts. It is all easy to make and it really should get a chance to grow frags and with luck have real reproduction occur. Please consider my soft coral as proof that I am a Fragger and my breeding seahorses as proof of my methods.

 

[JonoB]

Where are you located? super cool!

 

[Henn]

I am in the San Fernando Valley ( LA ). You can have specimens if you are local. The Brittle Stars have been shacking up at the Abalone Motel. With luck that pond and the Pencil Urchin Pond will begin making little Nano Tank denizens. The Dwarf Seahorses are up to 60 or so in two floating refugiums. They are the only things I can't bear selling. Any Frags that can handle this Marine System are welcome ( leather, ricordea, gorgonian, sponge, green star ). There are no turbo pumps or fine filters. All the ponds are larval friendly and have refugium shelter.The more the merrier. Right now, I have been told that I have more seahorses than the top two seahorse dealers. If somebody runs this system only for hard coral and a refugium the coral might spawn. That would give me goose bumps. Make a pond and fill it with your favorites, it will make people happy.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

what did you use as a pond liner? Was it the ridged kind?

 

[Tamberav]

Awesome! I wish I lived somewhere with weather that could keep an outside softy pond.

 

[Henn]

what did you use as a pond liner? Was it the ridged kind?

Your question is very important for doing a system. Soft liners have always been disasters. The two things that do not work are leakage and temperature. Ground temp is 60 F and, for instance, Damsel fish go belly up at 67 F. If a leak occurs it can not usually be found or fixed in a flex liner. A North Tasmanian River Crayfish ( 12 inches long ) once cut through a pond liner of mine. The best start is in a garage with a 35 gallon hard shell tub. Put it on a closed cell pad. One full spectrum grow light ( 90 watt ) overhead is all that is needed. Follow my seahorse posts to build the filter system ( < $100 for everything ) it has a continuous protein skimmer / water exchange ( ABS pipe, two air stones, an air pump, and a valve ) and a Knitted shade cloth / pond pump filter that is also the only current source. Without a huge load of fish and inverts the system should do hard coral. The filter bucket ( pump ) output is directed ( out through the shade sloth ) to make a circular current. As is, the gorgonians, ricordea, urchins and brittle stars are happy and reproducing ( no turbo pumps and lots of natural plankton ). I have display tanks inside for showing, the natural color is very subdued in sunlight. With tank illumination the colors pop. If a tank goes bad it goes home to the sea. It is possible to renew tank water by swapping it for tub water ( saving lots of money ) with DI top offs. There is less maintenance on 750 gallons of marine ponds ( 3 ) than some single high tech tanks.

 

[Fakegolfnews]

really cool "frag tank" haha

 

[chefjpaul]

Awesome.
More details and pictures of that system

 

[TriggerFinger]

Definitely need more pictures!! This is very cool!

 

[Mini colony]

it's so cool more detail and pictures please

 

[Henn]

I hope this post is done right and that all three requests are copied. The system started 7 years ago as a home for an adopted Clawed Lobster ( rip Norwood ). He was lost to a system failure after several years. The pictures will show some early Norwood. The current system has slightly more Phos than hard coral can take. Green Duncan at max. It is fine for propagation of mushrooms, ricordea, gorgonians aplenty, there is even a resident population of breeding black pacific mussels and green lip mussels from Norwood's food bowl. The Dwarf Seahorse Corral is a floating mesh that feeds the breeding ponies through all stages of life. The only safe clean up crew in the corral are lettuce nudibranch. they also breed and produce larva. From the last input of wild caught ( 6 as 3 pair ) the count is up to 60 or so in two corrals. My greatest hope is that others will copy these DIY Systems and begin breeding instead of Fragging and cloning. There are only two parts to the system. The Bio Matrix is 85 % Knitted Ribbon Shade Cloth ( any hardware store ). It does everything Aerobic and Anaerobic. No Coral of Argonite is needed. The HDPE Ribbon that the cloth is made from are twisted. Where they cross over they produce small areas of low oxygen ( anaerobic nitrate removal ) the exposed surface does the aerobic ( nitrite and ammonia ). Look at my load and consider that nitrate is loss than .9. The macro algae here is ulva and thick spaghetti. Wrap a pond pump in a turban of cloth and route the output to produce current( no turbo pumps or fine filters ). The only other necessity is the Gack Hurler/protein scimmer/water changer. There is a Bubble Water Lift ( see photo ). The water exits the lift under water and the air rises up into a passage reduction that speeds it up. Any foam, bubbles, or bad mojo that can be hurled up 5 inches above the water level falls over the internal riser and runs off. At full air the device will hurl 15 gallons in a day and any Gack that was in it. On low there is no operation. With about 50 % air the junk concentrates in the riser tube until it blows over and starts again. This is the only water removal method used. This system can do hard coral if the inverts and fish are reduced. The two pond pumps in pots and the air pump are about 100 watts total. This system can also recondition Tank Water, support a refugium, and grow frags. The smallest system I have made was 35 gallon garden tub with 1 pond pump and 1 Gack Hurler. It was inside and used a 90 watt reptile bulb overhead and a Nylon Tulle Corral. It made Ponies just fine. It also was a Water Changer Conditioner and an emergency dump for my display tanks. This system can remain safe for several days during a power outage and cost less than $ 300 for everything needed to build it. Please help me spread the possibility of having real tide pools to gather from. Look at what is here and imagine making an arrangement every week out of what you see. I do dwarf seahorses, pencil urchins, and brittle stars for now. Others can do other stuff. With time the R2R community might maintain some Member Rescue Tanks.

 

[Henn]

Awesome.
More details and pictures of that system

I have posted and hope you can see it

 

[Mini colony]

What will you do if rain?

 

[littlemacros]

What will you do if rain?

I was wondering the same thing. I presume it would be pretty simple to put up one of those pond covers but what if there were a big storm?

This idea fascinates me. If I lived by the ocean I'd love to start a rescue tank. More details more details!

 

[Henn]

I have posted and hope you can see it

I have posted more pictures of the complete water system. The two pots with pond pumps exhaust over the back area refugium. This is the only active current. The flow is about 1.5 inches per sec over the zoanthid piece. Ground whole shrimp or ground small fish are the only food input. The marine mollies are live bearing and supply a constant food supply for the larger marine fish. Please see my seahorse/pipefish forum posts. We must do something now to save the things we love. Pass the word and people will start building these tiny oceans. I do not know enough to fine tune the chemistry. What you see is Pond Forms, ABS Pipe, Shade Cloth, and a few pumps and stuff. It's what we imagine that counts in the end. As of this posting, the greatest number of dwarf seahorses including the two top suppliers, are living in a tiny ocean in Canoga Park. In this system 6 have become 60 in 6 months. It's a start.

 

[littlemacros]

It would be cool to add some mangroves to this

This tank is amazing. Ive always wanted to do something like this. Unfortunately I live where it snows and rains constantly and expectedly.

 

[Copingwithpods]

This is amazing

 

[Henn]

What will you do if rain?

All the ponds are wrapped with insulation and have sloped polycarb panel covers. When covered they can go 2 weeks without tending. We have freezing nights, rains, and raccoons. In summer it can get to 112 F at noon, They all have shade and the covers.

 

[Henn]

I was wondering the same thing. I presume it would be pretty simple to put up one of those pond covers but what if there were a big storm?

This idea fascinates me. If I lived by the ocean I'd love to start a rescue tank. More details more details!

There are corrugated polycarb panels that slope and are fitted. Its all on GFI Circuits ( without the regular aquarium heater running - winter ) the system you are seeing only uses 100 watts ( 2 40 watt pond pumps and 1 20 watt hydro air pump. Also, rescue ponds are for local tank disasters. Most LFS get all kinds of rescue or surrender stock. Some LFS give me stuff that is too weird to sell. I trade macro algae ( lots ) and marine feeder mollies. If the brittle stars and pencil urchins succeed, they are barter. My ponies will only go to this kind of system, for free. They have never known hunger or eaten a Brine Shrimp, and they never will.

 

[Henn]

It would be cool to add some mangroves to this

This tank is amazing. Ive always wanted to do something like this. Unfortunately I live where it snows and rains constantly and expectedly.

The nitrate levels are too low for mangroves, the calerpa sometimes struggles. These ponds can go inside ( 35 gallon for ponies ) the ones here are rain, wind, and varmint proofed with polycarb panel covers. I have thought about growing 3 dwarf coconut trees on a small island in one of the deep round ponds or I could put a stock tank in my grow house and have a tropical island experience ( my associates are never surprised at whats happening here ). At some point it will require a hard coral pond with few fish and inverts. ( Green Duncan is my hardest ). That will have a coconut tree refugium pond ( 300 g ) and a main Barrier Reef Pond ( another reason to get people making these systems ) at 1200 g. Reef to reef doesn't have to have anything to do with natural oceans as long as people who care build the biggest tiny ocean they can.