Whiskey barrel pond

[beowulf]

A small whiskey barrel pound would require filtration or not?  If I was to buy the one PFG has for sale I was going to add plants and some guppies to eat the skeeter eggs.  Would the plants filter it enough or one something have to be added to water movement etc?

[mseguin]

It would be best to have at least a small pump to move water

[beowulf]

It would be best to have at least a small pump to move water

That is what I thought.  Do they make outdoor ones?  I am going to have to do some research.

[mseguin]

Yeah a small statuary pump should do the trick

[gvv]

I'm agree with mseguin.
From esthetically point of view moving water is great. As well it will be aerated, and if you will have water surface movement, mosquitoes will not lay so much eggs as they will do witout it.
Besides I just don't like the swamp view with standing water...

You may find a lot of different types of pumps for ponds and not only in LFS, but e.g. in Home Depot, CT, etc.

Regards

[mseguin]

It will definitely help with circulation around the plants roots

[beowulf]

Sounds logical enough.  I am going to look into it for sure and see what is pest to add.

[RedFish]

Although you already have the liner, I bought the liner and pump from SuperPet (Barrhaven) on a 50% sale.  It includes 3 fountain heads.  It was $60.

[kennyman]

Ron used to have some pictures of his barrel pond around here somewhere. There was a plant in it that I think he sold at one of the auctions. The thing must have been 4' tall   

Good luck with your barrel pond. One of the great things about them is the lack of dead frogs in the spring provided you empty it. I hate frog carcases.

[dan2x38]

Of course these are for goldfish? You could only put 1? Never heard of these way KEWL...

[beowulf]

Of course these are for goldfish? You could only put 1? Never heard of these way KEWL...

Goldfish get to big, going to use white clouds since they can take the temps better.

[babblefish1960]

A  nice live bearer such as swordtails would work throughout the summer too, they add a bit of colour splash, and suffer temperature changes well.

[beowulf]

A  nice live bearer such as swordtails would work throughout the summer too, they add a bit of colour splash, and suffer temperature changes well.

I had thought about that also....swords or guppies not sure yet....

[dan2x38]

wow that all sounds way cool... could you use mollys if you made it brackish?

[babblefish1960]

If you made it brackish, it would no longer be a pond, it would be an estuary, and mollies are perfectly fine in freshwater, it is a very adaptable fish, just not very colourful from above.

[Crumpet]

I will throw my vote behind the swords, I think they'd be really sharp -- nice splashes of colour you can see from above.  Or maybe platies?  They're nice and colourful, too.

[Sue]

I've had mollies outside in past years and they grew like crazy. Black ones show up surprisingly well, their babies are cute and reminded me of tadpoles.
As Babble said any will livebear work outside, just don't leave them outside much past early Sept.

White clouds will do great in your barrel and you'll be treated to 'poor man's neon' fry.  I put 5 adults in a 60 G pond this spring and there's a school of fry in there with them already. Gold WWMM are much more visible from above than regular colored ones.

[beowulf]

I guess ponds in general and even little ones like this do not require traditional water changes, right?  Just let the rain fill it up?

[rockgarden]

The plant that Kennyman referred to was a Royal Taro and it certainly did grow well.  I overwintered it for a couple of years but it didn't make it through last winter for some reason.

Gold white clouds are a better choice than the regular white clouds because you can see them better in the outdoor pond. I decided to put my Yellow Labs outside this year and only a couple didn't make the transition to the outdoors.  I had them indoors at 70 degrees for a month prior to the transfer so there wasn't any temperature shock but likely didn't take to well to the softer water outdoors but rest are doing fine.

Zebra Danios also have no problem being outdoors and are certainly active surface feeders.

Ron