New Here! and Saltwater Ponds?

[daisies_for_darby]

Hello everyone,

I'm awful at introductions, but I finally got around to looking more into the tempting world of saltwater, and the pool seems deep!

 

I've always been interested in the idea of setting up a reef tank, but life has a way of filling in the cracks of my free time with other things. But as summer draws near, I see a lot of people outside in their yards gardening, and more curious, I see a few tending to their ponds. Some people I know even keep freshwater tropical fish in their ponds for the summer which I think is neat. A pond full of discus and tetras is quite the yard decoration, especially in the more temperate climate where I live.

 

That got me thinking, has anyone ever had a saltwater pond? A quick search on the web suggested yes, but aside from the occasional billionaire in a more tropical setting, and a few youtube yahoos trying to impress their viewers with sharks and stingrays in their garage, I haven't seen any casual reefers with an outdoor saltwater pond? or maybe I just haven't searched hard enough in the depths of online forums? 

 

Either way, the idea persists in my head. I guess if you can keep temperatures steady and water parameters including salinity stable it should be successful, right? Besides, is there anything better (or cheaper) than the sun to power coral growth?

 

I would be much obliged if anyone who has dabbled in salty ponds or sunlit reef tanks shared their experience or ideas! 

[seabass]

to Nano-Reef.com.  Sounds like a really neat project!

 

2 hours ago, daisies_for_darby said:

I guess if you can keep temperatures steady and water parameters including salinity stable it should be successful, right?

Pretty much.  You'd probably need some way to prevent rain from affecting the salinity.  A lean to with a transparent roof might work (would keep electric cords dry too).

 

These ponds are pretty neat: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/421335-my-9to5-reef-pond/

 

Or you could go with a small greenhouse or sun room.  There have been a few coral farms in greenhouses.  Over heating might be as big of an issue as keeping it warm.  There are fans and/or chillers which might help.

[daisies_for_darby]

Yes I was looking at something like that!

I was thinking maybe a piece of polycarbonate as a lid of sorts? If I have some time I might run over to Lowes tonight and see what they have.

[Squid_reef]

Welcome! 
Sounds insane, love it. 

You are refering to an outside pond, right? 😁 
I wonder how much of the challenge it would be to have a setup that can be trigger to live weather data.
Where about do you live (if you don't mind me asking)? 



 

[daisies_for_darby]

On 6/16/2022 at 9:46 AM, Squid_reef said:

Welcome! 
Sounds insane, love it. 

You are refering to an outside pond, right? 😁 
I wonder how much of the challenge it would be to have a setup that can be trigger to live weather data.
Where about do you live (if you don't mind me asking)? 
 

Thank you. 

Yes, an outdoor pond was what I was looking into. I am currently in the Western part of the US. 

I was thinking that temperatures would be stable enough? but these past few weeks have really been up and down. Lows of around 50f in the mornings and highs around 100f in the afternoons. It has me questioning how to keep a pond at 78f.... Maybe a larger body of water would help with stability? If I'm being honest, I have turned my efforts to some other reef related projects that I hope to share here soon. Maybe when my life is a little more boring I'll try setting up a pond outside 🙂 

[FishBrawler]

Like 15 years ago there used to be some pretty awesome saltwater ponds (I think in Thailand) that had forums on Reef Central, but I can't really find the forums anymore. I think a lot of the forum page owners closed the pages because they were getting too many messages.

 

Here is an older 2000 outdoor pond though: 

 

[lakshwadeep]

Temperature would be the hardest challenge as tropical reef life are used to stability. I'm thinking temperate tide pool creatures may be more suitable if you live near the West coast. Seabass is right that salinity is also an issue (much easier to compensate for high salinity - evaporation - than too much rainwater). There are many examples of people having large tanks and pools with skylights. I think that 2000 gallon tank above is something similar since description says based in Beijing.