Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have searched and must have missed the topics on setting up a system using an old pond. Mainly I wondered if there is a problem with using an outdoor pond due to algae or other known issues.

My family has a very large plot of land located adjacent to a giant lake and we have an old pond our cow pasture I want to use. After thinking about my options it seems a system could be made with a pump placed on something under water to keep it from taking dirt. The pond is pretty much a circle around 40 ft(13m) across and about 3 ft deep in the middle. We used to rent the pasture to a cattle rancher and after we took the pasture back there is a giant hay shed I am thinking to make into a greenhouse. The potential is there to make a big commercial system for very little $$.

I would test the water quality and go from there. The PH may be off the charts if there has been a bunch of animal and plant waste in there. Seems like there shouldn't be a problem as long as there is not a bunch of bad bacteria in the water. I would definately make sure the pump is nowhere near the bottom of the pond, maybe have it hanging about 2 feet under some sort of floating raft.

Great! Welcome to the outdoor fish pond fan club!

Algae - if you know how to control the algae, yes algae is good. Some fish love and feed on algae.
Greenhouse out of giant hay shed - brilliant idea. How big is this?
Big commercial system for very little $ - yes you can!

Good luck with your efforts.

Got a garden pond myself which we have had for many years. I just put a pump in it and pumped to a half ibc growbed which then drains back to the pond, simples

Algae is an issue if you feed a lot or in my case have a leaf dropping tree over the bed and don't clean out the leaves. In short if the pond has sunlight and an ammonia source you will get algae

Interesting. Mantis, do you have fish in them? Koi?

I have a pretty large backyard koi pond I built at my mother in laws house that I have been itching to put some growbeds around. She seems to be game so I guess it's time to start collecting parts.

+1 this. It is actually a very simple and very natural idea. So, go for it. Best of luck!

Yes 6 or so largish goldfish , lots of mosquito fish (pest) and a few of yabbies

Okay I finally got my master test kit and took the trip to the pond and my results are as follows:

PH: 6.4
High Range PH: 7.5
Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate:0 ppm


The low PH and zero ppm for both nitrates and nitrates makes me think there is no aquatic life though there clearly are frogs and turtles. The pond is surrounded by trees I will have to cut down and the surface is green with duck weed.

The hay barn is a large steel structure assembled with bolts mainly and it is about 20 ft by 12 ft with a roof over 16 ft high. My intentions are to take it in half to double the number of supports and probably extend the rafters to make it 20 by 30 or so.
Using my tape measure the pond is roughly 60 ft by 90 ft and averages out around 1.5 ft deep. At near 8000 cubic ft the tank holds about 60,000 gallons or 229,000 litres.

I suppose the best thing to do at this point is to add a few dozen bluegills to the pond to get the nitrates up. I was thinking to make a large mushroom filter to remove solids before pumping through pvc grow pipes.

Does the pond freeze in the winter? 1.5 feet doesn't sound very deep. Find out how deep the frost line is where you are.

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The pond is in southeast Texas, I wouldn't expect to ever get more then maybe 1/4 inch of ice on a record freezing year. I really want to dig the pond out to maybe 10 ft deep in the middle, but I know that might ruin a good pond as well.

Those numbers look pretty good for an outdoor dirt bottom pond! Does the pond ever dry completely out? I know I see some in north Texas that get stone dry in summer.

Are you talking about using the pond as your fish tank? Or just as the water source? I dont think that using a pond as a fish tank will work because you will have a hard time getting nutrient levels up. They will be too diluted for good plant growth.



Brian

I don't think the pond has ever dried out, and without the 18 black angus beefmasters drinking from it the water level will be even more stable as of close to a year ago.

My plan in this tank was to put aerators in and stock with bluegill panfish. Bluegills lay up to 100,000 eggs per spawn, so with proper feed and aeration I should be able to have a dense population by midsummer next year. Reading up on bluegill on wikipedia I learned that bluegill are often considered a pest fish in several locations because they will quickly infest the waters with overpopulation... they sound like a winner to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegill

I just realized from a post on here: " Massacre" in |(Fish) that if there were fish in here they wouldn't survive due to the steel T-posts holding a barbed wire fence across the pond. Before adding fish tomorrow I must pull all of the T-posts and make sure there is no wire in the water.

The jury is still out on my Massacre post. Some say the screw could have caused it and others say it was temperature fluctuations.