MaddieLynn

Sometime, after we move, I'd like to set up a container pond. This might just be some wishful thinking, but I thought I'd go ahead and ask some things.

Here's what I'd plan to do:

Use a rubbermaid tub, put it in the corner of the porch before filling so that it had solid walls on 2 sides of the tub, and stack bricks on the other 2 sides, so that it would a) look nice and b) not warp. Now, here's my Q:

The biggest rubbermaid tub I've seen at our Wal-Mart is 50 gallons. I'd like something a bit bigger than this. Could I buy 2, cut 1 side off of each, and use aquarium silicone to seal them together? Or would this not be sturdy enough to hold in all the water?

gremlin

Couple of suggestions. Doing the two tubs, you may want to consider having one higher than the other with a spill way into the lower tub. The rubbermaid tubs (if I remember rightly) do not have perfectly straight sides. They taper in as they go down. I would use block all the way around with plastic or tarpaper to keep moisture from penetrating to the wall of the house. That way you could back fill between the tubs and the block with dirt and put plants around to help hide the edge of the tubs. You could set the higher tub on a couple of layers of block to raise it high enough to make a nice little waterfall into the lower tub. If you wanted to make it so fish could swim from one tub to the other, you may want to consider using a large diameter piece of PVC pipe to make a path from one to the other. I don't know that I would cut the whole side away since the sides aren't perfectly flat. With the pvc pipe, you could use the sealant to glue it into place in holes cut in the sides of the tubs. There is a foam spray/sealant that you can get (I think it is made by the company that makes Great Stuff Foam) that you could use to seal the outside of the pipe to the two tubs and to help make the spillway from the upper tub to the lower tub. If you have some nice flat rock, the sealant is supposed to be able to fasten rock together also and you could glue a nice flat rock in place for the spillway. If you left a bit of room between the pond and the wall, it would be a good place to have an external filter. You could use external grade plywood to build a little cabinet to hide the filter. There is paint that you can get that looks like stucco. Textured and everything. Seal the wood good inside and out and maybe even have a water feature sitting on it aimed into the top pond (like the spitting frog or the goldfish/koi that spits water). If you really wanted to get adventurous, you could even do several tubs in a row - one spilling over into another - and have the effect of a river running across one end of your porch. That would be cool.

MaddieLynn

I'd want to keep a couple of goldfish in there, so that's the reason I want bigger than 50 gallons.

I'm not really getting what you're saying about the waterfall - what would keep the water moving? And wouldn't the water spill out of the lower tub?

sirdarksol

Good advice, Gremlin.

Someone around here has put together a pond from cedar 4x4s and 2x4s, I think. It would take a bit of work, but I think it would be less work than trying to seal two tubs together, if you still want one big pond. You just put it together and then seal it with something like pond liner, and you're good.

TedsTank

Go to a Farm Supply store...they have all size water containers or...make a nice pond on the deck. Use treated 2x4s or 4x4's. Build it log cabin stype and get a rubber pond liner and u good to go....and a Pump & FILTER...just like an aquarium but you look in the top. Select fish with best color or patterns on their tops.....have fun..is really rewarding.

gremlin

You would have the pump in the bottom part of the pond pumping water up through the filter to the top part of the tub. I wish I could draw pictures on here...grrrr.

I actually think a pond liner or even a preformed pond would work better than the rubbermaid tubs. I have a preformed pond that my Mom and I built a wall around and back filled with dirt so I could put plants around. I have an external pressure filter on it and the water goes back into the pond via two separate waterfalls. It is about 180 gallons (roughly) and I have anywhere from 10 - 20 goldies in there. I haven't counted for a while and unfortunately I occasionally lose one to the cats that roam the neighborhood. I have two itty bitty baby ones that a friend gave me. They were given to her 3 year old child by a person who (in my opinion) didn't know what they were doing. They were in a little martinelli's apple juice bottle (the ones that are the same size and shape as an apple) with half a dozen blue glass stones and a piece of a plastic plant - and the TWO goldfish. Anyway, the Mom was smart enough to know that she couldn't deal with them and brought them to me. Okay, back to the pond thing. Here is a pic of mine so you can see kind of how a preformed can look on the front porch. The rock on the front of the house used to be a waterfall into the old cement pond until it started to leak into the house. Now it is just there to look good as the background for my pond.

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Butterfly

Most Rubbermaid tubs are really flexible when full of water, so cutting and joining two would be risky. How about stacking one higher than the other and cutting a hole under the handle and make a spout. Then put a pump in the bottom one and pump water to the top one. This way you could circulate water from one to the other one and still have two goldfish Kind of what I did with these tubs. They were cow feed containers

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midnightwolf

you could comfortably fit 3 or maybe even 4 goldfish in 50g.

MaddieLynn

Not if I'm doing a "natural" container pond - meaning heavily planted and no filter. MissMTS has one like that. I guess I could just do a 50 gallon with 1 or 2 goldfish - she has 2 in her 55.

I am kinda liking the idea of a wooden structure - but keep in mind that if I can do this, it won't be until we move, and even then I don't know if I can actually do it!

CatladyDane

Just saw this post. I failed trying to make water gardens in small containers. Then I decided to get a "kiddie pool" - one of those stiff plastic ones - to try a small (fishless) pond. It worked! I've had a pond for at least 3 years now. They're shallow - you can get a small one at PetSmart or a larger one at K-Mart. And at Farm City (feed store) they have even deeper troughs & buckets for watering horses. So there is a variety of containers available, most of which seem to be less expensive than those designed as ponds, if you look around. The "doggie pool" isnt' deep enough for water lilies, but I have shallow water plants (in net planters) thriving - a horsetail rush & a dwarf papyrus. I use Mosquito Bits or Dunks until the frogs provide a supply of tadpoles, so there's never a mosquito problem. Be creative! Experiment and have fun! If you don't overspend you can always make changes. Good luck.