At Bruce's request I am posting a Cecil Envy inspired project that I am documenting on the Inside Fish-Trout thread.
http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000013;p=2 This is my first time raising gamefish (indoor or outdoor) and my first pond-like experience. I dug a 1/10 acre pond this fall and instead of waiting for spring to purchase the fish, I decided to purchase them now and overwinter them inside.
I bought 100 3-5" perch and 25 5-7" Rainbow trout. I lost 10 trout right off the bat, because I underestimated their DO requirements. I rushed out at 10pm when I noticed them gasping at the surface and purchased the biggest air pump and airstone that Walmart had.
My homemade system includes 2 110 gallon tuff tub stock tanks (they had more surface area than rubbermaid), two air pumps, a 300 watt water heater, a shop light with 2 bulbs that are supposed to stimulate plant growth, and a bog filter.
Here is a post from the thread that describes the filtration:
I finished putting in a homemade bog filter last night and it really cleaned up the water. It is simple with water flowing through boxes of gravel that I will plant over the next week. The gravel holds waste-eating bacteria and traps particles in the water to improve water clarity. I am planning on using this type of filtration for my 1/10 acre pond.
Here is the system.
Pic of the hole spacing on bog pvc drain.
This is the filter half completed.
Filter draining into the trout tank.
You can see some of the perch by the pump. Before today I had to drain the water to see them.
Here is the whole rig. I had to use hardware fabric to filter the water coming in from the trout tank as there was too much FA coming in.
I also moved the submerisble aquarium heater placing it horizontal. When the perch crowd the bottom of the tank to get near the heater they dont touch it now, which I think killed about 8 perch since I put in the heater. No perch have died since I changed the heater orientation.
