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360 litre Heated Pond

DaveyG

Member
Joined
5 Mar 2014
Messages
41
Location
South
Hi all, I have now setup a new heated ‘mini’ Pond. My existing Pond which has been running for several years had a minor leak which I was unable to find/fix.
I decided to create a structure which utilised more of the space available to me so went for a timber frame construction with ‘faux’ brick panels. Capacity is now increased to approximately 360 litres up from the 300 litres of the original Pond.
Filtration is now provided by an internal Pond filter minimising heat loss during the cold months.
For heating I will be using the current 2 x 300W Titanium heaters running on separate temperature controllers (in case of failure) and a Seneye for monitoring the Pond.
Prior to moving the inhabitants across I ran the new internal filter for a few weeks in the original Pond.
The new Pond was filled to about 75% capacity and a heater and pump were added in order to get the Pond up to temperature and circulate the water.
Had fun transferring the inhabitants across. Fish were fairly straightforward to catch the shrimp however, were another matter. Had to partially dismantle the old structure in order to ‘drop’ the liner to retrieve them from all the nook’s and crannies.
Once the inhabitants, plants and decor were relocated the Pond was then topped up to running level.
I used boards joined with stainless steel plates to cover the liner. I did consider screwing them to the main carcass but left them ‘floating’ instead to avoid needing to puncture the liner with the screws.
I will need to create a frame to hold the clear plastic sheeting I use for insulating the Pond during the winter months. I have attached a few pictures of the construction and the completed structure.
outline.jpegcarcass.jpegcarcass2.jpeg20240625_113527.jpegwater surface.jpeg
 
Tried to take a couple of pics of the plants/inhabitants of the pond. As soon as I put the camera in they “swarmed” around it. Have to try a Video and take stills from that.
 

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Latest pics of the pond.
 

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Nice! Is the lily in the pictures one of the new hybrids from Thailand?

Do you run it the same temp in winter as summer? Or let it go cooler? Also, don't like to ask but have you worked out how much it costs to heat per year?
 
I have set the Pond temperature nominally to 23 C. From around May - October the heating will usually remain off. The temperature will climb to around 28 C on a sunny day depending on the ambient temperature. I must admit I haven’t worked out the heating costs. I know that during cold spells the heating (300 W) is on for around 5-6 hours per day. The pond is covered during the colder months with transparent thermal sheet. The lily is a Nymphea ‘Comanche’ apparently it’s a French Hybrid.
 
The lily is a Nymphea ‘Comanche’ apparently it’s a French Hybrid.
I know of Comanche but do not grow it - your waterlily looks similar, but more exotic than that. For comparison, the Comanche page at Latour-Marliac, (the French nursery that introduced it in 1908) which seems to have different shaped flowers with shorter/wider petals than yours. I don't know what you have but it is very lovely. Are the leaves with the maroon speckling from this plant? (I was assuming they were)

Interesting to hear the heating is only on for 5-6 hours per day in winter, you must have some good insulation in there - very inspiring!
 
There are 2 lily's in the Pond. The other is Nymphae Lotus. Both have maroon speckling on the leaves. The Lotus leaves are more “spear” shaped and the underside is veined (see pics).
There is 25mm of insulation on the internal surfaces of the structure plus the 75mm of wood aids towards insulation. I have also kept the filtration internal on this pond to aid with the prevention of heat loss.
 

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The recent cold spell we had prompted me to add a cover to the Pond. I used plastic trunking for construction rather than treated timber to prevent leaching of chemicals into the water and rot.
Added a pic of the cover and also a graph showing pond temperature prior to and after adding the cover. I've added the garden temperature to the graph for comparison purposes. The heating periods are clearly visible prior to the addition of the cover. Heating has not been on since its addition. Pond Temp.png20241003_082007.jpg
 
This looks great and an outdoor tropical pond is something I considered in the summer.
What type of insulation have you used?
 
It is very cool that you can grow a nymphaea lotus outdoors in the UK (I assume you are in UK, no location in profile). Does that ever flower?

Also I didn't see an overflow pipe in the pics. How are you managing the overflow when we have weather like it has been recently?
 
The nymphaea lotus is probably about 8 years old. It was originally in a planted 270 litre aquarium. I relocated it to my previous pond when I started keeping Tanganyikan Cichlids. It has flowered on occasions (see pic). Hopefully it will flower again in the new pond.
The pond does have an overflow. It’s a 25mm pipe which is partially obscured by the plastic trim and the liner.
Seems to be sufficient enough to prevent spillage over the top of the liner.IMG_1352.jpegIMG_1351.jpeg
 
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