Tomorrow morning, I am picking up a used 20 gallon and accessories. The 20 gallon is going to house my Convict. The 29 gallon that both the Convict and the Firemouth are in now will go to the Firemouth and the Swordtails that are in with him now. Fred, my Firemouth is getting to a size where he needs a bigger tank and my Convict is such a bully that I cannot risk him with any other fish. They are in a divided tank as it is.

The twist is that the guy I am buying the tank from has two Goldfish to toss in as part of the deal. They are currently residing in a large pot. :( Naturally, I was distressed to hear this, since he also says they are doing "just ok".

Coldwater fish are not what I am set up for, let alone any more large fish, since these guys are 5 inches each and bound to get much larger. There is an idea I have been kicking around for some time, but figured it might be too much to ask my partner here to go along with. Turns out it's not a problem after all. :)

I have an oval fiberglass tub in a master bath that is going to waste, as I prefer showers. The idea I have been kicking around is an indoor pond. Since I will have these two Goldfish, I figure I can put them in the oval tub, which will be transformed into an indoor pond with plants, rock trim and all.

There are more details that I have thought through, but I really don't want to get too excited until I see the condition these fish are in. I want them to get healthy first off, before I go into any further planning or spend time and money on something I might not otherwise consider doing, at least at this point in time.

When I get the fish home tomorrow, I will keep them in an extra large Rubbermaid cooler (lid up) and keep water movement and filtering in progress. I figure they must at least be in room temperature water, being in a pot, but I will know more about that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, they will stay in the cooler quarantine where I can keep an eye on them and medicate them if necessary. No sense in filling up the big tub, if they're not gonna make it or they need meds. Dosing will be easier in a smaller container anyway, not to mention quick cycling with water from my other tanks will go better in the cooler than the huge tub.

Well, that's as far as it goes for now. Again, I will know more when I get them home tomorrow. Meanwhile, the 20 gallon and accessories need some clean up, so that will keep me busy for a bit before I start setting it up. All I will need to do is maybe pick up some extra gravel. I will keep ya'll posted. Maybe I can get a pond photo project going here on the forum.

Very nice. What kind of goldfishes are we talking about here? Comet, the fat chubby ones? A pond for the goldfishes would look nice.

I got them home in one piece and finally got a good look at them this evening. They are both Comets. One is all silver white with a small orange spot on his head and the other is orange on top and white silver on the bottom. They both seem surprisingly healthy, considering the soup pot tank they were in for a time. This evening they are quite active and have eaten a couple of times since I got them acclimated.

So... any thoughts on the process for setting up the bathtub pond? I have some heavy black plastic landscape sheeting to put in first and I want to put down a thin layer of river pebbles to start and I've been checking out some DIY pond filter articles.

This summer, I can paint the tub with non-toxic fiberglass paint when I can open up the house, but for the winter with the house closed up, the liner will do. I am concerned about mildew or mold under the liner with moisture that might build up between the liner and the tub. Not sure if that is really a concern though.

Sounds like a great project. Can't wait to see some pictures! How big is your tub? It might benefit you to buy a small pond liner and cut it to fit just so you don't destroy the tub in the process. You never know... you may want to sell your house down the road and sometimes a big tub is a hot item.

Sounds like an awesome idea though. I bet you can't wait to see your visitors faces, lol. :lol:

Sounds like a good idea and should be fun to set up. I don't have any experience with setting up ponds so I'm afraid I won't be too much help but I will offer some suggestions. Maybe you could adhere the liner to the tub which will prevent any moisture from getting between the liner and tub. For filtering the pond a large canister or pond filter should work well. Placing some live plants that would do well in a pond would look nice.

Good luck with the project and be sure to keep us updated. :)

The basin area of the tub is 5' x 3 ' and there is a edge around of varying width. Today, I stopped at the local Home Depot and purchased some slate tile to break up and place around the edge. I stopped by the paint department and picked up some arch shaped sponges to make bumpy areas around the pond bottom. I can cover these with liner, seal them in and they should be ok. Just trying to make places for the fish to swim "around".



The first thing I did was caulk the drain plug in place. Why you ask? Yes it would be handy to pop in the plug and keep it available for quick removal, but on the other hand, I can always release it with a little work, if need be. I would rather do that than come home some day and find my fish flopping in the liner because of a slow leak. :o



Mazza, I decided on the heavy plastic liner and for now, and against painting. I am always struggling with, "what if I sell" and "I can finally do what I want", as opposed to living in a rental. I would have loved to get one of those 110 gallon oval Tuff Tubs to just drop in, but I'm trying to keep expenses down right now. That would set me back around $85. :blink:

PB, we are thinking alike! Took me longer to come up with the solution than you did, I bet. However, being the caulking queen that I am, I will seal the edge of the liner to the tub with some nice silicone caulk. :lol: ...That is, after I make sure I have enough slack for filling! :rolleyes:



[edit] Forgot to mention I picked up a couple of bags of 1 inch river pebbles yesterday. I want to keep the weight down, so a thin coverage to start. I will probably have to fill in once I get things set up.

Well, I got a pretty good start today....

I cut out of block of sponge and cut an X into the bottom. This allowed it to fit over the pull knob of the drain plug. Don't want that thing causing a pressure point in the liner once the water is in.



After, I put the liner in temporarily and taped it off with masking tape to get the positioning and slack correct before I sealed the edge of the liner to the tub.



Next, I put in enough rock to outline the bottom of the tub and adjusted the liner.

I put in the remaining rock and adjusted the liner again.



The next step is where it all went wrong. I began putting water in the tub via the faucet. I wanted to get the next adjustment complete before trimming off the liner. Because I do not use this tub, I was unaware that the spigot leaks at the base and into the tub... when I turned on the faucet, it leaked water between the liner and the tub... grrr. :mad: Of course, I did not notice this, since I had the liner pulled up to the bottom of the spigot temporarily, while I made adjustments to the liner. :rolleyes:

I was standing in the tub and pulled out an edge of the liner that I had folder in until I was sure of where to trim it off at the top of the tub. That's when I noticed the end I pulled out was wet, though it was sandwiched in between the liner and the tub. I pulled the liner away from the tub and saw that there was quite a bit of water. :o

So, out came the rock, out came the liner, out came the sponge and out came the drain plug. I have it all wiped dry now, but am waiting again for the caulk to dry around the drain plug. deja vu?

Just glad I found it before I sealed up the liner. Later I'd be wondering... what is that smell?? Ah well, at least I got to play in the water today. Tomorrow is a fresh start. :)

Coming along great. I'm not sure if you mentioned this but how much water does the tub hold?

Thanks, PB. The tub, going by dimensions, is approximately 135 gallons. Sure looks smaller with the liner in.

When I had the liner hanging up to dry while the caulk on the drain plug dried, I noticed that the plastic is not as heavy duty as it seemed. There were several holes made from the stones shifting on the bottom. So it is back to linerless for the time being.

Oh, and I might add a tip here... be sure the 100% silicone is not the type that is mildew resistant. 'Course you knew that. Ah well, I picked up my trusty tube of aquarium safe caulk after I painstakingly scraped off the wrong type of silicone. I was gonna use it for the liner, but I used it on the drain plug in error. Man, that stuff is hard to get off!!! :blink:

Here is what I ended up doing last weekend, which turned out to br a semblance of a pond:

Linerless



Surprisingly, I am keeping good temp and other water parameters with a single heater at 69 or 70 degrees, and an in-tank corner filter with sponge.



I placed a tank hood in the corner for light. It looks really cool at night. I will post a pic later. There is a small air pump behind the plant for the corner filter.



A long shot with some house plants and slate for trimming out. I would like to paint an outdoor sky scene on the mirror glass in the background.



I placed some slate over the gravel, added a few things from the fish tank and some other odds and ends to give the fish something to swim through and around and added a few plants from my other tanks. You can see the two Goldfish following eachother through the brick/slate house on the right.



[edit] Nightime

The pond is really coming along nicely. It looks great. :)

Are you planning on adding any more live plants to the pond?

Thank you. Yes, more live plants will be great. More of those and less of the pipes laying around. The stores have been a little light with plants lately. Time of year I guess. I started checking out some of the web sites for cold water plants this week. Any suggestions?

Wow fishyfry. The tank is coming along really great. I loved how it is set-up. WTG m8. What kind of fish are you planning on putting in there?

Thank you. Just the two Goldfish so far. Thinking about a Bristlenose like Bartier has, but I'm concerned that the Goldfish would always beat him to the food. Greedy little buggers. :) They seem to enjoy themselves in their new home.

Thats nice to hear. It would really be nice if there were some pleco in there. It would be kool if you kept some cichlid or some cool fishes in there.

What other fish do you think I could put with the Goldfish? The Cichlids might be a bit much for the fins on these guys. Don't really know. What do you think?

The tub is about 70 degrees all the time. Having a bit of a nitrite spike at the moment, but I'm working on that.

So this is an indoor pond... nice! Why were you putting in the liner again? It would seem easier to just get a darker substrate and live with the white sides. Just my thought. I like the whole idea, the only thing I'm not so sure about, is where you should stop. I would be tempted to put in a waterfall. Anyway, it's looking great so far!

Thank you, Sergeant Major. I was putting in a liner primarily to protect the surface of the tub and to take the glare off the sides for the fish. I can cut the white with plants though, as far as that goes. I'd love to take a fish-eye view below the water's surface to see what it's like so far. A waterfall is nice. I was also giving thought to a mini fountain in the middle just now. That seems nice too.

Wow nice, A waterfall would look really nice on it. If its a pond then cichlids wont really do any good in it. Try some plecos and some coldwater fish. :) I'll find any more information i can later.

Yesterday I found another hood light I was not using, so added it to the lighting scheme, removed the air pump and in-tank filter and condensed the powerhead and heater to one area. Last night I tried my hand at building a concealment box around the powerhead and heater, but ended up deciding it just drew more attention to the area, so I will not use it.

I investigated the use of a sump and gave some thought to an internal filter box, but it really is not necessary. I have it down to a minimum with the heater and the powerhead with a sponge filter attached. It was interesting learning about sumps, standpipes and overflow boxes though. The powerhead delivers a nice little current as well, so I have backed off the idea of a waterfall or mini spray foutain. Noise and mist were the key factors in that decision.

I have one area left to address and that is to disguise the faucet area to look more like an outdoor solution. I looked at different possibilities including an old fashion water pump. Those things are not cheap. I have an inexpensive solution in mind and will pick up the last two pieces next week. Quick, easy and cheap. I'll post a pic later.

Last week I picked up a piece of driftwood and replaced the pieces of PVC that were around the middle area. The fishes weren't using them much at all and the driftwood looks much better. Here is a pic of the driftwood and I added a pic of the fishes as well.



The little buggers are quite accustomed to me hanging around and come right up to me when I approach the tub (I know, they're thinking about food). The orange one was in rapt attention while I was putting the concealment box together last night and even swam inside. The white one finally couldn't stand it any longer and came over to see what was going on too.

OK, last shots. I disguised the faucet with some PVC and a piece of flexible gutter downspout. I will add plants to the water from time to time, but other than that, this project is finished! :D

Wow, FF. all i can say is that that is beautiful. Its coming along real nicely.

What fish are in there?

I have two Comet Goldfish in there. They are both around 5 inches. One is half orange and half white. The other is all white, except for an orange dot on his head.

It looks very nice. :)

Just found out tonight while doing some reading that the Goldies I have are Sarasa Comets. These puppies grow to be about a foot long!