Urban Pond - Tubbin' Water Gardens

[John N.]

Please discuss and/or comment on Liz Marchio's article, Urban Pond-Tubbin' Water Gardens here.



-John N.

[susankat]

Great article. I really enjoyed it as I keep a few ponds also.

[Liz_M]

Great to hear, susankat! I'm glad you enjoyed the article.

[Liz_M]

Also, feel free to post your outdoor adventures! I'd love to see what kinds of plants people choose to grow.

I will also be offering Montezuma swordtails in the selling forum this week which are perfect tubbin' fish! Keep your peepers peeled.

[susankat]

I'll get some pics up soon, I've been keeping endlers in the 90 gal, but have 2 25 gal tubs to set up today and not sure what kind of fish I want to put in them.

[Roy Deki]

Great article Liz...Boy maybe I could turn my swimming pool to a pond. I think my daughter and wife would kill me though. I just might have to try an outdoor tub here in Arizona.

[John N.]

It's funny when I was reading this article, I had no idea what tubbin was. It really is tubbin! Get a rubbermaid bin, add some water water and a few plants. Bam! You got yourself a urban water garden! To me that's funny, and so ingeniously simple!

Are fertilizers required to keep the plants healthy, and also besides topping off the tub, should we do water changes if we have fish?

-John N.

[susankat]

Water changes are done on mine on a need to basis, depending on what kind of plants I have in the tub. Here is a pic of my 90 gal that I rarely do water changes on. This has been set up now for about 2 weeks. Once I move into my own house it will be put into the ground.

[Orlando]

I would like to have a pond. But the fear of a massive mosquito outbreak here at the house (Florida) would kill. They get so big here, I heard a little kid got carted off

[Wingsdlc]

Below is a picture of my tub I started this year at my apartment. The picture is of the tub right after set up. Needless to say it has gone through some changes. Here are some of the changes:

~The Calla Lily lost most of it's leaves but is not growing back with much smaller leaves.

~I have had some issues with my stem plants. The rotala has done alright but the star grass melted away.

~The pot with the star grass was replaced with a dwarf lily and an apongeton. Both of which are putting leaves to the surface.

~I was having some algae and temperature issues so I added some water lettuce which quickly took over the surface of the tub.

As for fish, I started with mollies but I added them way too soon while the temperature was swing too far.

I replaced the mollies with paradise fish which spawned a week or so after I placed them in the tub. They also took care of the large mosquito larvae population I was getting in the tub.





One last picture of the rotala starting to break the surface.

[Liz_M]

Nice photos guys.

I bet mollies didn't appreciate the temperature swings, I agree. They also would probably like an ecosystem that maintained a higher pH. Usually in too low a temp or too low a pH they get "the shimmies". Check it out next time you hit up a big aquarium store. When they first get mollies in they 'shimmy' alot. Nothing a few good water changes with tap wouldn't help.

Keep the pics coming! If you've posted some already, update us on the growth! That's the best part of tubbin'!

[Wingsdlc]

Here is an updated picture. I have lots of baby paradise fish!