To build an indoor pond had been a long time dream of mine.
I call it a dream because it was not something that my better half would have approved
under normal circumstances. Also, our house was not so big as to hold a real
nice little pond (like a few I saw when doing some research on indoor ponds). However,
I did have a nice sized basement, though already packed with game and gym apparatus,
it still had enough room. I spent days wondering if this would be a good idea.
One of my primary objectives was to build something to transfer my two Japanese
Kois. They had been with me for about six years in a 135 gallon aquarium and
were getting too big for it. I had two choices - to build a pond in my backyard
or to build something indoor. The third option presented to me by my better
half was by far the worst – to get rid of the fishes. No way! They had become
like my children and I wasn’t about to let them go.
The choice that looked the best initially was definitely
building a small 1000 gallon pond in my backyard. I had a relatively small
backyard but yet big enough to create a 1000 gallon pond. The problems were two
fold. First of all, I needed a way to tackle the freezing winter. Secondly, I
would need a special setup for the pump and filter. It was possible to solve
both but not very cheaply. After thinking hard I decided to move out of this
option and go for a simpler and cheaper indoor pond option. That way I won’t
have to worry about having an electric line in my backyard and spend extra
electricity to keep the pond going in the winter (for gas exchange a small
passage needs to be present all time).
After careful consideration I chose a corner in my basement
that was holding an air hockey table. Kids sometimes played it so I needed to
find a new place for it. That was easy.
However, there were multiple other important factors that I
needed to consider.
- How
big the pond should be?
- Would the
basement be able to handle the huge load that the pond would put?
- What
kind of pump and filter do I need?
- What
about humidity?
- How
costly was it going to be?
- And
finally, exactly how to build it?
One of the common criteria for all my projects had always
been to keep it low cost. My better half almost always categorized my projects
as ridiculous. The only way to pacify her was to keep them easy on the wallet. This
had not been easy over the years. Cheap solutions do not always work better and
often not very pleasing to the eyes. But as long as the purpose served I was
okay with it.
If you are interested in doing something like this then
please pay good attention to all the details from here. I’ll answer each of the
questions stated above one by one.
- How
big the pond should be?
- I
was aiming for a 500-600 gallon pond. The corner that I was targeting was
8 feet long and 4 feet in width. I settled for a size of 8 feet by 5 feet
and 2.5 feet in depth. With 2 feet of water the total volume would
roughly be 600 gallon, give or take.
- Would the
basement be able to handle the huge load that the pond would put?
- Basements
are usually built on a well drained bed of gravel or crushed stone by
pouring concrete. It
should be able to handle large amount of load. In my case the calculation
came up to be ~6000 pounds on a 40 sft area; 150 pounds per sft; little
over 1 pound per 1 square inch. This is really not much of a load. [Every
situation can be different. So, please take due diligence to ensure that
the load can be bore by your floor. It is probably a good idea to do a
strength test on the floor if you are in doubt. I would not suggest building
a pond on any other floor than the basement though]
- What
kind of pump and filter do I need?
- There
are many types of pump and filter. I settled for something that would
turn the water at least once an hour. I assumed I’ll have only my two
Kois (9 years and 6 years old) and some gold fishes. That kind of
filtering and water movement should be just fine. I spent about $300 on
both.
- What
about humidity?
- This
is where I really got bogged. I read and read. Put my hygrometer (humidity
measuring instrument) in the basement for several days to find out the
average humidity (this will vary based on season being high in summer and
low in winter).
- I
assumed that the pond would increase the humidity by additional 10-20% based on how much water movement was in
place and started to inquire what kind of negative impact that may have
on the house. The findings were obviously not very encouraging. So, I
decided to buy a dehumidifier. Extra cost but had little other choice.
Another thing that I also considered was what could be the impact on the
section of the first floor right above the pond. Over time the extra
humidity can damage the hardwood floor. Fortunately for me I did not have
hardwood floor on that specific part. Nevertheless I made a mental note
to regularly check after the pond is built for any impact.
- And
finally, exactly how was I going to build it?
- Okay,
now the main part. How to build one? I saw several ways people did it.
One of the most popular ways is to use wooden structure. However, water
is very heavy and unless built properly the structure could fail over
time. So I needed a good, solid design.
- I
know little about woodwork. I continued to look into the web and finally
found something that I could work with. This is how I did it. You can try
various variations of this but this would work fine. I do not have the
original design as I did it almost a year ago but this is something that
is fairly close.
- Once
the framework was completed I used carpet and cloths at the bottom and
specially at the corners before laying down the pond liner. After this
the rest was really about filling it up, putting in the pump and filter
and cover the open parts of the frame with nicer looking stuff (you can
get pretty creative in this part). I did not care a whole lot about the
look but if you don’t mind spending some more you can do all kind of
stuff.
Use 6x6 s for the four corner stands; connect them with 2x3 lumbers (pink). There is no one way of doing this . Just make sure the frame is very sturdy and doesn't move if you shove it lightly. In the outer side and inner side use strong, thick plywood (brown). The blue section is the part where you would put water in after laying off the pond liner.
I built it all alone from scratch in my basement over next 2
to 3 weeks after work. Bought whatever I needed. At the end things came out to
be just fine. I wish I had taken some pictures but as always it is always an after
thought. Here is the finished product.
So, I have the pond for more than a year. Everything seems
to be going great. Couple of issues that I noticed:
- Humidity:
It is not a problem in winter but in summer if I do not use the
dehumidifier the humidity goes as high as 80% in the basement.
- Good
water movement in the pond is a must otherwise algae starts to form on the
inside walls of the pond. I use only a 30 watt florescent light for 5-6
hours at night. No direct sunlight reaches the pond.
