8'x8' Above Ground Pond in Austin, TX (I'm a Beginner)...

[Punju]

Hello all...

I'm a beginner to all of this, so please bare with me...

I will give a little background about my situation so that people can fully understand what I'm trying to do, and then maybe can help me easiest.

I live in Austin, TX, and own a business there (for those that are curious, it is a smoking lounge where people smoke Hookah, a waterpipe that one smokes flavored tobacco out of). I recently had an 1100 sq ft deck built, and would like to add a little "flavor" to the center of it. At night there is 25 watt overhead string lights that illuminate the area quite nicely.

Today, I visited my local Home Depot and saw a constructed, above ground pond made out of landscape lumber. It used "pond liner" to keep the water contained. It had no fish in it, however, did have miscellaneous plant life. It was approximately 8 feet by 4 feet -- standing about 2 feet tall.

I would like to construct a similar pond, with the only changes being that it would be an 8 foot by 8 foot pond and would have fish.

Now as many of you may know, Austin, Texas is a warm climate region with the worst temperatures in the Winter time reaching maybe 29F for 1 night at the 5am hour and quickly rising back up to the mid 40s during the day.

Are the any suggestions, pros/cons, or other advice anyone can give? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am getting a little free time this weekend, and I thought it would be a great project.

Some questions that I can think of off the top of my head that would help being addressed are:

1) How soon can fish be introduced?
2) I read the article (sticky) about the plant life, but more accurate suggestions to which plant life I should keep considering size and climate.
3) Austin summers can be quite muggy filled with mosquitos, any suggestions with this?
4) Honestly, what do I stand to deal with, with the coming winter season?

Thank you all for your time, patience, and help.

Sincerely,
Ravi

[Punju]

I forgot to mention...

The pond at the Home Depot did also have a small fountain in the center of it. I would also be adding this to the pond I will be constructing.

Thanks.

[SquishyFish]

I live in Tx too and you are actually in the ideal climate for keeping a pond. I know people in Canada that keep ponds, and quite successfully. My suggestions on the first thing to ask yourself would be...

1. How big do I want the pond to be. Remember that ponds are 3 dimensional. Go deeper than you think you want too...The one thing we all have in common is that we all wish we had dug our first one deeper!

2. The depth of the pond will determine how big of a pump and filter you will need.

3. Decide if you want koi or plants. You cant really have both. Well...you can, but thats kinda like keeping the cow in the garden. You can do it...but its asking for problems. You can have goldfish and shubunkins with plants, but not koi.

4. Pond liner or preformed? If you go with a 45 mil pond liner, you can install a skimmer or a bottom drain that will go a long way in keeping the pond clean.

Now..your questions...

1) How soon can fish be introduced?
---Depends on if you use dechlor or not. If you dont...wait at least a week. If you do...with in a few hours. Add them slow though...a fish or two per week.

2) I read the article (sticky) about the plant life, but more accurate suggestions to which plant life I should keep considering size and climate.

You can keep just about all of them...

3) Austin summers can be quite muggy filled with mosquitos, any suggestions with this?
--There are fish called Mosquito fish...they are voracious 'skeeter eaters! They usually run about .75 each.

4) Honestly, what do I stand to deal with, with the coming winter season?

Not much. As long as your pond is over 25 inches deep, and I reccomend alot deeper than that, you will be fine.

[Punju]

Thank you so much for the quick response and detailed answer. I do have a few more questions for you (or anyone for that matter).

As I stated earlier...I am planning on doing this pond on my deck. It is a fenced off area that is 45 feet by 25 feet. It is VERY high quality -- so high quality, I could easily park a car on it. The beams that support the deck are 5 feet apart and 18 inches into the ground.

Now...I didn't realize until I did a little math last night, that in an 8'x8'x2' pond, there is approximately 957 [acronym:cb95e97a6b="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:cb95e97a6b] of water, which if my math is further correct is around 8000 lbs of water. Dispursed over 64 sq. ft. (the area of the pond on the deck), that is roughly 125 lbs. per sq. ft.

Ideally my deck can support this, or at least in theory. Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

Thanks.

[SquishyFish]

How far is it from the ground to the deck? You could always open the deck up, back fill and line the hole. That would give you the depth you need and negate the weight factor.

[RogerMcAllen]

The hole idea seems fairly good, but if there is more headroom under there perhaps you could pour some more footings and run some beams perpendicular to the joists underneath the pond. I am sure your local contractor would be able to help with that.

I slightly disagree with the winter part. Since the pond is all above ground, you will get none of the benefits of depth when it comes to winerting the pond. Your best bet would probably to insulate around the sides. A lot of people use old carpet padding as an underliner, and this should also serve the same purpose. That said, it still takes a lot to lower the temp of 1,000 gallons of water.

[SquishyFish]

He's right...above ground, you wont have any insulation.

[Punju]

The deck is level, but built on a slight decline -- from end to end it ranges from 1 foot to 1.5 feet in height off the ground.

Now, I JUST had this deck built, in August. I'd prefer not to tear it up already and deconstruct it to redo an in ground pond. I can live without the pond, although I really don't want to have to. That is why I thought of the above ground pond.

If I really need to insulate it, I guess I could, but I also agree...at least my thoughts are again, in theory, but I think that in Texas 957 [acronym:b8bd06fdf6="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:b8bd06fdf6] of water would take some time to freeze. However, through all of your careful guidence, I can surely put some carpet padding in between the lumber wall of the pond and the pond liner.

But just a last, straight-forward question...everyone feels that it WOULD be safe to put it ON the deck, as stated previously?

[RogerMcAllen]

That would require some prints. What is the superstructure made from? How far are the supports from where you want to put the pond?

Your best bet would be to call up the guy who did the deck and see if he would still guarantee his deck if you were to put that kind of weight on it.

[bwayne400]

Sorry this is so late but I just joined the forums. I've had that exact setup running here in Austin (o.[acronym:1507734493="Kelvin or Potassium, depending on context"]k[/acronym:1507734493]. - Anderson Mill) for over 3 years and have had great luck. I've got 2 koi, some goldfish, a violet gobie and a common Pleco in it. The only thing I've had to do for winterizing is move the pleco inside. Never had any ice on the pond.
I do run two pumps and a [acronym:1507734493="Ultra Violet"]uv[/acronym:1507734493] sterilizer on it. The kids like to feed the fish alot...

Nothing fancy or professional but it was quick and got me going. Next spring I'm planning on doing something larger and at least partially in ground.

Let me know and I'll send you some pics.