Daughter next big saving event

[Christmasfish]

my daughter has an excellent investor. He netted her quite a bit with patience on her part. So I expect she'll have near 1000 next year.

She wants a pond.
She wants to incorporate it into our greenhouse/aviary for our Macaw that we are planning. The area is going to cover maybe a 15 by 20 surface from the downstairs dojo/playroom.
It will have filtered (artificial filter until the planned bamboo and parrot friendly large bushes and dwarf trees establish) sunlight if we can get a good start. We told her her she can have a large portion of the aviary floor for this. She plans to retire her breeding anabatids in it. Our parrot is flightedd so no fears there. She wants to plant it heavily with. It will recieve light from the northand east. prolly be at a shallow depth like 2 ft.

What on earth would she need to plan to buy?
We live in WA so the pool would have to be heated...the bird is a Bolivian sub-species and comfortable in temps in the 70's. She plans a decorative waterfall a la Petsmart for areation (and parent pleasing...it is hubby and bird's sanctuary. )
So lemme throw some stuff at her that is more than adequate without her getting to fancy!

[RogerMcAllen]

As far as a pond, I would say just get one of those 55 [acronym:7acc9687f0="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:7acc9687f0] or so plastic tubs. Since 55 [acronym:7acc9687f0="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:7acc9687f0] is not that big, you could easily get away with some powerheads and a canister filter. I was unsure on how big you wanted to go, I was assuming 15x20 was the area of the enclosure. Any ideas what you want to make the pond out of? Perhaps building a box out of lumber and putting a liner in it? Also, I would worry about bird waste getting into the pond.

[Christmasfish]

The bird waste thing is why we also would not let her have too much.
I figure we can give her a 4by 8 area at one side corner.Plus the 1-2 ft for the little fountain mountain thingy. The bird would be a part-time resident (bird theft from porches and aviaries is a notorious plague these few years. stupid retail! Artificially infalting their value and making the tagets for Stupid theives!
As for what to make the main pond from...? Gee I dunno. My grandpa had one that was I believe was two halfs of a septic tank and the big one with the scarey stuff was once his olympic pool.
WE had planned to put a livestock tub half buried in there to raise the humidity anyway.and then pave the stonework around it.

I don't know how bettas would handle accidental splat or if a filter would handle it before one would worry...though i know food raised gourami are raised below pigstyes. ..........bleh!

[millipede]

I would worry about the bird poop as well. I suppose if you had a good enough filter it wouldn't be to big a problem. I would start small though and see how things work... you know, just a fish or two and see how things go before you stock it completely... Here's a link to a quick drawing I did in paint showing someone else how I might setup a greenhouse type of thing. Hers is going to have a hot tub in it, that's the thing in the upper left corner... but it might help you with design ideas... it also has a link to animal friendly plants...
http://www.reptileadvice.com/viewtop...03c7e0101d4328
Hopefully the link works, if it doesn't go to www.reptileadvice.com and in the recent topic click on "building a turtle pond" and go to page two... hope this helps...

[millipede]

Hey Christmasfish... I know with things being as they've been you probably haven't put too much thought into this lately, but I'd like to be kept up to date on any progress... Did you ever get to check out the link I posted? Did you see the picture that I put on there? It's just a rough drawing... I don't always enjoy all the labor in projects like that, but I love planning them. I love using my imagination... Of course, sometimes my imagination goes way beyond my physical capabilities... oh well... let me know if you need any ideas...