Balcony Living

[StagnantSun]

Spring is here, and I've taken to flooding my apartment balcony with life. I'm loving the green, but it's missing water.

I'm basically picturing this.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsC4lpvXlkM

But it would be on a much smaller scale. I would use a 40-50 gallon Rubbermaid container as the base, liner, then build a wooden shell around it. Of course it wouldn't hold koi, but some mosquitofish would be ok. This is the rough outline I came up with.

My main concern is if my balcony can even hold the weight of it. I've read conflicting opinions that raising the weight off the floor (via cinder blocks, etc.) reduces the stress put on the flooring. My apartment manager said that the balconies can hold a good deal of weight, but I didn't specifically say it would need to support over 400 lbs over about 6 cubic feet.

Sorry if this seems like a silly question. I've never lived on a floor that isn't ground level, so I don't know what to expect. I can't even use my 38 gallon tank anymore because I have an irrational fear that it will buckle the floor and bring the building crashing down.

 

[StagnantSun]

And now that I think about it, would I need to worry about the sides of the Rubbermaid bowing under pressure? I'm not sure how I would add a center brace to it.

 

[ian]

i'm not to sure, but thats a great vid and a lovely pond!

 

[StagnantSun]

i'm not to sure, but thats a great vid and a lovely pond!

It really is. Maybe one day when I can afford a house I'll do something like that. It does look a bit too small for koi, though. I mean, it's not very wide.

In other news, my partner's brother has agreed to build the wooden shell for me. I just gotta get him the dimensions, but I'm still trying to decide on how big of a Rubbermaid I can get away with.

 

[ian]

theres was a article in this months PFK that mirrors your pond

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3816

the patio pond.

 

[StagnantSun]

I'll have to check that out. It looks right up my alley.

I went out today and bought a 300+ gph pump and set it up in this huge round plastic tub I have to test it out, and I'm loving it so far. It came with a diverter valve, so I'm thinking I could run some tubing off that to go through a homemade box filter. We'll see.

 

[ian]

keep the thread updated with the progress! I also want to do something like this in the future, so it will be handy for hints and tips.

 

[StagnantSun]

Absolutely! This is turning out to be a fun little project. I think I'm gonna stick with the round tub for a while, even though I figured out it's only 17 gallons. Should still hold enough mosquito fish to control the bugs.

I'm working on the filter setup, which will basically consist of water being pumped out of the tank and into another pot on a plant stand. The water will run over carbon bags & filter media, then pour into the tub via a hole in the pot with a piece of rigid tubing. I gotta do this right, though. If the filter pot doesn't drain fast enough, it'll overflow with water. If it drains too fast, the beneficial bacteria won't be able to thrive. Any tips on keeping this regulated? Perhaps by making the draining hole slightly above the level of filter media?

I also need to get some plants in there. I'm leaning towards anachris or spiral vals for oxygenators and dwarf cattails to hang in pots along the back partially submerged. I really wanted duckweed or water lettuce, but since those can't be sold in Texas I might go with salvinia.

That's it so far. Please disregard my pothos propagating in a fabulously white trash tequila bottle. Also, the "wet" spot to the left of the tub isn't from tank leakage. Just an unidentified, ever-present spot that's been on the concrete since I moved in.

Anyway! Dwarf cattails would be used to hide the wiring. Still need a substrate, probably plain old river rock. The filter pot would be placed in the corner, behind my Bird of Paradise. Oh, and there's a couple plant plates under the tub so air can get in underneath. That concrete gets really cold.

Didn't intend to write this lengthy of a reply. Sorry, haha.

 

[StagnantSun]

Ended up getting a mechanical filter box from Lowes. Coarse & fine filter pads + bio balls. It's rated for ponds up to 500 gallons so I think I'm ok. I think I could probably layer some activated carbon in between the filter pads.

Also added some Seachem Flourite that sits at about 3 inches below the top of the filter. I had some left over from my betta tanks. Anacharis is currently floating around the fountain nozzle soaking up sunlight, and I dropped a dwarf cattail in.