We have been thinking of using a small above ground swimming pool to make a fish pond with,and I wonder if anyone knows anything about doing that kind of thing ?
I have read about people who grow their own fish for food right in the back yard, and some of them also recycle the water into container gardens, especially ones that are hydroponic containers.
We want to have a small pond out by the front deck with aquarium plants, and hopefully, some goldfish, just to watch and enjoy; but I would also like to have a larger pond out back and raise catfish in it.
You can convert a swimming pool into a fish pond. All you need is to have a fish pond filter, and maybe some cover for the pool.
The filter system is mandatory for keeping the ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm for the pond. There are some such filters for sale on Amazon.com. A few models are made to look like a fountain which is perfect for a fish pond.
One majority problem with the outdoor pond is that it can easily be overrun by algae since it usually gets a lot of sunlight exposure. Too much light always translate to too much algae. It is the best to have something over it, like a large tree or maybe build a bridge or other structures over it.
I have known it done where a swimming pool was turned into a small lake for people to fish from. I only knew it as the fishing lake but was told the history by some of the other people that fished there. It had been quite well landscaped so it did not appear square or anything and the only real give away was the depth. When I was fishing it there were carp over 20lb and plenty of other smaller species. Being a fishing lake it was not filtered or anything and seemed fine so obviously it can be done. I think domestic fish may need the filtration but that is easy enough to do.
I actually found direction for raising the catfish in a swimming pool online at E-How. It seems pretty simple to do. We have a wholelot of trees in the yard, so finding a shady place for the pool should not be a hard thing to do.
On the side of the house (north) that is the very shadiest, we have an outside electrical outlet; so that would also be the best place to be able to plug in the pump and filter.
The directions say that you should drain out about 1/3 of the water from the bottom of the pond every week, and that should be wonderful to use watering my cucumbers and tomatoes as well. I would not have to set up the whole hydroponics plan if I just followed these instructions and then drain the extra water with a hose out onto where I want to water.
