Argh, take note, why water features suck

[AbranV]

[QUOTE=deranged chipmunk;244136]Oh waa waa waa, water features suck lol the problem with water features is that they are rarely planned out and tested well enough.......


Amen chipmunk!

I thought I had it planned out but soon realized that I hadn't taken the flow adjustment knob into consideration. One little oversight and I've been at a standstill for three days now trying to make it work with the plumbing....




One good thing to come out of this build.....Now I know to never ever ever ever ever use a submersible pump again. Canister filters from here on out!

[Dendro Dave]

I hit upon the trick of using the top of a medium or large exoterra and letting the pump dangle in the top/middle of the water column. Since sediment and junk tends to float on the top or sink to the bottom a pump is less likely to clog if it draws water from the middle or just under the surface. You can hide the guts/bottom of the waterfall with driftwood or something. Here is an example...


This tank also serves as an example of how I do ponds, which is similar to how others mentioned they do it. My pond reservoir shares its water with the false bottom. So I keep my false bottom fairly full most of the time. If you don't over mist you should never flood your tank, and the misting in conguntion with a larger volume of water makes evaporation and thus frequent topping off of the water less of an issue.

If you do flood your tank... you're over misting A mostly sealed viv with water in its drainage area will maintain humidity just fine (but I highly recommend some ventilation on every viv). You should hand mist or set an automated misting schedual that wets the surface of everything and a lil moisture will of course get into the substrate, but not be misting so much that everything is wet looking and saturated all day everyday. Moist substrate will keep ambient humidity in the green, the misting is for a temporary boost and to replenish the soil moisture. That is a healthy balance, saturated is not a healthy state for a viv or its inhabitants usually.

Oh and keeping your pond surfaces at or below the base of your substrate combats waters tendency to wick or craw out of the pond. If it does it goes immediately into the bottom most layer and the drier soil above absorbes it, but once that very bottom layer is moist the rate If any at which water wicks out keeps the upper levels of substrate moist but not saturated.

I'm not sure I'm explaining that well so here is an example:

Bury a bowl so the top of the water in the bowl/shoreline is pretty much at top of your dirt where moss and plants are... and watch the water "crawl" out and saturate the substrate from the top down.

Bury a bowl so that the top is even with the false bottom water level, and any creeping or crawling (wicking action), will be going straight into the bottom layer, and only very slowly working against gravity to moisten the upper levels of substrate... as long as you don't help it to much by over misting. Drilling a tank for overflow is nice and useful, but I've made dozens of successful vivs with water features capable of supporting tads or a few small fish with no filter in the last decade and never drilled a tank, or owned a drilled tank.

Planting the pond, and letting the water mature over weeks or months till it finishes the nitrogen cycle and letting beneficial bacteria colonize will be enough filtration for tads and fish tolerant of low oxygen or capable of breathing through their mouth. Add an air pump/stone for less tollerant fish. The key is not to over populate the pond and to let the water age. Usually stagnate scum will eventually disappear when the pond has aged enough. If it persists and/or you're impatient, throw some frogbit or salvia natens in there for the lily pad look and to hide the scum and help filter the water further. I stay away from duck weed. Since once it is in you never get it out unless you let the vivs dry and die completely.

I seal the driftwood, rock and/or foam shoreline enough to keep animals out of the false bottom but otherwise let water pass through. In the rare event my shoreline is to waterproof I jam a coat hanger along the bottom glass and punch holes in the foam/silicone holding my shoreline material in place. Gravel seals these holes enough so fish and tadpoles can't get under the falsebottom.

Many construction pics in my signature gallery links. Looks like **** when your building it, but comes out nice in the end


Oh and the water is only foggy in that pic I posted because i had recently been screwing with the tank.

Using a layer of activated charcoal in your false bottom or as the bottom layer of your substrate and/or a mostly inorganic soil mix should keep water from becoming to tea stained from taninns.