Made my inground pool a pond

[patrice7]

My husband and I have turned our old, unused, inground pool into a pond. Its maximum depth is 10 ft. I am wondering if we could eventually turn our inground pool/pond into a money-making fish farm of sorts?

[BCR]

Patrice--check out this link from ATTRA about "Evaluating an Aquaculture Enterprise" http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/aquaculture.html

[gilberte]

Originally Posted by patrice7

My husband and I have turned our old, unused, inground pool into a pond. Its maximum depth is 10 ft. I am wondering if we could eventually turn our inground pool/pond into a money-making fish farm of sorts?

We are thinking about doing this too. How long has yours been converted? Any problems? Can you point me to any information? How about posting a picture of yours? Thanks.

[tamilee]

Originally Posted by patrice7

My husband and I have turned our old, unused, inground pool into a pond. Its maximum depth is 10 ft. I am wondering if we could eventually turn our inground pool/pond into a money-making fish farm of sorts?

Hi patrice;
Just the other day I went into town on the way back I saw an unused pool and thought the same thing! How about the above ground pools for raising fish for the table? I wonder if that's reasible in zone 8? I'm going to follow the link above.
I hope you are able to raise fish in your new pond. Keep us posted about what you learn and if you do it how things are going.
Have a blessed day!
tamilee

[Cabin Fever]

My do I hear the theme music to the "Beverly Hillbillies" playing in my head?

[Jan Doling]

I've got an above ground soft-spa I'd like to try this with...any suggestions on filtering as the motor that goes with it died.

[Maura]

Go to Lilyponds. You can put in a fancy filtration system, but the fish are unimpressed. For our backyard pond (2300 gallons) we used a Terra underwater pump and pumped the water from the bottom of the pond up to a 100 gal water trough where the water then filtered through lava rock, down to a 50 gal water trough where it filtered through more lava rock, and back into the pool. Made nice little water falls. The lava rock will naturally contain (after you've put in a few fish) the proper aerobic bacteria to break down the pollution.

We also potted up some marsh plants and placed these on top of the lava rock. Plants will help to use up the nutrients the fish are producing, as well as add oxygen to the water. Outside, a water plant will produce ten times more oxygen during the day as it will use up at night. In the south, the gov't put in little fish ponds for poor people in an effort to improve their daily nutrition. They used tilapia, an African fish. The filtration system used, I believe, is one with marsh areas (whereas we placed our marsh in water troughs).

[baysidebunny]

I've heard that the old sattlelite dishes make great ponds also.

[Cyngbaeld]

My ducks are jealous. All they got is the bathtub.

[MsSpot]

Great minds think alike, I see. We have a 24 ft., 42 inch deep above ground pool that my husband is stocking right now from fish that he's caught in the river. He added 4 lbs. of minnows a couple months ago. Honestly, while I NEVER see the fish near the surface, I've seen only one dead minnow. This past week, he started adding larger fish from the Spring River, here in northern Arkansas.

You will have to try to keep leaves and other organic material out of the pool because of the tannic acid it releases into the water. We will also be adding a pump to help keep the water aereated (sp) and some type of filter syster.

Last year we failed to put a winter cover over the pool, we only had a mesh leaf cover. OMG......we raised MILLIONS of tree frogs in our pool!!! The noise was deafening!! People tease me about our Frog Farm!! :haha: BUT I can't say that we failed in providing the frogs with a breeding area. And there is no shortage of frogs around my house. Besides, they help to keep the mosquitoes under control.

I really do need to float some kind of plants on the surface for oxygen manufacture and cover for the fish.

Good LUCK!!

[hollym]

I've been doing some reading on this and duckweed is supposed to feed tilapia, don't know about other fish. Also go to the organic Gardening archives and read 'We raised catfish in a barrel', it's lots smaller but very interesting!

I am going to get a $99 above ground pool as soon as I have an extra, well, $99, lol, and try some tilapia.

hollym