I have a stupid and awesome Idea.........

[ca1ore]

@ohtoomanyfish (username something like that) has an outdoor system if memory serves.

 

[snorklr]

have a friend waterfront in st pete area...he has to completely cover his koi pond with netting to keep the birds out and it really looks bad...pelican poop not a good thing either

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yikes
Rain
Run-0ff
leaves
humidity
hot suns
storms and hurricanes
Predators (birds, pelicans, gators, etc)

 

[Josh@BVA]

I feel like this is a dream for so many people myself included. cant wait to see your build thread on this

 

[User1]

SO, We will be buying a house soon and I want to do something unique in the back yard.
I wanna build an outdoor pond-style salt water tank.
Yea thats right!! in the ground, saltwater pond, about 150-200 gallon with fish and coral, with the sun for its lighting during the day, and supplement lighting at night if I need it. We live in florida so sun is not a problem I now filtering will be a task but there is stuff made out there so handle what I wanna do I think.

SO anyone else done this? any guidance you willing to give? Think i'm nuts?

Location will make the difference between a dream and reality. Honest assessment.

First - do a search for o2manyfish. He lives in Southern California (remember my opening comment on location?) and maintains a large system outside. In fact he had two large systems in his backyard, frag tanks, and moved his sump. Indoors he had a 400 gallon which is now a 560 gallon and soon to be 800. But it is all tied together and to be honest, an amazing system. Few years back we had the fires down South and he had to deal with ash but his tanks and systems survived just fine. Rain, storms, what have you - he weathered it (no pun intended) and the systems runs perfectly fine. Again, location.

Second - predators. So there was a thread on another forum whereas a lad was building something similar. I think it may have been a stream or river or path type thing that went outside to inside of his home. Anyway they went through this whole design from napkin to actual build and water and fish only to be outwitted by birds. No sooner than they stocked it with fish a couple hours after a heron or similar bird of pray had a nice meal. I remember reading this build thread to this day because of a sentence or two that they said they thought of everything but no one ever thought about birds eating the fish. I think this was in Florida. Anyway something to think about. I'll have to see if I can dig up this gem and PM it to you as it is on another board. It was an older build thread though so chances are I won't be able to. We shall see.

Third - saltwater pools. You may be saying what on earth does a pool have to do with your comment but hear me out. An alternative to freshwater pools and chlorine is to covert them to saltwater. Easier on the skin / body and less chemicals in the world. I mean our dogs such as yellow labs probably will protest and send us nasty letters (another story) but they are worth looking into because of salinity, pumps, and size. If a proper salinity with consistent measurements be managed with 15,000 gallon pool I think you will be ok with a pond. Same concept. Same equipment but on a smaller scale.

So - do I think you are nuts? No. Is it possible? Yes. We went to the moon and back using pencils, paper, calculators, and drafting skills (not to mention a fraction of compute of what our cell phones have). Cost? Hard to say but I do believe it is possible. These are the first things that come to mind. Grab a cup of coffee and head over to RC and read O2's build thread. Probably has more details and history there on the outdoor system.

tl; dr - possible. Anything is possible. Just do not forget about the birds!

 

[Cory]

Yes you can do it. I wouldn't worry about everything people fear about except large rain storms. But just cover it with something for a rain storm. A little rain, no biggie. Algae? Pfft. Put in a bunch of sea urchins. Shouldn't have a problem. Id do tbis already if i lived in a warm place but in Canada when everything freezes, everything dies or sleeps lol

 

[littlefishy]

I have 2 outdoor endler ponds. If you have a dog you won't have to worry about predators, you just have to worry about him jumping in. If it is partly elevated for a viewing pane this could take care of that problem.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Maybe an in floor saltwater pond around 350 gallons
Waste handling bump in the middle or back to handle water running to a 150 gallon DIY sump 10 gal sock chamber
100 gallon fuge chamber 40 gallon skimmer chamber
With orphek lighting
Kessil refugium light

 

[polyppal]

There's a tour of a facility in Australia on Youtube of a company that has an outdoor saltwater pond. I think the only way they are able to maintain it is by pumping in/out fresh seawater since they're on the coast... It was -kinda- cool, but everything worth seeing required them to be scuba diving in the tank to appreciate it.

I think it also has a massive refugium (with a crocodile in it) and a mangrove forest to keep it up