I know it's not a large as the kiddy pools but I don't have a ton of space out side to work with so thinking I could use 1 or 2 55g barrels to use as live bearer breed out tanks.
The surface area is only 380" so not much more than a 20g long tank the volume of water is much higher. I could put them beside the house out of the sun so they temp shouldn't swing as much.
Any one tried this? Or would I just be wasting my time and endangering the fish?
That is an interesting idea. If anyone knows if that would work, that would be excellent. I could set up a pair of those on my patio for breeding feeder guppies and ghost shrimp. I could probably even keep them in a closet... All I would need is a couple canister filters and a couple heaters, maybe an airstone apiece, but I could run both off a single pump.
Thinking about it, I believe the main issue you would have would be the surface area, requiring much more aeration than you would in a kiddie pool.
Drop a large sponge filter in the barrel and you should have all the filtering done and the surface aeration. But adding another air stone wouldn't be a issue.
I have a plastic barrel with the top removed that would work great, but you could cut the barrel in half(length wise so you have two half circles) that would give you a huge amount of surface area. You would have to build a stand to hold it because it won't stay up right.
I have sponges running on all my tanks, I'm seeding two sponges for my 125g right now. I will have a HOB also but that's because I want extra mechanical and current on that big of a tank. My wife is wanting a goldfish pond this spring and I will add a sponge for extra bio filtering.
A lot of people think the sponge filter isn't as good but you need surface area for the bacteria to grow and sponges have tons of that. I think they are one of the best filters in the hobby and for the price they are the best.
I do like the sponge filters. I had to shut mine off in my 150 though, I was aerating the water too much, and that was causing the plants to suffer. They seem to be recovering now.
I think I will be giving this a shot this spring. The nights still get a little cool so I will wait a few more weeks and pick up a few more guppies or maybe mollies.
Thinking about it I put my endlers in there. I will need to get a few more females but they would do well in an 55g barrel if I can keep it filtered enough.
hello,hello.
subscribing to see how this project goes :-D
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