Outdoor Container Garden

Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Hey all,

Last fall, I picked up a 60 gallon (?) 4' long fiberglass container from George when he was down-sizing. Other than being pink, it's pretty awesome.

With a bit of grovelling, I convinced the wife to let me expand the hobby out-of-doors. Last week, I picked up a can of brown indoor/outdoor, bonds-to-plastic spray paint at the Depot and wallah!

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With temperatures at night finally getting out of the 40s, I'm planning on setting it up this evening. Going to start with some anubias and some of the lilypads I pulled out of Andrew's pond.

Not thinking of going crazy with fish... likely Buenes Aires tetras. No filtration, aeration or heating. Plants should take care of the water so long as I keep stocking to a minimum.

Anyone have any baby swords they'd like to sell or trade? Thinking of tossing a couple in there as well for cover for tetra fry.

I'll keep the thread updated as it progresses.
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Also looking for a ratty 55 gallon tank. Scratches are fine, no lids or stand or hardware required, so long as it holds water, I'd good.
 
Avatar

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
For crying loud out...

Tony said:
With a bit of grovelling, I convinced the wife to let me expand the hobby out-of-doors. Last week, I picked up a can of brown indoor/outdoor, bonds-to-plastic spray paint at the Depot and wallah!
Click to expand...

I want to hear more about your "groveling". Having never done it myself I'm curious. :D

And "wallah" is a Hindi word for someone who generally provides service of a specific kind - like a pond-wallah who is regularly engaged in the moving of stones, ferrying of detritus and destruction/feeding of leeches. You'll be wanting the French word, Voila!

Frannie, you see this? Groveling and only semi-literate. He's clearly far from ready so we'll probably need you to re-up at least 3 or 4 more hitches.
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
Awesome...

Although I think Tony was trying to say "Holla!" not Wallah...

Matt

Avatar said:
I want to hear more about your "groveling". Having never done it myself I'm curious. :D

And "wallah" is a Hindi word for someone who generally provides service of a specific kind - like a pond-wallah who is regularly engaged in the moving of stones, ferrying of detritus and destruction/feeding of leeches. You'll be wanting the French word, Voila!

Frannie, you see this? Groveling and only semi-literate. He's clearly far from ready so we'll probably need you to re-up at least 3 or 4 more hitches.
Click to expand...
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Spring again!

Poked around for pictures of the setup from last year, but couldn't come up with any to post up. In summary, it was a success. Started with a dozen or so of the Buenes Aires tetras in the spring and ended up with 50-60 in the fall.

Once the lows get out of the 40s, I'm going to set the tub up again this year. :)

Upgrading a bit this time around though...

I have an old, non-leaking 55 that I plan on setting up next to the tub for another species (or two). On the stand, the top of the tub sites abotu 3' off the ground. I plan on drilling a hole in the tub (at the desired water level) and bulkhead it to allow water to overflow from it into the 55 (sitting on the ground).

I purchased a plastic planter box that will sit atop the tub and serve as a dump filter for the system. A MAG 3.5 will serve as the return.

So question: For the filter box, I plan on drilling holes in the bottom and filling it with pea gravel. What terrestrial plants will grow in this gravel? Not really a dry setup or a wet setup... more of a hydroponic setup, I guess. Will it be good for anything?

Also, thoughts on the contents of the box? Plant in peastone and put floss across the top of the stone to catch some of the junk?

Will post up pics once I get things going.

Thanks for the help in advance. :)
 
Avatar

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
Dang

My suggestions for hydroponic candidates are mostly (and sadly) outlawed, but cattails might be cool. Problem with pea gravel is that it's not porous or even rough to maximize surface area, but the volume of water you're moving should somewhat compensate and smaller gravel would help as well.

Lobelia (red cardinal flower) is amazing (just ask the hummingbirds) and don't mind/prefer having their roots submerged. Respectable nurseries usually stock them - there are white and I believe blue varieties as well so you could have a pretty stunning and very patriotic filter.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
you should also be able to find some cyperus at a plant nursery or even somtimes the Depot or Lowes. If you're lucky....you'll find Cyperus papayrus which I think is cool just because of what it is. There are also some dwarf varieties out there. It's not hardy in this area, though, so you'll have to overwinter indoors or replace it next year.

Think back to the presentation on Vics that we had last year....remember those cyperus swamps he showed? I thought they were pretty awesome.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Also, not sure if this is too big for you to do, but there are some members of the large grasses/sedge family that they've done some research on that (although not terribly atractive) are huge nitrate hogs. Turns out that most terrestrial plants are ho-hum at nitrate uptake....but a few are really good at it. They're being researched by the fisheries for that use and for treating farmland runoff.
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
+1

I used to grow those in my goldfish pond back in Cali...

You can also do tomatoes, herbs and the like in the gravel. Experiment and see what works :)

Matt

chriscoli said:
you should also be able to find some cyperus at a plant nursery or even somtimes the Depot or Lowes. If you're lucky....you'll find Cyperus papayrus which I think is cool just because of what it is. There are also some dwarf varieties out there. It's not hardy in this area, though, so you'll have to overwinter indoors or replace it next year.

Think back to the presentation on Vics that we had last year....remember those cyperus swamps he showed? I thought they were pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
 
verbal

verbal

CCA Members
chriscoli said:
Also, not sure if this is too big for you to do, but there are some members of the large grasses/sedge family that they've done some research on that (although not terribly atractive) are huge nitrate hogs. Turns out that most terrestrial plants are ho-hum at nitrate uptake....but a few are really good at it. They're being researched by the fisheries for that use and for treating farmland runoff.
Click to expand...

Are Water Chestnuts a possibility?
 
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