No pump small fish pond for fish harvesting

Hello all,

I saw another post on this and it went to cob and wanted to hear what this crowd had to say about it.
Im in zone 6, southeast Indiana, and want to dig a small fish pond in order to harvest bluegill and have some pretty aquatic plants. I dont want to have to use a pump and wanted to try to get away with oxygen producing plants. Also, i dont want to dig too deep. 4 foot i guess in order to combat freezing of micro pond of 8 foot wide x 20-30 ft long. Would this pond be big enough for no pump with some oxygenation from plants? Est. 750 - 1000 sqare feet pond (8 x 30 x 4 deep)

I am building a 20 x 20 hoophouse next to pond with a rocket mass hreater w cob bench inside and though it would be cool to run a little inlet fromfrom pond a couple feet into greenhouse. Could this help the pond stay warmer in winter time along with the warmer inside temp of greenhouse warming inlet from outside pond?

Never built rms w cob or micro pond or greenhouse before.

Wish me luck! Any feedback/ experience shared would be appreciated.



Would

Sorry its sideways. New phone

*Not alot of room. Trying to keep things small and get the most use from the little space provided without any power dependency.

Jonathan Humphries wrote:Hello all,

I am building a 20 x 20 hoophouse next to pond with a rocket mass hreater w cob bench inside and though it would be cool to run a little inlet fromfrom pond a couple feet into greenhouse. Could this help the pond stay warmer in winter time along with the warmer inside temp of greenhouse warming inlet from outside pond?

Never built rms w cob or micro pond or greenhouse before.

Going by your illustration, I don't imagine a small inlet into the hoophouse is going to make much if any difference in the temperature of the pond, simply
not enough surface area of the pond inside. On the other hand, exactly how warm does the water need to be? I don't know the requirements of those fish.
Are they native to that area?
At least that small inlet would keep part of the surface unfrozen for oxygen exchange during really cold periods.

What passive heating methods do you plan to incorporate in the structure? (sun gain, thermal mass,etc.)

Thank you very much for your reply. I would get sunlight from sun of course and the north side of greenhouse would have black barrels to retain heat along with a rmh. Bluegill are local here so i dont HAVE to keep them warm but just want to keep the pond warmer so that the oxygen plants can thrive due to smaller pond size. Im unsure of what a minimum pond size has to be in order to keep fish alive and keep pond pump free?

Thanks again for your reply

I think rather than trying to figure out what the minimum pond size should be, you should be thinking "How big of a pond can I make and maintain?"
Then figure out how many fish can be stocked into a pond that size.

Here is a little info I found on stocking small ponds with Bluegill, (Hybrid, but info on bluegill in general also):

http://www.suttlefish.com/Stock_Hybrid_Bluegill.html

Have you thought of putting the hoop house over the ENTIRE pond? Using all that water as your thermal battery can help year-round temperature control. Variation of an aquaponics system, but you need to figure out a good decking system to walk and plant above it.

Aerators don't take much power, there are solar setups available that will greatly increase your carrying capacity (at a lower cost than the extra liner to make a bigger pond).

Cris Bessette wrote:
I think rather than trying to figure out what the minimum pond size should be, you should be thinking "How big of a pond can I make and maintain?"
Then figure out how many fish can be stocked into a pond that size.

Here is a little info I found on stocking small ponds with Bluegill, (Hybrid, but info on bluegill in general also):

http://www.suttlefish.com/Stock_Hybrid_Bluegill.html

Wow it seems like these are the cold water versions of tilapia.
Do you know of any other fish to use in a cold water pond (zone 6) esp ones that needs little/no feed in a tiny pond (15ftx15ft)

S Bengi wrote:
Wow it seems like these are the cold water versions of tilapia.
Do you know of any other fish to use in a cold water pond (zone 6) esp ones that needs little/no feed in a tiny pond (15ftx15ft)

I'm no fish expert, but I would say that first you would need to define what your purpose is.
Fish for eating, or fish for ornamental purposes?

The smaller a pond is, the smaller your fish are going to grow generally.
Also the smaller a pond is, the less likely it will be self-supporting or self-regulating.

Thank you for feedback this community is awesome. I have though of greenhouse over pond and i think it would be pretty easy too. And would work well with rocks being put around and in water all along the north side to retain heat.

I will look into the airrators deeper and now you guys got me thinking of connecting the hoophouse and pond together.

Ive always wanted to do like the Aztecs and asians and grow on a lake or canal by building floating grow beds from earth (i just thought that was the coolest idea). And now you motivated me. Ill be sure to leave some spots on the surface for the fish

Sunfish and bass are also reg fish for se.indiana. And yes i plan on eating the fish but now i will be concentrating on the large aquapontics system with micro link. And ty for the link. Also making the sides of greenhouse roll up and catch water and divert to lake or barrel but prob lake cuz it is going to be just a couple feet.away.

Thank you again for feedback guys.

And idk yet but im guessing i would keep the numbers down in order to have bigger fish like aquapotics and talapia in barrels or ibc totes or whatever. Everything will be experimental. Too many fish = fertilizer?

Fish for eating.

Cris Bessette wrote:

S Bengi wrote:
Wow it seems like these are the cold water versions of tilapia.
Do you know of any other fish to use in a cold water pond (zone 6) esp ones that needs little/no feed in a tiny pond (15ftx15ft)

I'm no fish expert, but I would say that first you would need to define what your purpose is.
Fish for eating, or fish for ornamental purposes?

The smaller a pond is, the smaller your fish are going to grow generally.
Also the smaller a pond is, the less likely it will be self-supporting or self-regulating.

I have a decorative pond, about 1200 gallons, than is used by four water foul. The extra nutrients were easily by water lettuce and water hyacinth. I doubt you would get much in the way of production from a pond that small but mine sure has been enjoyable. I remove about 15 gallons of pond plants every week. they grow that fast. good luck there are fun

Thank you Jeff

Found this also, and it makes me smile.

http://melvinlanders.tripod.com/page9.html

Jon