I'd like to make my own pond in the backyard and I have a few questions...

Is it cheaper to buy pond liner or preformed ponds?

Can you heat a pond efficiently?

What can go in a pond apart from goldfish?

How do you run power from the mains to the pond?

Thanks

Is it cheaper to buy pond liner or preformed ponds?

Depends on the liner and pond size. They vary greatly in price.

Can you heat a pond efficiently?

Why would you want to? Especially in Auckland

What can go in a pond apart from goldfish?

Paradisefish (but I don't think they can share the pond with other fish), white cloud mountain minnows, leopardfish. These last two can be hard to see in a pond though. In summer you can have some barbs out there too, like golden and ruby barbs. They can tolerate down to 18C.

How do you run power from the mains to the pond?

From a weatherproof socket via an RCD

I was thinking a 3ft or 4ft pond about 2ft or 3ft wide?

Can frogs go in a pond? Boss lady likes frogs heaps.

Frogs often go to a pond whether you want them or not :lol:

And neglected pools!

How about an indoor tropical pond? If I made a box out of 2x4's and ply and sat a preformed pond/paddling pool in there would that work?

I don't see why not. You would have to make sure the frame was well made and the pond not able to be tipped over if a kid leaned over it etc. Not sure if it might cause trouble in the way of condensation inside the house though.

Paddling pools aren't very deep

And neglected pools!

How about an indoor tropical pond? If I made a box out of 2x4's and ply and sat a preformed pond/paddling pool in there would that work?

If you have not already got the timber, then 100x100mm is often cheaper than 2"x4" fyi.

Plus would be a stronger frame.

How about an indoor tropical pond? If I made a box out of 2x4's and ply and sat a preformed pond/paddling pool in there would that work?

Check out MFK in their pond section. Most of the pics are of indoor ponds and fantastic too.

Could always get a school of native fish, like Inanga. They're pretty cool and good at keeping the mozzies down.

I had a rectangular pond in the conservatory. (Not a fancy glass one, just a decking area that was enclosed 2 sides with walls of house, other walls with sliding doors, windows and had a lazerlight type roof.) Basically a long, deep planter box type thing. Half was garden and half pond liner with a built in ramp and turtles in it. Worked well for years till I needed something bigger

Turtles? What temp. did you keep them at?

Thanks

I stayed with a woman in the USA (near Washington DC) who had a pond in the corner of her living room. It was just a child's paddling pool with an airline running into it.

However there are several differences between our situation in NZ and people in the US and other places overseas. For a start, a lot of them run humidifiers in their houses to try to keep their humidity up, because their houses are so dry! Here in our maritime climate we tend to have the opposite problem, so you might find humidity was an issue with an indoor pond.

Also, they tend to keep their whole house warm in winter, usually with some kind of underfloor heating. The woamn I stayed with had gold barbs in her pond, without a heater. The whole house was maintained at a temperature somewhere in the low 20s all year round, with central heating in winter and air conditioning in summer. In NZ we have much wider seasonal variations in temperature inside our houses and the floor especially would get very cold in winter.

The only indoor ponds I have seen in New Zealand tend to be in a conservatory or entrance area with hard surfaces that won't be badly affected by humidity and/or water splashes. And as far as I can recall, I have only seen goldfish in indoor ponds.

Turtles? What temp. did you keep them at?

Thanks

No heater in the summer and around 22-24 in winter. But were over 2 yrs old so fine with that. Babies wouldnt have liked the cooler environment out there. They didnt hibernate...obviously at 22+ deg. but would slow down a bit when really cold patch of weather.

I found this site http://www.goodeiden.de/html/temperatures.html which lists the minimum temperatures for heaps of species