DogFish2.0

My Whiskey Barrel Pond


We move our house plants out to the side deck every year. We pot some annuals from the garden center and cluster everything together. I thought I try a whiskey barrel pond this year.

I got a 1/2 Whiskey Barrel from Home Depot. I tried to "age" it for a month. I alternated filling & emptying it. But it was still leaching a whiskey smelling carbon film. So I decided to line it and go from there.


1st - I cut a pc of foam carpet pad to fit the bottom to gepl prevent snags/tears.
2nd - I laid in a double thickness of plastic sheeting, the a layer of black plastic from a heavy duty 70gal trash bag.
3rd** - You can see a white strap, that's nylon packing strapping. I used a staple gun to run a strap over the plastic to hold it in place
4th - added 1" of washed play sand. I use bricks to ebate the clay pots I plant in. The sand will also help prevent tearing the plastic liner.


When I set-up we were/are having some cool nights 45 to 50degrees. I added a 300w heater. I made a lid from a 3/4" thick pc of isolation foam to help over night. You can see the old HOB I added. I remove all filter media when I use a HOB and replace with 10PPI foam. I also cut a pc to cover the intake.

That's my Black Mission fig just behind and draping over. Nest to it is a Mango I found growing in my compost bin about 4-5yrs ago.

The 4 pots with the white labels are 4 Buce sp. cuttings from my adult plants. In front of them are 3 pots of C.Nurri. Behind a Florida Sunset (C. Wenditti) and C. Keei. The Crypts are also yping plants from my other tanks. There's a pot of hygrohpila corymbosa 'siamensis' cuttings too.

Not visible are a some baby Java Needle and Red on driftwood and a red lotus.

Today we hit 97 here, water temps 82 on the surface, pretty cool towards the bottom. The barrel has sunlight from 7am to 2pm. that is all not direct as I have some mature trees that filter and block the sun at various times.

I have some bricks and a plastic grate to help elevate the pots. As the plants grow I cam lower them. This also overs shade/hiding for 12 Cherry barbs and 4 zipper loaches

** The strap was a bit more involved, I can go into detail idd someone needs the info.

AaronT

Cool idea to stick a HOB filter on there. I'm planning to try one of those cheapo solar pumps on mine this year.

They make hard plastic liners that fit right inside those barrels. The HD by me doesn't have the real barrels this year so that's a nice find!

DogFish2.0

Thanks Arron

The barrel was $29. My local garden center had the liners for $62 that's insane. The plastic tub liner also did not fot that well. It was not tight to the sides.
If this works well this summer I might try to either epoxy or rubber to seal the inside.

And old HOB put to good use. I really wanted this simple and so far it works well.

duff

That's pretty darn cool! Great idea for the liner and HOT filter. - you could also use great stuff, I was playing around with it this weekend. If you press something into it (say a trash bag), it spreads out and actually one can goes along way - spreads out thin underneath.

I may have to try your Idea, I'd love to try a few pond/ bog plants, this jsut may be the ticket.

How are the plants doing for you?

Ha, I do the same with my house plants - drag them out for summer, in for winter.... all 15 of them!

wabisabi

Nice setup.

Love your Hosta. I can't get them to grow nice and lush like that. I think it's too hot for them here.

DogFish2.0

Duff - The Great Stuff sounds interesting kinda like making a background. Price would be right. I was thinking about the roll on Truck bed liner rubber I don'y know if it's toxic? I also thought bought doing the prep whorl and running it over to the Rino-Liner dealer.

I have new growth on everything The most dramatic is the C. Keei The color is bright and C. Keei has ben hard for me to keep going.

DogFish2.0

Thanks, I can't claim much skill on them. Here in the midwest they are weeds. That's a 40' row that warps around to a 10'x10' area. In the rear of the house I have another 15'x15' of those and a 15'x15' of the giant blue host that I just split out of 3 clumps and replanted.

And all of it needs to split in 1/2 this fall...

I'm actually more proud of the Mango in the pic. Behind it is a 16 y.o. Grapefruit tree started from a seed!! I'll add another pic soon.

duff

Price was my thought as well. three cans for around $10. I was playing around with GS this weekend to see what one could do with it and if you squish it down you end up with a very plastic like coating.

I wonder if 2 cans of the black foam would be enough to cover it, then you could skip the liner.... Or what about using 100% silicone -pretty cheap at the big box store.... I don't know enough about using silicone, I wonder if that might work?

In doing a quick search it looks like it might be safe (rhino-liner) one site has Shrimp Tank under their Spray What section.

BTW, whats "doing the prep whorl"?

DogFish2.0

Duff - Prep work...Fat fingers & bad eyes = Typos

My barrel was chard for aging whiskey. I'm not sure if they do that to wine barrels??

Mine would need the chard surface blasted or ground off prior to any type of permanate liner being installed.

wabisabi

lol, Mango grows like weeds here! One of my favorite fruits! Have you had any fruit from those trees?

C.keei turns into a different plant in high light. Glad to see yours is enjoying the outdoors.