Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I am interested in suggestions for heating relatively large indoor pools (500-1000 gallons) for tropical fish. I am looking for methods other than conventional aqurium heaters.

For the past few years I have heated an indoor pool (wooden frame lined with flexable pond liner) of about 300 gallons with a waterbed heater. While it has worked okay, I do not trust it completely.

Thanks,
Steve

you may want to do a combination of a waterbed heater and depending on what type of filter you are going to use (cannister vs wet/dry), you can put a heater in the filter system.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

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Chris,

Thanks for the suggestions. I had considered using a heating inside an external filter, as you suggested, but what I hadn't thought of was using it in conjuntion with the waterbed heater. That is definately worth consideration. When (If?) I do build the larger pool, of perhaps 1000 gallons, I may see what type of heaters I can find from a commercial aquaculter supplier.

Thanks for the info.
Steve

Hi Steve,

Do you have any pictures of your pools? I would like to make an indoor pool for my turtle and would love to see what yours looks like. Do you have any suggestions on how to make one?

Thanks,
Rebecca and Crush (the RES turtle)

Hi Rebecca and Crush,

Right now, due to some computer difficulties I am experiencing, pictures are kind of a hassle for me. I could probably send some to you in the future if you are still interested though.

However, this concept of indoor pools is something that I have been working on for some time now and I would be happy to share some of my thoughts with you. I will give you just some brief descriptions here, but if you are interested in more detail let me know.

What I feel is probably the easiest way to build an indoor pool has a number of variations. To start with you would need to build a frame out of wood. I used pressure treated or marine plywood to build a rectangle shape (no top or bottom) and reinforced it with 2x4s around the outside to prevent the wood from bowing. (The one I built is 6ft x 4ft x 2ft, however the one I intend to build next will be 8ft x 4ft x 4ft.)

I then bought sheets of foam-board insulation, cut a piece to fit inside on the bottom and then four more pieces to fit on the inside walls. After that I simple put the waterbed heater in place on the bottom and installed a flexible pond liner as you might use for an outdoor water garden.

Now the one I made was intended on only being a temporary holding tank, so I have not really gone much further to make it look appealing. I built an internal biological filter, however when I build the larger pool I will be using an external filter. The internal filter was simply easier and cheaper for me to put together at the time. It doesn't look all that great, but everything works well and that was all I intended in that case.

Another variation that can be used is once the wooden frame is completed, rather than putting insulation and a liner on the inside, the wood could be coated with some sort of epoxy paint or perhaps a fiberglass resin (nontoxic of course) which would waterproof it. In that case you could then put insulation on the outside to help reduce heat loss.

There are numerous materials that you could use on the outside of the above design to make them look nice once the basic work has been done. Or, conversely, if you were to use the liner, you could also construct the box out of landscape ties, rather than plywood and 2x4s, but that would significantly increase both the cost and weight of the final project.

Another possibility, which isn't too terribly difficult, is to buy one of the hard plastic, pre-formed water gardens. You would then need to construct a platform (raised floor) in which you would then need to cut out an opening the correct size and shape for the pool to drop into, allowing the lip to rest on the floors surface. The platform should be just tall enough so that the pool will sit level with the bottom of the pool sitting on the floor for support.

You would probably want to cover the surface of the platform with something to waterproof it, and then you could cover it with mulch or pebbles to make it look nicer, as well as use flat stones to cover up the edges of the pool.

There are a number of other options as well, and numerous variations of the above, but this will give you some ideas and I can provide you with more details on anything specific if you want.

I have built versions of both of the above examples (not however the type where the wood is coated, rather than using a liner) and they do work. And they can certainly be built in ways to make them look nice as well.

Steve