Tub ponds made easy.

How to set up a low maintenance tub pond with a little help from nature.
In this video I show my tried and tested methods for setting up these wonderful little water gardens. Together with some of my tips and ticks for easy long term maintenance. Simple natural algae control, and clear water.
Plant list.
Sagittaria lancifolia var ruminoides, Thalia dealbata, Cyperus giganteus, Colocasia ‘Pink China’ Peltandra virginica, Echinodorus palaefolius, Orontium aquaticum, Iris laevigata, Nymphaea hybrids.
If you’d like to know more about my ponds and tub gardens, I’d be eternally grateful if you’d subscribe and give me a like.
Learn more about these tubs and my other water garden projects here (full playlist) ... • Ponds and water gardening
But most importantly enjoy your aquatic exploits, don’t be a slave to them.
Thanks for watching.

[@BirdsPawsandClaws]

Wonderful video. I have 3 pots I think I will try to convert to a pond like these! Thanks for the video and inspiration!

[@aquaticsbynature]

Hi, I'm glad you found my video useful. Good luck with your pots.......enjoy :)

[@RoyalMetal9]

Amazing! I had no idea you had so many ponds. I’ve been doing a 40 gallon tub pond every summer for about 4 years now. It’s so enjoyable. I’m thinking about doing more. Thanks. I love your videos.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you once again :) I used to have several hundred ponds, but now I no longer have the nursery I'm gradually reducing them to make space for more garden here :) But I'm sure I'll aways find room for a few tubs. As you rightly say they're so enjoyable. I tend to keep these tubs running for at least a few years. Mainly because it takes a year or two for them to really establish here. Our relatively cool temperate climate and short growing season slow things up quite a bit. Thanks again, enjoy the tubbing season :)

[@LadeanaWhite]

Lovely tub ponds😊☮❤🐠🦐🪴

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you, glad you like them :)

[@dianaheaphy8294]

I really enjoyed this video… and this is information I needed at exactly the right time. I will be following your subsequent installments throughout the season! Thank you!

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you so much :) Glad you found it useful :)

[@ivanyardley1663]

Great video, James. I think people would also be interested in seeing your garden and they way you plant your palms etc

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks Ivan, good to hear from you :) I might think about doing some videos about my garden, but that would mean starting another channel. So I'm really not sure I can make the time.

[@ivanyardley1663]

@@aquaticsbynature I think you could do some one-off specials on your existing channel. Variety is the spice of life after all! And many people with an interest in aquariums and ponds are likely to have an interest in semi-tropical plants too. Like we both are. Your newly planted up area that I saw in the pond video looks good and I noticed that even your Cycas appears to have a new flush of leaves. Mine is still thinking about it.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks Ivan. What I might consider is adding something about the garden at the end of a pond video. That way, anyone who's interested can watch to the end. I know the algorithm would hate it, but it's a much easier way of doing something. The Cycas leaves you can see are actually last years flush. Totally undamaged this winter, so they look new. No sign of this years flush yet though.

[@jonisolis9645]

@@aquaticsbynature well you could add some of your garden views when you do the pond videos. People like to see how a pond adds to a garden.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Great idea thanks. I could just pan round a bit more :)

[@philcarlino6942]

A very informative video. I love the photos of the lilies, they are such lovely plants!

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you :)

[@jonisolis9645]

I wish I could find that size tub in my area. So glad you are making videos on your tubs. I love my little ponds!

[@aquaticsbynature]

These ones are commonly used as sumps for water features here. So that might be a good area to look :) Happy hunting :)

[@pieterboersma5518]

Fantastic James..time to ask George Famer again Love it Greatings Pieter Holland 🇱🇺

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks Pieter. :) Yes George does intent to come back sometime, but we haven't decided on a time yet.

[@frankvermeulen4621]

Thanks for this. I've been debating some sort of pond for quite a while, but this seems to be the way to go about it. But probably next spring. Right now, I'm too much of a slave to my aquariums and the rest of the garden. 😅

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks Frank once again. I must admit I'm somewhat distracted by outdoor projects right now. But I'll get back to the aquariums once I get things organised :)

[@matthewsmith22]

This is wonderful, I was planning to tidy mine up ready for the season tomorrow.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you :) I hope you enjoy yours too.

[@darkshireaquatics]

awesome video✌✌

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you so much :)

[@jonisolis9645]

I have started many little ponds since 2015 yet rarely get many Daphnia showing up in any of them and I really never see them in the neighborhood ponds. I do remember them showing up in one of my rain buckets but not many. I do get other lifeforms like worms, waterbugs, snails, tadpoles, and mosquito hawks. I just checked one of my little ponds that I have not added any fish to yet and I do see some tiny daphnia in it. I think that since I add floating plants to most of my ponds there might not be enough nutrition in the water for many daphnia to develope.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks for your comments once again :) As you've found daphnia don't always just turn up on their own, which is why I tend to add them deliberately. And certainly with my ponds I tend to get an initial explosion, but once things settle down they can disappear once again. All part of the fun really, and every tub is different. :)

[@lazygardener6278]

Beautiful lilies. Your water lily pots would be ideal for keeping seasonal fish in summer. The pots would be perfect for Medaka, Elassoma or Paraphanius mento. These animals are wintered at approx. 10°C, e.g. in a cellar aquarium.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you for your comments :) Unfortunately it's no longer legal to keep those fish here in ponds. Before they were banned in ponds I did try and keep Medaka, but they always got eaten by dragon fly larvae. So I'll probably just keep a few native sticklebacks in a couple of them.

[@chongli297]

Thanks, James! What a treat! I'm sure Monet would have loved to relax and paint the lilies in your ponds! Just beautiful! Do you stock them with fish after they become established and stabilized?

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks once again :) As you've probably guessed water lilies are another passion of mine. Most of the ones pictured here are actually unique hybrids which I've bred over the years. I generally don't put fish in the tubs, partly because there' are very few small fish which are actually legal to keep here outdoors. And partly because it's much easier to keep the tubs clear without fish. Oh, and plus I love watching all the critters that live in there that fish would eat.

[@lesleycherryward1290]

I'm in the uk. Feeling inspired. Love the tubs you're using. They are fabulous. Could let me know their dimensions and if possible a stockist? Cheers. 😊

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you for your kind comments. These tubs are about a metre across, and are very commonly sold in aquatic centres in the U.K. They're often sold as holding tanks for water features. Good luck. :)

[@zaidlancaster6805]

Those flowers look amazing! Question, whats the purpose of the smaller tubs within the big tubs? Is it to keep the lilys at bay?

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks :) The inner tubs are simply there to prevent the plants rooting into one solid mass. Just for easy future maintenance really :)

[@zaidlancaster6805]

@@aquaticsbynature Oh wow thats a great idea! Ill have to remmeber that one when ever I set up mine, thank you!

[@aquaticsbynature]

You are very welcome :)

[@thesolaraquarium]

fascinating that you are able to do ponds with low nutrient water (low nutrient soil). I do it indoors all the time but outside I failed. Low nutrient water is the great contradiction in our hobby. Seems implausible, but every successful natural aquatic biotope (as far as I am aware) has low nutrient water. Then how do plants grow? I wish I could answer that. One day I hope to work it out? Brown loam is my soil of choice. It is fantastic for plants and lower in nutrients than black soil. Means less algae.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Hi again :) Yes I'm very much in agreement, using comparatively low nutrient soil (loam) is much easier to manage, especially in regard to algal issues. The way nature always finds a way is a constant fascination, even if it is very often incompressible in its complexity. So many symbiotic relationships I'm sure are at play, just give them basic stability and sufficient time. :)

[@thesolaraquarium]

@@aquaticsbynature yes you said it ‘comparitively’. Brown loam contains ‘alot’ of nutrients. It is just that it contains less than black soil. Just as aquatic substrates contain less than terrestrial. It is relative. I hope to do a video in the next few weeks/months about ‘terrestrial’ versus ‘aquatic’. You have been a great inspiration. Your observation of lower nutrient aquatic substrates (depleted dirt) and the transition from terrestrial to aquatic helped my thinking. 6 months ago I revitilised a depleted substrate with common garden fertiliser (probably mostly ammonia) Osmocote. The results were interesting. It worked but I got alot of deep green water and the effects were not as effective as I was looking for. It was substandard imo.

[@davidl5402]

Based on your recommendations I manage to procure some ramshorns and lymnaea stagnalis for my tub ponds. One problem seems to be that the local birds have taken a fancy to the lymnaea, and I’m finding empty shells in my flower beds! Any suggestions to avoid a total wipeout?

[@aquaticsbynature]

Hi, Yes birds can be a nuisance, especially with new ponds where there isn't much cover yet. It's really just a matter of having enough snails so the they breed faster than the wild life removes them. But this naturally takes a bit of time, so it may be necessary to net the tub initially. In many way the birds etc help to regulate the population, which helps remove excess nutrients from the tubs. So it's not entirely a bad thing. I don't think I've ever experienced a total wipe out, snails always seem to find a way :) Good luck.

[@stephaniehirst2600]

Iv been dabbling with the idea of a tub pond so this is very interesting but rather than put in plants in baskets could i just put in loads of soil and cap it with some sand and put the plants straight into the substrate?if so how deep a substrate for the plants to root into if its possible.

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks for your comments. I have set up many of these tubs as you describe in the past. Planting things directly in the soil is undoubtedly more natural and works really well. The downside is that in the confines of a tub it's almost impossible to divide many plants once they get too big. You really have to empty the whole thing. So I mostly use pots just to make maintenance easier. Either way around 4 inches of soil seems to be about right for most things. Good luck with yours :)

[@stephaniehirst2600]

Thanks you've been a big help and iv learnt alot from your video.

[@janetrussell3288]

I wonder if your snails are going to stay put? As the pots touch each other they might be able to move between them. I find snails above the water line in my lidded aquarium, perhaps your snails might go exploring after dew fall or on days with light rain.

[@aquaticsbynature]

You're absolutely right, as I said in the video the segregation will only be temporary. One way or another they will all end up as mixed populations. Which is actually a good thing long term anyway :)

[@rowanwhite3520]

Wonderful video! Do your mini ponds freeze over in winter?

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thank you for your kind comments. :) Yes these tubs can freeze really hard here in winter. We can have lows of around minus 12Celsius, but all of these plants (with the exception of the Colocasia which is new to me), have proven totally hardy for me in these tubs.

[@rowanwhite3520]

@@aquaticsbynature Wow, that's awesome! I live in US Zone 6 and have a couple of mini ponds, but sink my ponds so they take the cold better. They will get about an inch of ice on the top. Your water lilies are amazing!

[@aquaticsbynature]

Zone 6 is pretty chilly, I think I'm around zone 8 here. But even so being raised these tubs will occasionally get 4inches of ice in really prolonged cold spells. Plus they freeze from the side too, but touch wood these plants have all proven hardy in these conditions for me. :)

[@lpoolck17]

Looking forward to the snail experiment. The amount of sunlight each individual pond will also need to be taken into consideration. Sorry as I'm sure I'm teaching you how to suck eggs!

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks, me too :) As you rightly point out there are many variables, subsequently as an experiment it will never exactly stand up to peer review. But hopefully it'll be interesting to follow going forwards. :)

[@rahulratre7741]

Well here in India keeping a tub pond outside will not work i guess since we use tap water and water here is really hard and the temprature here reaches 48°C in summer and 32°C in winter and lowest 12°C so the water will probaly evoprate leaving minerals

[@aquaticsbynature]

Thanks for your comments. Certainly extreme climates can make things more difficult, but keeping water plants in hot climates can certainly be done. It's apparently very popular in countries like Thailand. But obviously with very different plants to here. Temperatures here range from minus12C in winter to a record high of 40C in summer.

[@gaganmagger]

I am from India. I have had 3 ponds for 2 years now.. they are doing fine.. I placed them such that they only get partial sunlight from morning to noon. I top it off every week, and they are very densely planted with some guppies.

[@Wellesly]

What is that tall plant called? Is it Pond Pickerel? At 4:48

[@aquaticsbynature]

It's Peltandra Virginica. :) One of my favourite marginal plants, super hardy and easy to grow. :)

[@Wellesly]

@@aquaticsbynature lovely plant, thanks