I am thinking about making a glass bottom creek?

Question

I am thinking of tadpoles and minnows. How can I arrange a filter to take water out of one end? Can I buy one somewhere?

it is going to be a small indoor kinda thing and i am just going to keep the tadpoles and stuff in there until they grow up then return the to the lake

Answer 1

That's a really fun idea. As far as a few tips:

Make it as long as you can, the longer the better.

You will have to have it slope downhill of course, but keep the low end a few feet up and you can allow the over flow at the end to run into a wet/dry filter. Then a decent sized pump will return it to the top.

I would aosl suggest you create many small pools all along your creek. I the power were to go out, the water needs to collect in those areas and not just run out the end leaving your fish and wildlife high and dry.

Designing the bottom end to hold enough water back so that your filter doesn't over flow when the power goes out will be the biggest challenge of the filteration side of this project. Research and design carefully. B uilt a wooden version of this at a local high school and it took several hours of design work. Frankly , it took longer than the saltwater tidal marsh we built there the previous year.

It will be a challenging project for you, but it's entirely a "doable" project.

Feel free to email me about it if you run into trouble.

MM

Answer 2

Well, it sort of seems to me that you need to think a few things through a little more and do some research. Not because you want to make a glass bottom creek, although that is an issue in itself, but also because I question whether you realize that tadpoles and minnows are babies that grow up into other things and whether you are ready to deal with those adult animals. Also, regardless of what the bottom of a pond or artificial creek is lined with, all of them use a filter/pump at one end with a tube that recycles the water back to the starting point. That's how the whole system works and you can buy all of these anywhere that sells pond equipment. It's just that, with a creek, you would need to buy a stronger filter/pump and a much longer length of tubing for the return water and would need to bury that tubing underground. Because of that, you might want to consider using a joinder that attached flexible tubing from the end of the creek to pvc that would be buried underground. Now, with regard to the glass. This is highly impractical. It is going to get covered with dirt, leaves, other debris and algae and you will never see the glass. Additionally, it would be very expensive, both with the glass itself as well as labor to install it, even if you did it yourself. I would suggest that, if you must have glass, to just pour the creek with concrete and then press in glass tiles or marbles, etc. Again, once they get dirty, you'll never see them and it would require at least weekly cleaning, if not more often, to keep the glass and water sparkling so you could see the glass. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I just really think glass outdoors is not such a good idea.

Answer 3

that sounds pretty neat, but maybe you should consider something besides glass. it breaks easily, and upon doing so can waste a lot of your money.

filters are available in stores (pet stores may be the best) as well as online. if you are unsure, try looking on the web for tips and tricks as well as product information and ratings.

good luck!

Answer 4

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