Outdoor tanks....

[Ron Sower]

Any plans by anyone to place a tank outside this coming summer? 

This past summer I had a plastic grey tote bin that I'd put water in to keep some plants until I found homes for them. After a few weeks of leaving it out there I went back to just see what I had and there were little short threads with eyes streaking around in the water! I had thrown in some plants from my CPD tank and woworae tank which apparently had eggs in them.  They hatched, grew out and I was able to trade them...!

This summer I'm going to do the same thing, but with an old 72g tank I have!  At least, that's the plan!

As a side note....A couple years ago the BAP chair in our club, Cory McElroy started ''The Great White Cloud Race''.  The deal was to put 12 white clouds in a container of some sort that was placed outside beginning May1, I think. On Sep1 we are supposed to count the total number white clouds and turn in our numbers for some kind of prize. I think it's been going on for 2 years now. It had some interesting numbers turned in as I recall.

[PaulineMi]

That sounds like a fun project. Do you just put the container of water with plants and fish in a sheltered/shaded area and top it off as needed?

[Ron Sower]

Totally unattended!  Just filled it with H2O, and left it alone. Rain filled it. Sun part of the day, shade part of the day! No feeding once I found the fish in it.  It developed just like a pond would.  I tossed in floating plants and submerged plants. They fed off the micro-organisms that appeared naturally.

[Mugwump]

That's cool, I like the idea too...

[PaulineMi]

Washington gets more rain than we do though. May have to make adjustments for that part. Have to remember to try this next spring.

[Ron Sower]

Actually Pauline, we get very little rain in the summer.  It's what we all wait for every year!

BTW we're on the west side of the Cascade Mtns. and we're wet from mid-late September til June, with considerably mild temperatures.  The east side of the mountains gets a lot less rain than we do.  It's actually high dessert-like or subdessert-like conditions over there with very cold winters and very hot dry summers.

[PaulineMi]

My friend and I spent a week last May on the west side.  Yep....wet...but so beautiful.

[Ron Sower]

We laugh about the summer starting here on July 5! Usually after that there is little rain til the fall! Before I moved out here 15 years ago I though my wife-to-be was just kidding.  NOT...!

[BillT]

Actually Pauline, we get very little rain in the summer.  It's what we all wait for every year!

BTW we're on the west side of the Cascade Mtns. and we're wet from mid-late September til June, with considerably mild temperatures.  The east side of the mountains gets a lot less rain than we do.  It's actually high dessert-like or subdessert-like conditions over there with very cold winters and very hot dry summers.

It is just like that to the south in Oregon also.