Hot tub to pond conversion

[billewicz]

I converted an old hot tub to a side yard pond a couple of weeks ago. We have a growing group of Bufo americanus or common American Toads hopping about the garden, yard and side patio.

They seem to like to hunt under the patio light at night and will wait for my loose feeder crickets to pass under the door. So this year I decided to convert an old hot tub into their very own breeding pond.



No sooner the weather started to warm up I found a couple of visitors floating around on the cork bark. Today I heard some really loud calling from the new pond and soon after we had an amplexed pair.



I'd love to see some gray tree frogs settle in as well. That would be cool.

 

[darkFrOst]

That is a great idea! do you have the filter running in the tub? would be great for a turtle pond.

 

[billewicz]

That is a great idea! do you have the filter running in the tub? would be great for a turtle pond.

In this case no because I wanted it for local, native Gray tree frog and American toad breeding. (Also, it's the pump assembly that is broken on this tub.)

I dumped dry Oak leaves in to create the tannin tea, added lots of floating cork bark, water plants and bamboo poles so they can get in and out.

I used two large 5" round bubble-up air stones in the middle to create some motion in the water but hopefully not enough to deter egg laying.

I have not decided what I'll do after tadpole season is over. Maybe nothing since almost everything else that I might have in there long term would eat the eggs next year. It would be interesting to see if a Leopard frog or two show up. It's amazing to me how they just seem to appear.

As for filtering, I was just going to do a partial change out as needed later on. My garden will love the water from the pond!