What are the options for covering stock tanks?

[marlin08]

For those of you who use outdoor stock tanks for your fish....
What are some options for covering them to keep the unwelcome critters out?
Do you guys have something that you've found to work especially well? Or something that was a total PIA and didn't work well at all ??

I've seen the poly netting and homemade wood frames with hardware cloth/screen or "chicken wire". I've also heard someone talk about using a standard window screen.
I've got to figure out something for the oval 150g stock tank that I've got cycled and ready, before I put fish in and would very much appreciate hearing what's working for others.

[Sabine]

I use netting over the 300 gallon stock tank, and vinyl lattice pieces to cover the smaller tubs at night. The raccoon tried the other day, I saw the muddy paw prints all over, but he didn't succeed. knocking on wood...

[marlin08]

Lattice, what a great idea...much easier than building something, too!

[GlassGoldfish]

http://goldfishkeepers.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=29&pictureid=382

Not pretty, but with this 2x4 wire fencing wrapped around the lid of the pond, it really holds on!

[Veil Gal]

I am wondering if this is a 50 gallon rubbermaid tub? I was thinking of growing out some young shubunkin fry outside on my deck. Just worried that the shallow water would get too warm. The deck gets mostly morning sun (eastern exposure) Not the hot afternoon sun. Any thoughts out there?:youtellme:

[marlin08]

This is actually a 150g Rubbermaid and my deck is covered so it only gets about 1-2 hours of direct sunlight in the afternoon. I am in the deep south so my main concern was keeping it from overheating. Thus far, even with the 106+heat indexes, the highest temp it's gotten to is 84 and that was just for a few hours.
I know morning sun and afternoon shade is preferable for keeping the temps down so that's in your favor but 50 may be too shallow to keep from overheating.
Hopefully someone a lot more knowledgable than I am can jump in, this was one of my main concerns, too.
I'm attaching a picture from before the plants went in. Fish will be going in in the next couple of days.

[bigbettadan]

Main thing is overheating. But keep these things in mind.

Good oxgenated water. Standing water overheats.
Plants do provide some shade
Partial shade is best

Dan

[marlin08]

Main thing is overheating. But keep these things in mind.

Good oxgenated water. Standing water overheats.
Plants do provide some shade
Partial shade is best

Dan

When you say partial shade, how many hours of sun vs. shade do you recommend? Or do you just mean a tank getting sun much of the day with partial shade from plants?

This tub is getting about 1-2 hours direct sunlight a day (indirect light that doesn't go to the bottom for more time). It may not be enough...

My temps are great(84 highest so far during high 90's outside, 70 has been the lowest in early am when night temps in high 60's)I've got lots of agitation for oxygen from the filter fountain, have duckweed growing now and some green algae forming. . I can move it to another corner of my deck that gets more direct sun, maybe 2-3 hours in the pm but high temps will go up.

more sun/high temps vs. less sun/milder temps/algae without algae explosion
:youtellme:

[Fishdork]

I use bird netting with Christmas light holder clips. Flat fiberglass rim will take clip-on holders that stick out and catch netting (last about a year or two in the sun?). Large round poly tank I used light clips with a flat square base and caulked them upside down on the rim instead of the double sided tape they come with. Silicone caulk didn't stick well to old fiberglass but test clips last week stuck using shoe goo, metallic epoxy (JB Weld), and also polyurethane glue (like Gorrilla Glue) but (upside down) they fell off until the glue got foamy.
I consider the bird netting a discouragement, not actually raccoon proof.

Failures include bird netting getting a few holes and koi able to jump out and spend night getting scaled on top of netting. Beware of netting too close to water. Herons will poke beaks through netting (or chicken wire) to grab fish and try to drag them through.
Friend near creek used wood frames with chicken wire for lids. Otter problems made him use bungee cords to keep lids on. Took awhile to realize otters were squeezing in, eating fish, squeezing out and lids were still on.
One guy used chicken wire for fry pond. Dragon flies land on wire, fold wings to get inside, then lay eggs.

I think the theory is black netting causes less vertigo when looking through it.

Norm