We won't be here at this house long enough to go through the expense and effort of making a nice pond, but are thinking about a small patio pond.
We saw today the big 100g, 150g ect rubbermaid horse waterers. Not too spendy either. That is one option.
Another is a wine barrel. We are in the middle of wine country and a half barrel isn't that hard to come by here. Seems like it would be more appealing to the eye on the outside. I'm guessing a full wine barrel is 55g, so half barrel would be 27.5. Am I correct in that guess for size?

Bigger would be better, but I also don't want a giant tub sitting on my patio (and don't want to build around it with stones)

What would be required for a patio pond (of either size)...
- what type of filter
- how thick a lining (for the barrel)
- lighting (full sun, part shade, etc)
- protection (we have 2 greyhounds, so no neighborhood cats in our yard, but birds and other things?)
- other things I'm forgetting...

I'd like to put a pond plant (maybe a lily) as well as some of the very small floating plants (no idea what it is called). Depending on size, I would add more pond plants.
Would one fish be 'lonely' or should we go with two? We live in NY, so any fish would have to move inside for the winter into our 65 gal tank (home to 4 small fancies)
Would a fancy do ok in a patio pond setting or would we need to do a common (in which case we could only do one)?

Any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc would be appreciated

What would be required for a patio pond (of either size)...
- what type of filter
- how thick a lining (for the barrel)
- lighting (full sun, part shade, etc)
- protection (we have 2 greyhounds, so no neighborhood cats in our yard, but birds and other things?)
- other things I'm forgetting...


Well....
Here's my ideas, and some links to places that have provided good information, products, and services to me. And some links to pics of my half barrel.

I use a Hydor 300GPH side hanging power filter. I imagine any side hanging power filter that moves a bunch of water is ok as long as it will fit on the edge of the barrel.

For the liner, I would recommend Firestone PondGard EPDM. The walls of the barrels are loaded with yeasts and stuff that helped make the wine. Any transfer can make the pond septic fast. Make sure it's a quality liner whatever you use.
http://www.firestonesp.com/pondgard.asp
http://www.pondliner.com/EPDM.htm

Most lily and water plants like 6 hours or more of full sun. Which means you need to have some plants that cover a good portion of the surface to keep algae growth down. Anarchis help too because they suck up water borne nutrients to help control algae.
http://watergarden.com/pages/plant_care.html (I got a half barrel plant package from them years ago)

I've never had to protect my barrel pond. Well, the garden snails found it and love the Orange Peel Plant, and I found a little frog in it once (but he left). You might want to raise it on a steady platform to keep the dogs from drinking from it. I guess others would have suggestions for protection depending on your location.

Other links:
http://www.well.com/~gjmurphy/pondindex.htm
http://www.jeffcook.com/hbpond.shtml

Pics of my half barrel:
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=45583
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=44558

Hey, Daniel, I love your barrel pond!! And those lilies in there are coming nicely, not to mention that the sunlight does a whole lot for your fish, including brightening their color.
Trudy, I don't think greyhounds are all that crazy about water? At least not as bad as a labrador would be... We have a big german shephard, and although the lady is a water dog like crazy, the only thing she does to our rubbermaid tubs is either drink out of it, or toss her ball into it for us to fetch out. Yeah, in our house we do the fetching! I love greyhounds, got a picture or two?

Do I have pictures?? But of course!


Here's an album that is mostly my 2 greys - click

Jet


Ryan


Jet and Ryan at the beach last week