Habitat - Outdoor :: Still planning and have questions

[Dutch-az]

Greets all,

We are in the planning phase of constructing a garden "oasis" in our backyard here in a 'burb of Phoenix. I have most of it figured out but have a few questions. Let me give a basic detail of the garden then I'll ask my questions.

The area will be 320 sq.ft. (20 'x 16'), bounded by the house on 2 sides, a block wall, and a to-be-constructed post & rail fence, faced with garden fence to keep the dogs out and turtles in. The water features include a 4' waterfall cascading into a creek, running 12' to a 12' x 4' bean-shaped pond. Calculating with a 1.5' average depth, this is just at 650 gallons. There will be a skimmer pump in the pond, pushing the water back up to the weir with a biofilter at the top of the waterfall. The landscaping will be xeroscape and desert plants, river rock, pea-gravel, and spaced flagstone. So here are my questions:

1. Is this a large enough habitat to support 2 RES's?

2. Given that we have only 5-7 days of temps below freezing in the winter, and temps well into the 110's in the summer, how deep should the deepest part of the pond be?

3. Will the garden fence (with 2"w x 4"h "holes") be adequate to keep the turtles in?

4. Do we need to provide dry-land housing for the winter, and if so, does it need to be heated?

5. does the pond need to be heated for the winter?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[steve]

Sounds great!
1 - Yes
2 - I would try for 3 or 4'
3 - Possibly, but what about predators?
4 - Depends on your winter conditions
5 - Depends on the temperatures, size and health of your turtles

[Skids]

i use to live in arizona around 3 months ago. The only thing i would worry about is the temp of the water and algae. With the sun and heat in AZ consider UV sterilizer and good water flow. The slower the water flow the easier it will be for algae to grow.

[Dutch-az]

With the abundant sunshine here, it doesn't seem that a UV sterilizer would be necessary. Becasue of the 3 foot+ high waterfall, the watercourse, and the biofilter, we are looking at a 1200gph pump. That should give us adequate water flow. We will be adding frog-bit and, should we have an algae issue, algae-eating fish as necessary.

We are hoping the height of the falls will allow for enough of an evaporative cooling effect for the water. If not, we have a back-up plan for a small solar-powered fountain to put in the shallow end of the pond - the deep end will be 3 feet deep.