Habitat - Outdoor :: The Bale Vale Tale

[devilduck]

My condolences for your loss, I wasn't expecting it after seeing the great pictures load up on your post.

[steve]

Sorry to hear about your husband. I remember him from a picture you posted... very sad news.

[apondfortimmy]

Some good news, at least:

I answered an ad on Craigslist for "Free Fill Dirt" and it turns out they could fill in my pool (tear down and all too) and level the yard for a fraction of the cost I was quoted previously (which was prohibitively priced).
So right now the turtles are once again in the garage, the chickens and ducks are in a cage in my dining room, and my backyard is one day away from being flat and just dirt. They even said they'd dig out a hole big enough for the large Rubbermaid pond for no extra charge once they're done.

I'm getting a new turtle pond area, with room for a fish pond that the turtles can't get into, a waterfall (or two), and enough room for all the big turtles to live comfortably. I know 300 gallons isn't *technically* enough for the turtles but now the thing'll be the ACTUAL 300 gallons without stuff in the middle. And it'll be filled up to the top (I'm hoping).

The sad part of all this is that my husband and I had been discussing plans to do just this and now we won't be able to celebrate together. I'm also finally getting the bedroom painted so I can get the carpet in that we should have had in three months ago (insurance paid for new carpet after a bathroom flood). I'm keeping myself busy so I don't have to think.

I'll have a really nice house and yard once this month is over.

I don't have any pictures yet because ... well, because I just don't feel much like pulling them off my phone right now. I'll post some soon, though.

[cutepanda86]

*hugs* Do what you have to and fill us in when you can.

[steve]

Yes, please do.

[apondfortimmy]

Good news -

Backyard: flattened
Pond hole: excavated
Big tank: sunk
Turtles: in
Pictures: later

I have to run to lowes for a few pieces to finish the filters and then we are ready and set to build the waterfalls.

[cutepanda86]

Glad to hear it's working.

[apondfortimmy]

I wanted to run this by ya'll before I started in with the silicone and sealing.

Two pumps with two filters for each pump (one a sludge filter and the other a biofilter). The water is pumped from the turtle pond through the filters and up to a waterfall that goes into the fish and plant pond, then waterfalls down to the turtle pond.




The shelving is hopefully going to be used to hold up the waterfall part, which should be composed of the flagstone that was pulled off the sides of the pool.


Here are my progress pictures so far:
Yay dumptruck!

Yay getting dirt!

YAY BREAKIN' SOME SH - I mean STUFF !

Yay buried pond! (they dug that hole for me, thank goodness)


And today's progress shot:


And here is where I kept the chickens during the day when the construction crew needed to be where they were:


And, as a bonus, a picture of a chicken looking at you through the fence.


So do you think the filter ideas will work ok? They're both completely independent and adjustable, which makes it possible for one to be a backup if the other fails. I have to install sludge drains on the front filter buckets but I'm not doing that until later; I've run out of space and energy and I want to see what other landscaping I'm going to be able to do before I set up anything that'll drain onto it. I'm likely just going to stop the pump, remove the bucket from the line-up, wash it / clean it, put it back, replace it when necessary. One at a time, even, if I want. With two filters it should be ok enough to keep the fish and plants from suffering, I hope. I'm going to use some of the bio-material from my other, well-established filter in the garage that I built a while ago. That water is shiny and perfect.

Sooooooooo... I guess that's about it. Yay?

[cutepanda86]

Very impressive. I don't have any experience in this but it looks great.

[dumbork14]

Great progress! How are all the turtles faring? I bet they're excited for their new home.

[steve]

Looks great! I'm not sure about the filtration either, do you have it running yet?

[apondfortimmy]

I am about to go install everything right now. I hope it doesn't explode.

[cutepanda86]

Fingers crossed but I'm sure it's fine!

[apondfortimmy]

Nothing exploded but two things leaked. Fixing those and trying again.

[cutepanda86]

Well only two things leaking isn't so bad.