Recently, the wife and I were forced to move back in with my mother-in-law due to loosing our jobs. That wasn't too terribly bad...but the MIL hates having three large aquariums in her living room, and they all give off a little bit of a smell that she seems very sensitive to (I don't even notice it). After a long discussion, I suggested building a pond in the backyard: it would bring up her property value AND provide a much better place for our turtles.
Could anyone give advice regarding building a pond from scratch? I want to do a custom pond, with a liner...I just started soaking the ground and removing the top layer of grass (that's a pain in the cloaca). I have never done anything like this before...I have done a little research and talked to the guys at Lowes, so I think I know the basics...but if anyone else has built one, I could use advice on the pitfalls to avoid. I am shooting for something mid-sized so as not to overpower the backyard...say, 9 feet by 7 feet, rounded edges, shallow on one side with a little turtle beach type area for sand play. I live in deep south texas, with no real winter to speak of. Temperatures average around 90-100 during the day for 9 months out of the year, dropping down to about 70-80 at night. There are two dogs (only one big enough to pose any real threat, and she is scared of the turtles).
We have three turtles (although I may only put one or two in):
1. Thomas: Female RES, 6 years old, about 9 inches in shell length
2. Lily: Male RES, 1.5 years old, 5 inches in shell length
3. Dax: Male YBS, 1.5 years old, 5.5 inches in shell length
Doing pretty good so far...dug about 6X7 and it's 3 feet deep. Going to be buying the pond liner tomorrow.
