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I'm buying a stock tank next summer as a new home for my 2 turtles. i was wondering if during the summer season, if a heater is needed to keep the water temp up? or can i slide by and depend on the sun to keep my turtles/water warm?

If you have reasonably warm summers, you won't need a heater. How warm does it get where you are? The sun will heat up the water in a stock tank fairly fast, depending on the size. The stock tank should have a portion of it shaded.

i live in virginia, and summer days can get pretty hot, average around high 80s mid 90s,

Then your problem is going to be how to keep the tank/water from getting too warm...

if i dont need a heater for the stock tank, then i shouldnt have problems with temp. along side of warmer temps here in VA, i have lots of shady areas around my patio area.

I personally think a heater is necessary in your situation.

How so? If the temps get as warm as high 80's, mid 90's during the day, the water would get warmed and stay warm well into the night. It would drop, but shouldn't get that cool (unless there's something about Virginia weather I don't know about ).

I'm thinking that it will be above ground, so the temp changes may be more than anticipated. Of course, I'm fairly paranoid about water temps in general and it can't hurt to have a heater around, especially after a water change.

If the stock tank is above ground, the water in the stock tank will warm up and be warmer than if it was in in-ground pond, at least during the day (therefore the potential problem of trying to keep the water temp down). If the stock tank is a larger size and the filtration is good, I wouldn't think that many water changes (at least full ones) would be necessary. If the temps are as was stated for any length of time, that sounds pretty warm to me. If the summer was a really cool one, then it would be good to have that extra water heater on hand...

That's sort of what I mean... the water will heat up and cool off quicker. The cooling off period at night is when I would want to have a heater present, though that would depend on the temp lows. Since this is a permanent home (I think), then sneaky will need it eventually.

i would get a water heater, but i dont even know what one looks like for a pond. ive posted a topic asking someone to show me what a pond heater looks like and all ive gotten were pictures of De-Icers.

I have 2 above ground rubbermaid stock tanks. One is a 300 gallon, the other is a 50 gallon. I keep the 300 gallon on the end part of my covered patio where it gets sun a good part of the day. I have the drain facing the edge of the patio where it drains off into rocks. I am near Sacramento CA where we can get some pretty hot summers. The water temperature is great in the spring summer even when we get some hot summers as it is under the cover. Now I am having to use a heater to be able to put them outside part of the day as our temperatures are dropping a lot at night. I have a 500 watt azoo heater - bought on the recommendation of oldturtle72 awhile back. It works great now at keeping the temperature an even 76 degrees. We cover this large stock tank with a spa cover at night (purchased for only $5 at a yard sale).

I find that when I put my smaller 50 gallon stock tank out in the yard in the sun it can sometimes get too hot on our hot summer days. Since it is only 50 gallons it is easy to drain and refill when that is the case. What gallon stock tank were you planning on getting and where would you be putting it? I still bring all turtles in at night to protect for predators. I use algaefix (also recommended by oldturtle72) to control the algae in the stock tanks. It works great.

sneakyburrito, I don't see why you can't use regular water heaters with your pond.

i was planning to get a 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tank. unless they make heaters for 300 gallon aquariums, the idea of buy 4-5 regular heaters isnt my cup of tea.