Habitat - Outdoor

If it is, I would love it if you were to come by!

Wow that's awesome, hopefully in the future a can too have a backyard pond!

More pics of some of the other life I have around there:

Amazing dragonfly. This thing is as big as the palm of my hand. It's on the horsetail reeds that my turtles seem to love smashing.

Huge fish, huge dragonfly, mosquito fish (that are breeding at a ridiculous rate)...

The green is still there but I can see the bottom in more places and it's just cloudy now, mostly. I guess it was just cycling or recovering from the stuff I had done to it two weeks ago.

Looks nice and peaceful. What kind of plant is that?

They're just basic horsetail reeds, I think. They seem to be pretty hardy because they have survived multiple turtle smashing sessions.

I felt like I should give my turtles someplace else to bask to try and save the reeds. My mom had her big tree trimmed last year and still had all the branches in her yard, so I went and picked out the biggest few. I braced a plastic shelf with bricks and put their little houses underneath it (also braced with bricks laid flat so they won't fall over and land on anyone) and then I locked the wood on the top of it. It's not tied or anything, so there's nothing for them to chew on, but it's stuck on there in such a way that pieces are over other pieces which are under other pieces; it's on there pretty solidly and the shelf could withstand my weight so I figured it was fine for all the turtles at once. There are branches you can't see that fork underneath the shelf to hook it all on there. I put the largest pot of reeds in the crook of where the biggest branch and the shelf meet and it looks pretty cool.

I came home today and LOOK WHAT I SAW:

GREAT SUCCESS

Absorbing those rays before the temp. drops!

Yyyyyyyeah... Speaking of which, I've gotta work on getting a heater set up.

Awesome sight to see them bask like that.

That's a really awesome pic of your turts

great basking spot!
the turtle on the left is like "i'm too cool for the branch." lol

this is so awesome. i think your pool/pond is as big as my yard. my turtle was sitting in front of me on the table whilst i looked at all your pictures and i'm really hoping she wasn't paying attention otherwise she is gonna be bummed when i put her back in her tank. well at least this gives me something to strive for. do most turtle folks have an indoor and outdoor area for their guys or is it usually one of the other?

That dragonfly is beautiful! I love that pic of them basking, so wish I could do that here, but PA gets waaay too cold for it!

As much fun as creating the pond / habitat is, I'm just happy I can help contribute to keeping turtles out of the park ponds or rescue centers or uncared-for tanks. I have learned so, so much about nature, ponds, water habitats, turtles, insects, fish, and ... just EVERYTHING. Oh, and about myself. I've learned to be more patient (plants don't grow in a day!) and I've learned to take time for ME and enjoy the littlest things.

I'm also glad you guys like it. That's such an ego boost when other people think my stuff is cool.

Update on the wintering:
We've decided to do two things this winter to keep the turtles safe and ensure their continued health and survival - we are going to get some large stock tanks and set up a winter habitat in the garage for them (so we can keep them warm, do health checks more easily, get them on a regulated feeding schedule with a better diet), and drain and line the pond.
A friend of mine who used to do ponds in his earlier years (I swear, you meet a lot of really nice people who become good friends when you mention ponds) asked me two questions: What if the plaster cracks? What if the pipes below crack? I said I didn't know what I'd do except to run out there with buckets and try to save my fish and turtles. He said it'd be better to have put in a liner to leak-proof the pool while the turtles are out of it this winter anyway. I thought that was a pretty valid point. It's an old pool, with old pipes, and who knows what could happen. I didn't build the pool so I can't vouch for the construction of it or the plumbing, so...

The plan is to get the turtles situated in the garage with their heaters and lamps and environment and then slowly drain the pool, transferring fish into their own tanks as we go. This will let us get the plecos out as well so they don't die during the winter coldness. The spa area with the snails and such will get a heater since it's smaller and I can regulate that temperature a whole lot easier. Once the fish are out and the pool is drained, I'll start assembling the shaping setup (like the sandbags to create spaces for plants and maybe even a waterfall at the end near the "land" area).

I'm excited about the prospect of having an even BETTER pond for the turtles / fish. Oh, and without the turtles in the pond for a while, my plants should grow enough to withstand the onslaught of herp nomming once they get back in. I am going to have to winter some of the plants inside the house, but we've got Original Timmy's old tank (50ish gallons) and we have a spare 10 gallon aquarium too.

I've found Rubbermaid 300gal containers for about $250; I estimated the number of gallons we'd need per turtle based on shell size and then I added an inch to each and came up with a little over 600 gallons. This means we won't be able to get both at once, but ... over the next few months we should be ok. We don't need one for the fish right away so that'll take some of the pressure off. And then we'll have them available for future winters.

I'm going to go look at other people's stock tank habitats for more ideas.
Do you think the turtles would like a way out onto some grass or would that make them too cold?

That sounds like a awesome plan for the winter. Also since I'm just around the corner let me know if you need another pair of hands to help with anything

YES
Yes yes yes yes! I might need you to come over and give me an experienced hand when I go to take all my little friends out of the pond.

Habitat - Outdoor :: The Pond for Timmy (all the Timmys) (PICS)

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