Habitat - Indoor :: My Indoor, Preformed, Pond Build

[coryd25]

Hey guys, hope all your turtles are doing awesome!!!! Mine are doing awesome as well. They have grown a lot since Ive last posted. I figured they are out growing their 55 gallon aquarium rather quickly. I purchased a 150 gallon preformed pond from home hardware and it sat for a bit until I could figure out how to build a frame around it.

Its dimensions are 4 feet wide by 8 feet long by 16 inches tall. With the walls its another 6 inches. The entire pond is double polyed inside and out for insulation to keep the temperature a little more consistent.

For plumbing I used a bulkhead fitting inside the pond to pump into my homemade filter. The pump supplying the filter is a laguna pumping 660 gph. The filter itself is a rubbermaid 64 liter tote with filter floss, egg crate, 1.5 inch foam from a fabric store, and bio balls. I will also attach pictures of that when I get a chance.

Im moving it into the house today and will be posting more and more pictures as I do need to get this completed!

Feel free to ask any questions! Enjoy.

[steve]

I'm loving what you have going on! Is the pond going to be resting on anything? I'm only asking because I think they use expanding foam under whirlpools for support and noise reduction. Might be worth something to look into/experiment with.

[Kansasslider]

Looking great and good job. Cant wait to see more. Not to be harsh but you could have left more room for rocks plants etc above the tank on the sides. But then again I don't know what kind of space you have. Anyway nice job!

[coryd25]

Thanks Steve and kansas, yeah I put cinder blocks underneath the "steps" going down on all corners and chocked them with plywood so the pond is resting on that as well and should keep it from de forming in those spots.

I know I didn't leave a ton of room on the edges because I don't have a ton of room in my spare room. Originally I was going to leave a foot on all sides. But then I decided to just make a larger basking area on the end.

[Kansasslider]

That's cool. Like I said looks good and cant wait to see it finished. I thought about building something like that some time ago.

[coryd25]

I appreciate it kansas It's moved into my spare room now, plumbing is all hooked up. Just have to put some rock around the edges, get some plants of some sort to make her prettY (I'm thinking faux) then some round river rocks for the basking spot I'm thinking. What do you guys think I should put in the basking spot for them to catch rays on?

[Kansasslider]

Your welcome. Wild turtles prefer wood. But mine have s nice large 2'x2' rock and they like it just fine. Do you have any large flat rocks in your area? The tall part the basking area?

[coryd25]

These ones are store bought hatchlings, had them from day one. I don't know about large rocks, but the white egg crate is for the lights to sit on top of and the basking area will be underneath it.

[Kansasslider]

You could use tile or flat stones. Some people use reptile carpet.

[unclejoe]

I am enjoying this thread.. Thanx for sharing your project.. One question, I see you are putting it on wood or laminate flooring, did you put anything underneath incase of leakage or water overflow when refilling?

As for basking, our wild turtles loved basking on the banks either in the dirt if water levels were low or on the grass. I think I would provide them with something similar.. I realize growing grass indoors is not a good option.. but maybe a dirt area of some sort.. Also I like the idea of wood as well.. If I could figure a way to put a piece of drift wood or log, in there and give them the option of one spot or the other.. That is what I would do.. Even maybe a piece of wood in basking area that they can crawl up on if you don't wanna have multiple lamps..

[Kansasslider]

The turtles where I live bask on whats available. The lake I fish has 5 large logs in the water and thats where they bask. Away from shore. Same goes with the river I fish only its all stone. The turtles bask out in the middle of the river on large rocks. I suspect they bask away from shore to avoid predators. The turtles are not hand fed by people and flee into the water when approached. I don't think I would use dirt as it would get tracked back into the tank. Grass is an interesting idea! But how would you mow it

[unclejoe]

Haha.. Philbert has some land moss on his basking area.. and he loves it.. he prefers to lay on his soft comfy Moss to sun bathe.. lol Even turtles prefer comfort.. and yes I agree they bask where they can.. our turtles lived in a park where ponds were cultivated and sprayed for weeds.. so the only place they could sunbathe is on the banks.. and no they never did it near our house.. but I guess that is because the morning sun hit the opposite side of the pond.. they did like to bathe on our shore late afternoons waiting for us to come ou to feed them.. We often talked about getting a huge fallen log to lay off our part of the pond to give them something to sun bath on in the water.. Good point about the dirt.. I think you could just trim a small a mount of grass with just scissors..lol If it will grow under the artificial lights.. I can tell you Phil prefers the softness over his river rock base..lol

[Kansasslider]

Lol. I'm not sure if grass would grow under artificial light? I grow tomatoes, peppers etc inside under fluorescent lights but the light is about 2" from the plants and there are 4-4' lights. Pretty bright! Interesting idea though.

Cory, waiting for more pictures!

[unclejoe]

AS I said the moss seems to be doing ok.. even though he tramples it daily..lol if he kills it.. I will go out to the woods and get some more.. Maybe Moss is a better choice.. its really green and it seems to do ok under artificial light.. Mine might actually be getting to much water.. cause the back of the basking area is where it sits and half of it is in the water..lol ..

[Kansasslider]

Yea, I like moss. Nice and green and short. There is an idea. A moss lawn Haha talk about going green! Got any pictures of your setup? My big basking stone has algae on it. It would be cool if I could get some type of moss to grow on it. That would look nice and natural.