Habitat - Outdoor :: Our pond is done

[industrial_girl_2000]

What an awesome pond! My turtle is so jealous!

[laturcotte]

Last year was the first year we had zero algae, I finally figured it out. I bought lots of Hyacinth and a couple lilly pads and water lettuce. The Hyacinth multiply very fast and I give them to neighbors and people at work for their ponds. Anyway, The sun has very little water surface to penetrate to make algae. The plants help filter the water, the turtles love to eat the plants and everyone including the 10-15 frogs that stay for the the summer are very very happy.

[MamaLou]

Great suggestions thanks! We got some old (past their prime) hyacinths at the end of the season, the turts ate them up before they went bad. This season we will try to get more to cut the algae because it does get bad. Filter works great but its still green.

[MamaLou]

Well at this point, the pond got spring cleaned, and the water level is just under the top of the liner, and everyone is happy that winter is over. Coming soon are more plants, some bark chips to cover the ugly around the pond, lights and grass.Latest pic:

[SpotsMama]

I love your setup. so roomy!

Question: Is it hard to catch your turtles when you need to bring them in? How do you do it?

[Cripm88]

WHoa awesome setup
So huge looks like a 1/4 the size of my pool!

[Hoooneylynn]

awesome pond!

[MamaLou]

Thanks everyone! Alot of work but worth it. Its about 12'x6'x3.5 deep. The basking area is bigger now andwe have put in another one too on one side.

[turboturtle8]

WOW BEAUTIFUL

[greek]

really great pond! it will help me build my own (but way smaller) pond..
how do you filter/clean the water?

[MamaLou]

Hi, thanks! We use a Pondmaster 2000 filter and pump system and have about a dozen water hayacinth plants for algae. We also have one of those amazing 'as seen on tv' silicone broom things to clean the floor fo the pond, and of course a big net to skim the junk off the surface. Its big, about 12'x6' and quite deep. We just did our spring cleaning as a matter of fact, drained it, scooped out all the winter mud and leaves that the turts hibernated in, and found 4 holes! Had to patch those, refilled it and proceeded to have to clean the filter 3 times to get the water clear again. Didnt really get clear until it rained the other day. Odd how that worked out. If you have any questions we would be happy to help out iwth pond tips. We are no experts, but for a year now, our pond has done very well.

[tnt31]

Do you have a heater? I'm still tring to find out what kind of heater to use that is going to be safe for the turtle and that will keep the temp. were it is suppost to be.

[DavidY]

The problem with an outdoor pond is that it would take thousands of watts to heat up. The good thing is the sun will act as a natural heater. The large volume of water should be able to retain a lot of the warmth during the night. What are your daytime and night time outdoor temps? And the day and night temps on your pond? You may not need the heater later in the season.

[tnt31]

I heard ponds in the sun is not good either. Right now we are planning the tank to be in the shade. the weather is 75-85 during the day and 47-53 at night. Do you suggest to move it in full sun now and maybe shade in the summer? I never thought about that.
My husband was thinking to just get the biggest heater we can find and just see if the turtle would stay toward the heated end of the tank.

[DavidY]

You're using a tank outside? How big is it? You're right that you don't want to put a tank in full sun. I thought you were talking about an outdoor pond (like 200 or 300 gallons). If that were the case, partial sun/shade or morning sun afternoon shade would be ideal.

Putting an aquarium outside is a very different story. For one thing it is above ground exposed on all 4 sides and above to the air temperature so fluctuating temperatures would be more pronounced. Direct sunlight would also most likely heat the tank up way too high during the day. And the glass sides would probably become overgrown with algae.