Habitat - Outdoor :: My turtle pond project. pics/blog

[Carl]

Hi there. I'm so glad to have found this website. My wife and I are in the begining stage of building a smallish 300-500 gallon turtle pond. I have started a blog with some pics if anyone wants to view it.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/blog.php?u=84362

I'm having trouble linking pics. I tried in my first post in the newbie forum here:
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15508

also:
Are there any threads here with pics of other outdoor turtle ponds? I'm looking for ideas!

[SpotsMama]

Here's info on how to post photos:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1811

Here's a gallery with nice photos of outdoor ponds.

http://www.redearslider.com/habitat_gallery.html

Also, if you look through the threads in the Outdoor Habitat section you'll see many more photos of outdoor ponds.

I can't wait to see your pond - I haven't see your photos yet.

[Carl]

well, looks like I had to open a Photobucket album in order to post pictures.

Our Turtles are about 12-13 yrs old now. They started out in a 20 gallon aquarium, then a 100 gallon, and finally have ended up outdoors in a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank. Now that we finanlly have our first home, we are ready to dig an in ground pond for them.

These 150 gallon rubbermaid containers have worked well. We use one to house the turtles and another for filter & planted bog. I know it is not recommended on this forum to let turtles hibernate, but ours have been in this container outdoors for the last 6 years without any problems that we know of.

[Carl]

our turtles. I don't think one of them is a RES. He does not have the markings and he is HUGE. maybe a painted turtle?

[Carl]

And so here is the small pie shaped corner where we are going to put the pond. For now, we just moved the containers to the area. Today I'm working on running power out to the area for the pumps. The container in the corner will stay there as the filter while the other wone will be removed and we will dig out the pond.

[Carl]

The dig and notice we moved the container that the turtles are in up against the fence. we are trying to keep the filter running until the last minute to keep the bacteria going in the filter.

[steve]

Those are some great photos! I love the "peeping" pic

[RESnTX]

Ohhhhh I am jealous! I can hardly wait to see more pictures of your project.

[Carl]

woo hoo. no more orange extention cord !

finished digging the trench and routed power out to the corner of the yard.

[Terryo]

That is some great filter you built. I can't wait to see everything when it's done. Keep posting pictures...

[Reel Girl]

FANTASTIC! Thanks for sharing these step-by-step photos
Love the shot of your wife with a pick!

[marisa]

Very interesting pics. Now that's what I need to do---put a cord underground so that I don't have to rely on extension cords. Is it hard to do?

[SpotsMama]

Our electrician buried the electrical cord to our pond, like the one in our photo.

[Carl]

Very interesting pics. Now that's what I need to do---put a cord underground so that I don't have to rely on extension cords. Is it hard to do?

Unless you are experienced doing electrical work, I would hire a professional. We had an outdoor box on the patio that we ran conduit from into the ground. From there, about 50 feet of cable to the outdoor outlet box was burried at least 12 inches under ground. Check your local code: some need metal conduit, some plastic, some bare wire is OK if burried to proper depth.

[Tenodera]

oooh! those are awesome pictures. I always wanted a backyard pond but sadly I have no backyard.

and I can't resist turtle IDing so I HAVE to post in this topic.

Your turtle is an River Cooter, probably an Eastern River Cooter.

They are VERY friendly and are more herbivorous in general