Habitat - Outdoor :: Photos: Fric's beautiful above ground pond

[steve]

Here's a great example I think many of us are jealous of! Nice job Fric! It's a 145 gallon preformed pond.

[sonyj]

That is absolutely gorgeous Fric. Thanks for posting the pics for us to see Steve. Anytime you are in Tennessee feel free to stop by and build me one.

[kneecole]

Wow that's beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[missibsu]

Great pond! How difficult was it to put together? I'm interested in something similar...only inside.

[samandnelly]

Hm. Could they climb out?

[Jessica313]

wow, beautiful. absolutly wonderful...
but i am also wondering if they could climb out?

[ellarn]

Awesome Eric!! I want to know what is inside the brickwork that holds water. Nomer now has herself an indoor tank (her original structure) where we bring her in at night and a kids wading pool for her outdoor structure. She's outside all day long and loves it. I want one like yours!!

Ella

[ellarn]

OOPS!! Sorry Steve -- I got so carried away with Eric's space -- I realize he didn't build it. lol

Ella

[marisa]

Very nice. Love that turtle basking area.

[fric]

Thank you for your comments and to you Steve for posting these pics for me. The only thing difficult about constructing this pond was lugging the landscaping blocks as they are quite heavy.
The good news is Lowes delivers and I got everything there when it came the the preformed pond, the blocks and the flat rocks. I was also able to return the blocks I didn't use too.
Steve posted a preformed pond site in this forum and if anyone wants to go there and see my pond in the raw. It is the 145 gal. tahiti / tahoe @ www.maccourt.com. You'll see that the bulk of the pond can sit above ground with part of it like an upper shelf. Under this shelf area I placed cement blocks to support of the weight of the water when it was filled and it worked.
The landscaping rocks were placed around the pond kind of in a stairstep fashion to maintain a nice look. Realistically the blocks up against the house
aren't as orderly looking as the ones you see, but then again they are hidden.
There are roughly 90 blocks and maybe 2 or 3 boxes of the flat rocks.
This whole project was about $500 ten years ago and that didn't include the cost of my home made pump and the umbrella palm that was another $50.
As far as escaping goes, that's where the flat rocks come in. I placed them where they hung over the edges of the pond at least 1 to 2". This also covers gaps where the edge of the pond and the landscaping blocks meet
to give it a nice look. All the little rocks serve as weights and cover the cracks where the flat rocks meet.
Keeping the water level down is very significant to avoid escape too and at the suggestion of reptilegrrl, drilling some holes in the pond to maintain a certain level in case of rain is a must. The higher the water level, the easier it is for our little escape artist to get out ... fric

[Jessica313]

wow that is so fantastic. i just cant get enough =)
im just wondering what the rest of your yard is like ... do you have a fence? i dont know where you live, but the concern i would always think about if i someday decided to build a pond, would be wild predators coming into my yard and going after the turtles. is it definantly necessary to have a fenced in yard in order to keep the turts safe in a pond like yours? im just curious because i hope to have a pond someday too.

GOOD WORK- ITS AMAZING!

[fric]

A couple of years ago we had a hawk that was hanging around and I saw him standing on the edge of the pond one day. To resolve that I let the palm get bigger to hide the boys better when they basked. You've got to trim these plants frequently or they'll cover then entire pond as well as can blow over. Anyway, it seemed to discourage the hawk and I haven't seen him since.
We also had some red foxes for awhile too, but I don't think they were a threat. The only thing they would do is take the cans of turtle food if I left it outside. We do have a fence by the way but the gates are rod iron and they don't keep anybody in or out.
I think having all the loose rocks might be a natural safety factor for us because I do find them on the patio a lot of times obviously because something has knocked them off.
The squirrels come to the pond to drink too and their the culprits most of the time during the day and when one of those rocks fall off ... they scatter!

[AV]

STUNNING!

[reptilegrrl]

Wow, I didn't see that these had been posted here. So awesome! Fric's pond was the big inspiration behind mine.

[Rush]

WOW! That's beautiful!!! I'd like to do something like that, except I live in a really hot desert... Is 120 degrees safe for an outdoor turtle? XD

And, What about predators? Racoons, hawks, cyotes, ect...