Hey guys, thought i would share the construction of my new 2x2x1m turtle pond with a 1.5x1m land area. It will currently (when completed by the end of the week) hold 3 eastern snake-neck turtles with mabey one more to come ( i do not wish to crowd them).
Ok the hardest part of this project was diging the hole. I had the following problems:
-Palm tree was in the middle of the area
-Cherry tree was in the middle of the area
-This is the area where the house builders dumped all their left over tiles and concrete
-These pieces of rubish where compeltly entangled in a heap of cherry and palm tree roots
-Half way down it was pure clay
Ok after all those problem and a torn bicept muscle i finaly dug the hole. Sorry but i got no pics of it being dug but do have others.
The pond Will incorparate a semi-circle platform 300mm deep around the front edge. This will alow for plants to be potted. In the far corner there will be a 500mm deep platform where i will build a 300mm deep cave for tutles to sleep/hang out in. There will be a water fall feature in place above the cave creating a visual barrier into the cave.
LINER & UNDERLAY
Underlay will consist of 30mm of brickies sand and a further 15mm of carpeting. This will block out any weeds and roots. The Pond liner will we 'proliner' 1mm flexible liner from creativepumps.com.au. Oh does a 4m by 4m liner sound right for a 2x2m pond with a 1m max depth and 300mm overlap soudn right?
After the underlay is set i will cover it with flexible stone tiles on the ramp (at bunnings they have pebbles glued to these flexible tiles) to allow the turtles to leave the pond.
PAVING
Paving will consist of stone square tiles placed around the outside of the pond to hold down the liner.
LAND AREA
The land area will be 1.5m long by 1m wide. I had a problem here becasue there is a massive palm in the middle of the area but i think it will give the turtles something to play hide and seek with
. It will half be sand/pebbles and half layed turf.
PLUMBING/HEATING/WATERFALL
The plumbing will be run by an external DIY canister filter which will return at the waterfall. The Heating will be done by solar heating tubes from the roof. (this is where you guys come in, does anyone have spare 4 square meters of this stuff? I will pay)
PICTURES.
Here are some google sketch ups of the plan. The are udner the water fall will be the cave, and the water fall edge will go further down to seal off the side.
Here is the brickies sand that i mixed up with water to allow it to stick onto the walls. (it looks like concrete when its done and dries like it too but it cracks liek sand stone
).
Now here are the pictures that show me placing the sand and final picture of the sand in.
Thats all i have for now. The liner will be here by friday then more pictues will arive.
. Thanks for the comments 
. So for now all i got is pics of the grass coming in. Does anyone have any tips for me or seen if i did anything wrong... this is my first pond 
