Pond Journal: Turtle Pond Build Thread.

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stipe

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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 :evil:
-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 :D:p. 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.

Googlesketchup2.jpg

Googlesketchup1.jpg

Googlesketchup3uncovered.jpg


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 :().

Buidlerssand.jpg


Now here are the pictures that show me placing the sand and final picture of the sand in.

Opentopviewhalf3.jpg

Opentopviewhalf2.jpg

Opentopviewhalf.jpg

Sanddone.jpg


Thats all i have for now. The liner will be here by friday then more pictues will arive.
 
what a turtle wonderland dude!
lucky turtles that get to live in that herp haven
 
See now you made me jelous, i want to live thier its better than my house :lol:. Thanks for the comments :p.
 
Thanks, Yeh i definitly will keep you updated. Today will be a trip to bunnings for the stone tiles and pavers/stones. Then tuesday i will get the lawn turf then i will hopfully get my liner on thursday.
 
Yeh i jsut got my grasss today and plants. I am clearing out the land area. More pictures tonight.
 
Looking good mate…………
 
Alright guys today i got my grass :p and my pavers. Bad news is i can put the pavers down till the liner is in :cry:. 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 :oops::p:D.

The grass is now down and the turtles have 2.5 by 1m or running and play room as well as a couple of places to bask in full sun, full shade or semi shade.. It is also all grassed so they can have a soft surface not to hurt their shells.

BareLand.jpg

landgrass.jpg
 
Oh forgot the grass is shade loving soft leave buffalo...
 
How will you be stopping them from climbing out?
 
Oh didn't i mention?...If i didn't i will be pouting in a wooden 'stake' like fence around. I am not going to dig is down deep as it is all concrete around and the turtles wont be able to dig under it to get out. The fence will be around 300mm high above the stone pavers you see, is this good?
 
I'm not sure of exact measurements and all but I do know that turtles are surprisingly good at climbing out of enclosures...I would imagine they may need to be taller...also, a hide or two on land would be useful...

All up that is an absolute cracker of a pond - cant wait to see more pics...
 
Thanks, yeah i think i should make the fence around 400-500mm. Oh the land area is not done yet, it will have plenty of vegetation and caves/logs/rocks. The way i see it is we have been killing them off for thousands of years by destroying their habitats, so why not build them one from me to say sorry to them, or i ma bey just built it to make my backyard took even better and to sell the property for more money because it has a 'relaxing' water feature at the back :D:rolleyes::lol:
 
I have some yellow faces in this pond
DSCF5473.jpg


and they haven't escaped yet. I'm sure they could if they really wanted to, but i think they have enough space, food and shelter that they don't feel the need to escape. You don't see them trying to scramble up the walls like you do with turtles in aquariums and the like.
 
Awesome setup Stipe:)

Makes me wish i was'nt renting and could set up a permenant place for my turts (instead of a boat full of water:lol:)

hey Warakuzi is that a bidet in the pond:?

Ben
 
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