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    Thread: My Turlte ponds Indoor / Outdoor Part 2

    1. #1
      Saints-81 is offline Junior Member
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      My Turlte ponds Indoor / Outdoor Part 2

      This is a continuation from previous post where I shared my indoor tank. Instead of keeping them indoors all year we wanted to build a pond outside for the turtles. As I was trying to come up with something there were many things to consider. 1st and foremost was that I had to do it a cheaply as possible as we didn't have much money. 2nd my wife refused to let me use Pond liner for various reasons. 3rd was whatever I made had to be able to withstand our winters (Middle of Alberta Canada), although I was not going to have the pond filled in winter it was still something to keep in mind.

      Using what I had gained from building my indoor tank and reading other posts on this site over and over again I was ready to make an attempt.

      So the adventure began. After looking and trying designs with Cinder block and then other materials I saw that these methods just cost too much and all had the potential to crack or spring leaks without using pond liner. So I eventually ended up going to a local plastics company and was lucky that I was able to purchase a "bad pour". I believe it was originally a plastic barge that was to be used with multiple pieces in rivers or something like that, but there was a hole in the top. It was suppose to be $1200 but I got it at his cost of plastic at $300. I got it delivered and cut off the top and was left with a 12 ft by 5ft by 4ft tank for my pond. The upside is I didn't need to worry about claws or roots poking holes and creating leaks.

      I started by digging a hole beside out deck with the idea of the top of the tank being level with the deck. Well because of tree roots, rocks and other fun things it took over 200 hours to dig this hole.... Please do yourself a favour and pay someone to come in with a back hoe or something and dig your hole in a hour. Oh.... did I forget to mention that I live on, well beside, a lake? Woke up on morning after it had rained slightly and the hole was filled with water and the tank was floating around. Pulled out the tank and filled the 4 foot hole halfway back up... To this day we still have issues with water pushing our tank up in the spring when its empty before we prep it for the season, but until it breaks there is no way I'm digging it out and fixing it. Feel free to laugh at the redneck high fashion... Lulu lemon sweats (so comfy) and rubber boots.

      The tank that I got had 3 grooves along the bottom which made putting a decent size bottom drain in out of the question, so I cut a hole in each groove and had enough room to add shower drains, which then attached to 1 bigger pipe and ran to the 1st of 4 filter boxes. I used a Carboy (sp?) for 1st filter (added bottom drain to filter so I can empty it once a week) and glass furnace filters in 2nd box, with the 3rd having spounges, scrub pads and other dense materials to trap anything that got by. The 4th box had my pump for sending the water back to the waterfall. On the top of each filter we cut some of the plastic that was left over from the top of the tank I had taken off and used them to create plant holders so the roots sat in the filter area and provided some natural filtering (by end of summer the roots will grow to become entwined with filter media). This also help hide the filters a little or at least make them such an eye sore.

      Then I used all the rocks I had unearthed while digging and other rocks found around our area to build a rock wall around the tank. Also just happen to have a whole pile of dirt to use that I had dug for the hole. The main reason for this was cost as it was free, now I'm glad we did it this way for looks too but mostly it was cost factor at the time.

      We built a little floating dock so the turtles could get out and sun themselves. Also put a big fake bird beside the pond to help keep predators away as we have some hawks in the area. Then it was up to my wife to add plants and flowers and make the area look nice. The picture included is just a few plants and does not do it justice of what it looked like afterwards but for now can't find any of those pics.

      Overall it was effective and worked. It got the turtles and fish outside for the summer, tested the filter system against the summer/sun/heat. Next post will be about the 2nd summer and the changes we made because we were not happy with it as it was.
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    2. #2
      icu2's Avatar
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      First, welcome to Koiphen!

      Wow, the pond looks great! The island turned out perfect by the looks of it; and what a great
      find that tank was! I'm a big fan of a river flow design for koi where the returns are put on the bottom
      just like yours are and that's the first thing I thought of; but I hope they'll work just as good as output
      to the filters!
      Nice job, can't wait for more pictures!
      --Steve



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    3. #3
      Saints-81 is offline Junior Member
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      Thanks for the welcome and the words.
      The filter system works fairly well. A central bottom drain would have worked better but the 3 drains do the job, I tried to angle the tank a little towards the 3 intakes but only so much you can do before it look funny. Other than the normal algae bloom at the start of the season it actually keeps the algae to a minimum... Except for last year when I was away and they used some lake water to top it up and that introduced string algae... Tank never recovered from it.

    4. #4
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      Hi. I'm in the process of building an above ground turtle pond (with pond liner, in a 4'x8'x2' box). I need to build a similar floating dock for my very large (12") mature female RES. Would you mind sharing your instructions on how you made yours, and in particular on how you made the ramp so your turtle can get up onto the dock? Thanks!

    5. #5
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      The ramp itself was again made out of left over plastic from the main tank, so as you can imagine it is pretty hard plastic. For the one above (built it over again for the following year) I just took some tongue and groove cedar and put it together, pre drilled some holes so I wouldn't split it and screwed it onto the top of the plastic (make sure your screws are not showing as they will get very hot). Then for the ramp I took I think a piece of 2x6 and then 2x4, wrapped and screwed pond liner to each and then screwed together and then to the dock. Also placed a thin sheet of hard insulation board under the plastic to keep help with floatation and keep screws covered underneath (my plastic is a few inches deep so this was no issue). So the problems I ran into with this set up was had to figure out a way to keep the bottom of ramp in the water (kept staying high out of water, and lifting side of dock) and didn't want the float moving all over the place, for example under the falls when they are on it trying to dry shell. So I ended up putting Eye-hole screws on the ramp and dock and then using some rope connected them all together and ran through the handle of a kettle ball weight we had around. This kept it from moving around and helped keep the ramp in the water... In the end it worked but I wasn't too thrilled. Also when we removed it we ended up riping off the cedar plank... So next year I covered it in chicken wire and then layered cement on it, drilled on four posts for looks, and placed a couple more pieces of insulation underneath. Had put it in the water for testing (after a few days of letting cement cure) without a ramp... it was riding low enough in the water that they were able to climb up onto it with a little effort... figured great, more exercise for them and left it, they now have no issues getting themselves up on it. It rides about and inch above the water, they pull their bodies straight up and seem to lean forward and start pulling themselves up all the way.

    6. #6
      Flowergarden129 is offline Junior Member
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      Thanks for the explanation. I'd love to see pics of your new island, too :-)

    7. #7
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      So here are some photos of the current Island as requested. The chain is just decorative as it looked kind of weird with just pillars and nothing between them, then it actually helped them get on as they would lift themselves up and push against the chain with their heads to push them forward onto the dock. Nelson kind of just likes to hang out on the dock all the time and dips a foot or her head into the water once in a while... And the odd leg stretch.... Again this was just chicken wire and cement with dye. It has held up fairly well for 2-3 seasons. But we are taking it apart next spring and redoing it as its starting to fall apart.... Also very heavy. Takes me and my wife to take out as its heavy and awkward. Also keep in mind you want it to be either anchored to stay in the middle (from side to side) or that it will move away from the side of the tank if they try and use it as a means of escape to climb the walls.
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    8. #8
      gray cat's Avatar
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      Very nice. Do you have a ramp leading up to the dock? I have a Peninsula Cooter and she needs a ramp to get on her dock.
      Nancy



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      Currently no ramp. When we were testing this version we put it in the water and left to do something. When we returned they both had made it onto the float so we just didn't bother adding one. When I redo it in the spring I'll add a ramp, but Nelson is so strong that she just needed to get a little grip and she would just pull herself straight up and onto the float. It amazed us that she could do it... Then again the amount of times we found her walking across our floor and how she was able to get out of the indoor pond I first created, it should not have surprised us.

    10. #10
      gray cat's Avatar
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      I was also surprized as to how strong turtles can be.
      Nancy



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