simple pond for box turtles?
 

I have an enclosure in my yard with several box turtles. I want to
upgrade from water dishes to a small pondish setup.

I have approx a 5'x5' area to work with. Box turtles like to soak, not
swim, so it shouldn't be too deep, at least in some places. They also
like to defecate in the water, so it should have a filter and a
reasonable volume. I am on a limited budget.

I have a few ideas. I was thinking of using a tarp or plastic sheet
(drop cloth, shower curtain?) as a simple liner, with a circulation
pump to a small veggie filter filter in a raisedbin. A pre-filter on
the pump, perhaps an overflow onto lava rocks or screen, would catch
feces.

Any thoughts?

I would think that you might be able to use a kiddie pool put in a hole
for the liner, this would be cheap($10). Getting good circulation with
the pump would be important. Creating turbulence in the water is
important for aeration and the microorganisms that eat the feces need
oxygen to do their job. Growing some plants in the pond would
definitely help filter the water, water hyacinths float and are very
good at filtering water. There are some wastewater treatment plants
that use them to polish their effluent. You could also collect some
plants for this since that would give you some plants that are happy in
your climate. I would suggest adding some 10 cent goldfish to the pond
so that you don't have to worry about mosquitos. The goldfish might
also further "process" the turtle waste. I created a simple cheap
biofilter using a plastic screen plant basket from home depot(found in
the pond section). I put some plastic scouring pads on the bottom of
it, put my pump on the pads, placed some plastic sponges around the
pump, and then filled up the basket with lava rocks. My pump outflow
pipe sticks out of the water around six inches, I covered it with a
piece of bamboo and the water fountain effect is pretty nice. Total
cost of this: basket=$2.50, scouring pads, sponges=$1.00, lava
rocks=$1.00, outflow pipe $1.00 for a total of around $6.00. Email
back if you have any other questions about the pond.
Have fun,
James

john wrote:
I have an enclosure in my yard with several box turtles. I want to
upgrade from water dishes to a small pondish setup.

I have approx a 5'x5' area to work with. Box turtles like to soak, not
swim, so it shouldn't be too deep, at least in some places. They also
like to defecate in the water, so it should have a filter and a
reasonable volume. I am on a limited budget.

I have a few ideas. I was thinking of using a tarp or plastic sheet
(drop cloth, shower curtain?) as a simple liner, with a circulation
pump to a small veggie filter filter in a raisedbin. A pre-filter on
the pump, perhaps an overflow onto lava rocks or screen, would catch
feces.

Any thoughts?


Aren't box turtles protected?

"john" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have an enclosure in my yard with several box turtles. I want to
upgrade from water dishes to a small pondish setup.

I have approx a 5'x5' area to work with. Box turtles like to soak, not
swim, so it shouldn't be too deep, at least in some places. They also
like to defecate in the water, so it should have a filter and a
reasonable volume. I am on a limited budget.

I have a few ideas. I was thinking of using a tarp or plastic sheet
(drop cloth, shower curtain?) as a simple liner, with a circulation
pump to a small veggie filter filter in a raisedbin. A pre-filter on
the pump, perhaps an overflow onto lava rocks or screen, would catch
feces.

Any thoughts?

I cheap walmart kid's pool would be just perfect. If you want ti black, you
could cover it with a black tarp, or paint it with Krylon FUSION paint also
from walmart. It molecularly bonds with the plastic, and is pondlife
freindly. (I'd had a smaller pond with this technique for over a year now.)

The cheap pools are only like $6 or so.

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If you want some added durability you could buy two kiddie pools so
that it would be two ply. I realize that you are on a tight budget,
but given the work you put in it would probably be worth it and it
would still be way cheaper than a true liner. I didn't know about that
paint, it would probably be a nice touch not having a pink turtle pond,
blue might look alright though.