I'm in the planning stages of redoing my turtle pond. 5 adult RE sliders who need a better habitat, but they tend to destroy plants, so I'm thinking of how to incorporate lots of plants into the setup but keep those turtles away. It might be fun to have a long, narrow wooden trough to hold plants (and gravel) maybe 12" deep and wide by 15' long. Would this work well with a slight downhill and just plumb the inlet at the top and let it pour out on the downhill end? Or would it be better to sit it level and plumb in some exit pipes? What type and size wood would be needed? 2x4 fir? This would be elevated a bit above the pond, with 2x4 legs, and supported on cinderblocks.
The new pond will be a hole in the ground with liner, 500+ gallons, an above ground 100g stock tank bog filter with some plants in that, an above ground 30 g trash can with filter media to help with gunk, a small stream with some ponding areas, a 2000gph submersible pump, wooden trough with lots of plants.
It would be nice to have plants along the stream, but I don't know if that is doable with turtles. The turtles have basically been living in a hole in the ground for years now, no stream, no plants. I'd like to give them a higher quality habitat.
Plants I have for this set up include lots of Canna, Taro, Elephant Ears, Plantain, meadow Grasses. Not sure if these are enough to handle turtle waste nutrient load.
Suggestions welcome!
The new pond will be a hole in the ground with liner, 500+ gallons, an above ground 100g stock tank bog filter with some plants in that, an above ground 30 g trash can with filter media to help with gunk, a small stream with some ponding areas, a 2000gph submersible pump, wooden trough with lots of plants.
It would be nice to have plants along the stream, but I don't know if that is doable with turtles. The turtles have basically been living in a hole in the ground for years now, no stream, no plants. I'd like to give them a higher quality habitat.
Plants I have for this set up include lots of Canna, Taro, Elephant Ears, Plantain, meadow Grasses. Not sure if these are enough to handle turtle waste nutrient load.
Suggestions welcome!
