Do you have to treat the cement?

[CrisP]

Did you treat the cement in anyway? We have a man doing some cement work at our house and we want to put a cement pond in the tortoise enclosure. He said the cement has to cure for 30 days and should be treated with vinegar (or something better) to prevent the chemicals in the cement from burning their skin. Anyone have any problems with using cement? I hadn't ever heard this before.

 

[Yvonne G]

I hadn't heard anything about cement being bad or needing any kind of treatment, and I was blissfully unaware I may be putting my turtles in harm's way. I've had cement ponds for the box turtles for over 20 years and no deaths or illness (that I know of) because of it.

 

[Markw84]

IF you are building a pond for fish, I would recommend treating the concrete before putting fish in. There is chemicals that are released and it makes it real hard to get proper water chemistry without treating. For a tortoise bath/drinking pool - I would not treat it and not worry about that at all. I also would not worry about the 30 days. Concrete develops 95% of its strength in 7 days. It continues to cure forever, but the difference in 30 vs 7 for a tortoise pool is nothing to be concerned about. For structural concrete supporting a bridge, or building, yes, allow the 28 days!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've only "treated" cement watering pools for water seepage.
One of them began to leak about 6 years ago and I brushed on a few layers of fiberglass resin.
Fiberglass can have its own issues....