Enlarging turtle pond

[_simon_]

Posted some pics a while ago of my small 1300L outdoor turtle pond, this past week I've made a start on enlarging it. It's now 9' x 7' and 2' at the deepest point. I've got the geotextile and liner on order.

So here's a before, the water dimensions were about 5.5' x 3.5' x 2'

Here's what it currently looks like:

I'll update as I go along.

 

[_simon_]

Trying waterfall ideas.

 

[Missy]

looking great, cant wait to see finished pics

 

[_simon_]

Marking out the perimeter board. It'll be 3 boards high and then one on the top that'll overhang which will prevent them escaping. There will be boarding around the waterfall so that I can heap the soil in and plant it.

 

[dmarcus]

Looks like it will be a very nice pond...

 

[Momof4]

Very cool! It's going to be nice when it's done. Please keep us updated!

 

[_simon_]

The weather is against me today, but I've made a start on the perimeter.

 

[Millerlite]

This is going to be awesome! Can't wait to see the end, and the progression poctures are cool, keep up the good work!

And come on weather stop getting in the way isn't it summer yet!? Lol

 

[_simon_]

This is British summer for you now, global warming has messed it up. We get sun for a week or 2 then rain for a week or 2 then back to sun and so on. It's now 8:05PM and we've got bright sun shine and almost clear skies here now! I've finished the side of the waterfall and filled it in. I may add more soil yet as my soil mountain (soil I dug out of the pond) is still quite large.

 

[_simon_]

Geotextile on the bottom to prevent roots, stones etc from piercing the liner, then the liner and then another layer of geotextile so that I can add stones etc, don't need to worry about the turtles claws and it gives them something to grip on to if they need it.

In the process of filling it now.

 

[_simon_]

This is where I'm up to as of tonight.

 

[Oogway]

looking good!

 

[_simon_]

Pretty much finished I think. I've put stones in the bottom but because they weren't clean the water is a lovely brown. I'll wait for that to settle and clear before putting the filter in then the turtles.

 

[Kristina]

Looks GREAT! Definitely jealous

 

[_simon_]

So, I fiddled about with the waterfall this morning for over an hour but wasn't happy. I gave up and went to my local pond place for longer filter hosing that I needed anyway and whilst I was there I looked at the preformed waterfalls. There's some fantastic ones available but all had a price tag of over £100 and that's not something I can afford right now. Had a gander at the cheap ones, you know the ones that are one colour like tan and black. The blurb says they do weather so I picked one up for £22.50, at that price I thought it worth a punt. I'm pretty happy with the results but it'll be interesting to see how and in what way it weathers.

It doesn't look quite so black in real life, not sure what my camera has done to it!

 

[_simon_]

Moved the turtles into the new pond a few hours ago. I thought I'd lost the cooter. I transferred the elodea and duckweed across, then the slider, then each of the false maps and then went for the cooter.... no cooter. I'd resigned myself to the fact that something must have taken it. An hour or so later my step daughter spotted a little head in the water that wasn't a map and looked too small for the slider so I slid the net in and fished it out and there the little bugger was! I must have accidentally scooped him up in some elodea. So relieved!

So, it's all done now and here's the final pics.

and my slider