Making cement and mortar safe?...

[ZEROPILOT]

I'm still working on my 6' x 12' enclosure and I have a question about the pond (puddle?) That I have built. I made a cement and mortar pond for my little guy to bathe in. It has its own filter and small fountain. I'm concerned about the lime, etc in the cement, so I'm planning on sealing the whole thing with some fiberglass resin mixed with sand for better grip for getting around and climbing in and out. The side are sloped. Does anyone else have a cement structure for bathing and what have you done?

 

[Yvonne G]

I have a couple of cement indentations in the earth for my box turtles. I didn't know any better, and I just used Redi-mix, allowed it to cure then filled it up for my box turtles. I didn't lose any of them due to any kind of cement poisoning.

 

[Saleama]

I am no expert but it seems that there would be a law against having chemicals that just leech out everywhere and poison the ground water? Also, there are tons of things that we use that are made of cement. My bird bath is made of cement and it was made to water and bathe birds...so?

 

[Saleama]

I just looked into this. The amount of Lime that leaches out of cement is very small. It actually helps plants as long as they are not acid loving plants and does no harm to the environment or the animals. Should be completely safe according to everything I've just read.

 

[tortadise]

Ounce concrete is cured it's just a hard surface. No worries about it. Just rinse and scrub it and dry vac it out. Clean it up pretty good before placing animals in it.

I use lots of concrete ponds.

 

[IBeenEasy]

Ounce concrete is cured it's just a hard surface. No worries about it. Just rinse and scrub it and dry vac it out. Clean it up pretty good before placing animals in it.

I use lots of concrete ponds.
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that is very cool!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Thank you. That was my concern...The lime leaching into the water. I saw what it did to my hands!!

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Ounce concrete is cured it's just a hard surface. No worries about it. Just rinse and scrub it and dry vac it out. Clean it up pretty good before placing animals in it.

I use lots of concrete ponds.
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I really like that pond!!
The amount of chemicals is very small, and shouldn't harm your tort

 

[Kintsugi]

I made a water dish out of portland cement. the 2 tortoises that used that water dish died.
I soaked the dish in water and send a vile to a lab and the result showed 200 mg/L which obviously was enough to cause harm. So no. do NOT use Portland cement as its 25% lime...

 

[psmith]

Interesting the varying opinions here.
People use Portland cement to make diy live rock for reef tanks. There's a lot of talk about it on the reef tank forums. We made some years ago and had no problems with our tank. But- it's cured in fresh water for a good two months or so prior to placing in a reef tank. Whatever dissolvable materials used to make all the channels through the rock take weeks to completely go away. Maybe that also gives the other stuff time to leech out.