The Pond
My wife had always wanted a pair of the Mississippi Map turtles, that she loves those adorable round eyes on the hatchling. But in order to make room for the new turtles, I had to relocate the two RES I had for years first, and then build a small pond over the existing site...
1. First-able, a demolition over the existing RES site is a must...
2. Vinyl PVC pond liner I ordered online...
3. Making the outline of the pond with the eggcrate ceiling panels...
4. Also picked up the ZooMed Turtle cleaner to maintain the clear water quality...
5. the base soil is flattened first...
6. then the baseboard with the built-in drainer is placed down on top of the soil...
7. after installing the eggcrate wall on top of the baseboard, I then wrap the wall with the PVC pond liner to form the interior of the pond...
8. filled the pond with water for water leakage testing...
9. inside the pond, another layer of eggcrate ceiling was added to separate the turtle resting area and the "goo" area...
10. since I could not find the small flat stone pieces to cover the edges of the pond, I used the small counter tiles instead, which makes the pond does look like a outdoor bathtub for the turtles...
11. a landing platform was added to the side of pond...with everything set to go, now it was time to fill the finished pond with water...
12. since we had not picked up the Mississippi turtles yet, I decided to place the two RES in the pond to see how they interact with the new environment...
13. everything looked good so far, except the fountain head from the 511 filter needed some covering from the sun...
14. with all the rain we had in SoCal in the past few weeks, we had so many palm tree barks falling to the ground, so I found one nearby my house and used it to cover the fountain head...
15. I've also added a piece of bamboo reed on top of the turtle landing to make whole habitat looked like it was built on a small island...
16. a turtle statue was placed on the side of the pond...
Now it's time to go out and shop some turtles...
The Turtles
We stopped at this new opened Reptile Island in Orange County, and they happened to have some baby M.Maps in stock. The store owner helped us picked a couple that were active and good lookings. Since the temperature in the outdoor pond had not reach to the desired warmth for the turtles, I placed them in the small water tanks during the first night...
The bad thing about visiting the reptile store with extra cash in hand was you tended to want to spend more then your original plan. I happened to find this Chinese Pond Turtle that was displayed right next to the Maps, and I just couldn't resist to pick it up and decided to take it home with me...
Now we have the turtles...now it's the time to put them into the new pond...
Hopefully these turtle will do well in their new home...now this project is accomplished, I am going back to work on my tortoise project.
My wife had always wanted a pair of the Mississippi Map turtles, that she loves those adorable round eyes on the hatchling. But in order to make room for the new turtles, I had to relocate the two RES I had for years first, and then build a small pond over the existing site...
1. First-able, a demolition over the existing RES site is a must...
2. Vinyl PVC pond liner I ordered online...
3. Making the outline of the pond with the eggcrate ceiling panels...
4. Also picked up the ZooMed Turtle cleaner to maintain the clear water quality...
5. the base soil is flattened first...
6. then the baseboard with the built-in drainer is placed down on top of the soil...
7. after installing the eggcrate wall on top of the baseboard, I then wrap the wall with the PVC pond liner to form the interior of the pond...
8. filled the pond with water for water leakage testing...
9. inside the pond, another layer of eggcrate ceiling was added to separate the turtle resting area and the "goo" area...
10. since I could not find the small flat stone pieces to cover the edges of the pond, I used the small counter tiles instead, which makes the pond does look like a outdoor bathtub for the turtles...
11. a landing platform was added to the side of pond...with everything set to go, now it was time to fill the finished pond with water...
12. since we had not picked up the Mississippi turtles yet, I decided to place the two RES in the pond to see how they interact with the new environment...
13. everything looked good so far, except the fountain head from the 511 filter needed some covering from the sun...
14. with all the rain we had in SoCal in the past few weeks, we had so many palm tree barks falling to the ground, so I found one nearby my house and used it to cover the fountain head...
15. I've also added a piece of bamboo reed on top of the turtle landing to make whole habitat looked like it was built on a small island...
16. a turtle statue was placed on the side of the pond...
Now it's time to go out and shop some turtles...
The Turtles
We stopped at this new opened Reptile Island in Orange County, and they happened to have some baby M.Maps in stock. The store owner helped us picked a couple that were active and good lookings. Since the temperature in the outdoor pond had not reach to the desired warmth for the turtles, I placed them in the small water tanks during the first night...
The bad thing about visiting the reptile store with extra cash in hand was you tended to want to spend more then your original plan. I happened to find this Chinese Pond Turtle that was displayed right next to the Maps, and I just couldn't resist to pick it up and decided to take it home with me...
Now we have the turtles...now it's the time to put them into the new pond...
Hopefully these turtle will do well in their new home...now this project is accomplished, I am going back to work on my tortoise project.