LZ Bros' Blog: Construction of our turtle's dream pond

Warning - picture-heavy -

If you are reading this right now, you might be wondering why in the Picasso's world do we have a blog post here regarding turtles??

I haven't mentioned this before on our blog profiles or any posts for that matter, that art wasn't just our only passion which burns for. You do know that everyone surely has some extra passion/hobbies so they won't merely be stuck with one thing for their entire lives; be it playing golf or strolling and even raising exotic snakes to the extreme.

Okay, focusing back on our main purpose of this post, I wanted to stress from the beginning that constructing our first-ever-outdoor-pond had some designing elements during its whole conception.(Draft, layout, scaling, etc.) That's why I had in mind to bring this up to our blog and share about its progress, even if it means touching on our turtles' personal lives :) .

Ooh wowee, just look at the glitter of excitement dashing across their faces!

These foursome bunch are Skater ♀, Ben ♂, Peepy ♂, and Marty ♂.who deserve to be given a better home-scape after living in a stock tank (big storage box) for 4 years straight. Now, getting a new comfortable home for them is right on our to-do's list.

Initially, we started with what most pond guides showed us to construct a pond : setting up the desired size and shape of your pond with a garden hose or any marking tools for that matter. In our set up, we used raffia string to lay in the shape we wanted it to be, with stones to hold it onto place so it wouldn't be blown away or easily moved, and the digging process went right after that.

We had set a specific amount of area to be as a docking ground which is going to be filled with sand. These aquatic terrapins love to get some dry-time on the land at least once in a while. Then, we went through our plans and get the measurements, setting the path for establishing the required size of the pond's foundation which is the pond liner.

We've always wanted to build this when we were small but it always seemed that digging takes forever, but now we have took our chances at the loads of time without having to worry about our studies ever since graduating from school.

So, we started out with 5ft in length and 3 ft across, simple as that. We never really put a lot of "design-conscious" into our pond shape so it remained to be like a egg-oval-like shape.

With an enormous library of information just by googling, we managed to got by just fine. Google has got to be your friend, and we really want to acknowledge the contributions from people on the web for sharing their experiences as well :). By the time it was completed, we were quite satisfied with the result, all done by our own bare hands and sweat. Budget was also a concern as it made a great impact on our move of buying things for the pond, so we had to keep that in mind.

After what has seemed like days of digging, we've finally made a pit. Along the way, we had encountered roots from an old tree we had chopped down long before and other plants, and removing them was the only way to clear the pit.

Take note that the pit has to be smooth and free from any sharp or rough objects lest the liner will be damaged as you place it in the pit. When that was done, we went back to our budget list to prepare a few needed things and equipment. As with that, we went around town (Subang Jaya) to check on prices in many of the aquarium shops, but there wasn't a wide range of things on sale. So instead we headed further down (LDP) and to SS2 / Seapark area and Taman Megah, where there were a few good aquarium shops we've been to before.

We went ahead to buy the plastic cover sheet (PE Tarpaulin) you would normally see in construction sites to shield our pit from rain and falling debris while it was being left untouched for days (while we had other things to do). You can easily get it from hardware retailers like ACE hardware, and at a reasonable price of RM 10 for a 2-meter long sheet.

We then created a small channel that is lower than the rest of the level of the ground to act as an overflow system in case of a rain might over-fill the pond. We bought a 2.5" dia. pipe that went along the channel as well to guide the excess water out.

"Sides of the pit"

Most of the time, we had to go through several revisions, digging and re-digging, smoothing after smoothing, it was never really right. Again, although the pit has been made, it had to be at least in that ideal size and height so that there would not be further problems as we construct and manage the pond in the future. It took us almost 3-weeks just to do the advanced digging since our schedule was pretty load up with our part-time jobs and other works.

The cover sheet would then be used as our underlay for the pond. Most guides told us to use a specific material, but we went for this as a cheaper alternative, although it isn't sustainable nor safe in the long run.*Tarpaulin is extremely not recommended as it is toxic to your aquatic pets, read them up on the net if necessary* So, if your budget is high, I recommend DIY pond-builders to actually buy a better underlay as specified by guides online.

The underlay's purpose is to act as a protection layer between the ground and the pond liner. After laying and stretching it to fit the desired shape of the pit, we placed rocks around to keep it steady. It looked ready enough to hold some water, but not to house live animals just yet.

Now, the only thing to hold the body of water and a dream home of housing the turtles was the pond liner. At the start, we had problems finding one because it was very rare to find such a thing at any ordinary hardware shops or retailers. Some of the aquarium shop owners would tell us it can cost up to a boiling degree of RM 1,000+. It was a let-down as our budget was just merely peanuts compared to that huge figures.

We could have went with a pre-fabricated pond liner, but it was still pretty pricey, depending on which seller you went to, retailer or a normal aquarium shophouse you can find along the streets.

Finally, we got ourselves a good deal after a long search far from town. It is a pet retailer which many of you Malaysians might know, called Pet Safari. It is situated in Mutiara Damansara where The Curve and Ikea are its neighbor, and it is also a mile away from 1Utama too.

They had several black PVC sheets rolled up in the garden & pond section, and they come in variety of pre-determined size...and price. So you can't tell them to cut it to your preferences and say "Boleh bagi murah sikit kah?" *Can you lower the price a little more? - in BM*

We can't say much about their service, but make sure to bring a measuring tape or any instrument in any case so that you can be sure about the size of the liner. The reason is that we had trouble getting them to even open up and see the size. It even depends on certain employees, as once there was a guy who actually opened it up casually, without saying anything like how customer would open up and dirty the thing...so on. -you know', the usual .

The size of our liner was supposed to be 5' by 5', because our budget was limited and that we decided to re-make our pond smaller, but instead when we brought it back home and got our hands on the measuring tape...it was a real surprise. A real deal I supposed, considering it was priced at RM 146.00 with a 5% discount, bringing to a total of RM 138.70. It turned out to be a 7 feet long and 5 feet across sheet, that was why I stressed on bringing a measuring instrument just in case.

It would have cost a whole lot cheaper in the U.S., but since we're Malaysians, we'll have to deal with the Malaysians price tags. Now, laying it was pretty exciting for us. The place was a little messy since we moved the soil around, a lot.

With that done, we can finally... think about the pump. :/

It's a chinese-branded pump called RESUN, costing us 130 bucks. The power chord was too short to reach the power outlet so we extended it by seeking assistance to extend it at ACE (or DIY, if possible). You can choose other well-known brands like the German types you see in retailers, as it's up to your choices and budget.

And what about the filter? Instead of buying one, why not make your own? for under RM 20?*our own cost* It's unbelievable but believe this web's author, Skippy filter. There are also other ways to construct your own, all you'll need is an empty container and your imagination, and it doesn't have to be "Rubbermaid"-branded.

We used an old yellow plastic container previously used for holding in some trash, and it had to be cleaned, thoroughly. Here, we used PVC tank connectors (from ACE again) to bridge the hose and the container. DIY is still the best way if you're having a cheap and tight budget, so we used a drill to make two holes, one at the bottom of the back of the container and another at the top of the front.

Make sure your hole is not too low(at the bottom) and not too high(at the top) so that the particular part would not break off, and for water to easily flow in and out.

Drill...hole at the top....hole at the bottom.

Close-up shots of the filter, there's no worry of leakage because there's a rubber seal between the connectors.

Buying 15 packs of cheap scrub pads (65sens each) and fitting them into the container was easy pie. They are used as alternative filter pads. We later taped the hose together with the connector at the bottom and at the pump head.

As soon as we started the pump, and with a little few minor correction on the connector at the top, there was a little comfort that we sensed. It was almost done, and looked cool. How glad we were able to do it without giving up even with constant rain messing up our pit for the last few weeks of constructing it.

Note : We hadn't found a lid to cover the top of the container before that.

At last, the final few weeks were spent on doing the landscape and putting rocks around the pond. You don't even have to buy rocks, just look for one, it can just be about anywhere lying around your neighborhood. Make sure to clean it though and don't take those from your neighbors if it is nicely placed around an object or plants, it's an act of stealing. Here are a string of pics on the rocks we've obtained along the streets and roads.

Those white smooth rocks belonged on our garden.

It seemed really long for a blog post, but I'll just end it here with pictures and montages. I hope you readers will enjoy it :). We're still constantly adding new things to the pond, so it still isn't exactly done yet.
A new home for our loving turts, finally!