Next door is the average turtle lover.  He decides to build a pond for his turtles.  To his greatest delight, the grass is dotted with bright golden dandelions- a favorite  treat for his beloved charges.  The pond is heavily fenced, and upon that fence sits electrodes which protect his precious animals from unwanted predators.  The pond itself contains several half-eaten hyacinths, water lettuce and small patches of duckweed just waiting to be consumed.  "Flowers are for sissies," the turtle lover repeats over and over in his mind, for he hasn't seen a bloom last ten minutes since he first dug the pond.  Remnants of fish tails and snail shells can be found in the filter and, with great delight, the red worms are reintroduced into the pond instead of removed.  Hoping to stumble across a slug, the turtle lover sits back, opens another beer, and belches happily.

Each one of these pond owners are happy with their situation.  While the pond owner may desire a turtle, the grim reality that his pond will begin to look like his next door neighbor's by the end of the week must be taken into consideration. Whether you are a turtle lover looking for a pond, or a pond lover looking for a turtle, you will be able to find whatever information you seek within the pages of this article. I will now begin a journey through the Internet.  We will begin at Steve's pond (http://lornet.com/alside/pond.htm ) and get on the train. This site brings the imagination to the outer limits.

Our first stop begins at the frequently asked pond owner questions written by K30@aol.com. You can find this at http://hometown.aol.com/k30/myhomepage/writing.html. On the other side of the tracks, you will find the frequently asked turtle and tortoise questions (FAQ) written by the Tortoise Trust USA at http://www.tortoisetrust.org/care/faq.html. You may also want to walk up the street to a site owned by DK@amostypo.cz  for some natural history at http://www.zelvy.cz/ .

If you get back on the train and travel one more stop, you will see the mall to the left. Feel free to get off and browse:

http://www.aqua-mart.com/  (excellent prices)
http://www.pondguy.com/ (great sludge eater)
http://www.theplantplace.com/ (pond plants)
http://www.skippysstuff.com/ (excellent pond articles)
http://paradisewatergardens.com/ (beautiful plants and nice waterfall pictures)
http://puregold.aquaria.net/ (fantastic fish information)
http://www.kencofish.com/ (great liner prices)
http://www.gardenhous.com/ (filters and pond kits)
http://www.wheatacres.com/Home.htm (irrigation materials)
http://www.clara.net/ (general pond requirements)
http://www.ljaquatics.force9.co.uk/ (Aquatics needs)

While you are out shopping you may want to stop off at the book store Carapace Press and check out the Vidi-Herp series by Andy C. Highfield. http://www.vidi-herp.com/

All aboard!  The train is chugging on to more mystical and magical places. Why not stop over at Mary Hopson's site for exotic Asian species?  You can get off the train at http://www.micronet.net/users/~turtles/exotics.html.  Her e-mail address is Maryhopson@micronet.net
 
Our next stop is T&C Terrariums for all your organic planting needs. They have a lovely catalog of bromeliads and succulents. You can get off at http://home.att.net/~a.j.calisi/supplies.html

We can now step off the train for a while and relax in the beautiful garden belonging to Jan Jordan at http://home.earthlink.net/~alanjordan1/jjspond/index.html and listen while I explain some of the care needs of a turtle living in a pond. 

An established pond will contain everything a turtle needs to remain healthy.  The sun provides the necessary UVB lighting needed by the turtle to absorb calcium for healthy shells and bones.  Without UVB, the shell would become soft and the bones would become brittle.  The sun also helps clean the shell of unwanted bacteria and fungus.  If you bring your turtle inside during the winter, you will have to provide the necessary UVB artificially by using a special lightbulb made for turtles and tortoises.  Two very good brands are Vitalite and Reptisun 5.0.  These bulbs are expensive and will run anywhere from $15.00-$20.00.  Make sure your bulb clearly states "UVB" on the box as there are many full-spectrum reptile bulbs out there that are good but not what a tortoise or turtle needs. 

Water quality is also very important.  Because of the amount of waste a turtle produces, you must keep your turtles in a filtered pond.  While you can purchase a pond filter with a combination pump, generally these are only meant for small ponds that do not produce much waste.  Most larger ponds use a separate pump that brings the water to a filter where it can be cleaned by a variety of materials and methods. First you can mechanically clean the pond with any commercial filter material but stay away from air condition filters. I use regular quilting batting from the fabric store. It is cheap, easy to clean and dispose of when necessary.

Next you must provide biological filtration in the form of plant matter (a veggie filter) or use bioballs, hair curlers, lava rocks, plastic sponges etc. Bacteria that survive on waste products will come to live on these objects and establish a working biological filtration system. A UV sterilizer is also recommended to kill off bacteria and algae that cloud the water. Hyacinths make wonderful natural veggie filters and they are edible to the turtles.  You may have to set up a seperate bog area that is inaccessable to the turtles if they eat too much.

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