This is a view of my backyard. A temporary pond is made of a wood frame
with a black plastic liner. The new pond is being built -- part of the
liner is visible.
Update: 6 Mar 2005
New pond a-comin'. New turtle-cam is in place, includes
live streaming video (!!)
Update: 1 Nov 2004
I moved to San Ramon, CA -- new pond a-coming, but turtlecam is down for
a bit. Lodge a complaint
Update: 14 Dec 2003
The softshells outgrew their sandbox, so I installed a much larger sweaterbox;
it's in the foreground in the new pictures, and should cover them for at least
another year or two.
The bottom of the screen is a biofilter, housed in a trashcan. Moving
clockwise you can see:
- Biofilter
- A 50-gal trashcan separated into 2 chambers + 2000 plastic forks.
Water is pumped in the bottom of one chamber, flows up through some
forks (settling, mechanical, and biofiltration), spills over into the
second chamber (wet/dry bio),
then is gravity-fed back into the pond. It's
my own
design, and has been quite effective.
- Sandbox
- A dishpan full of sand, about 4" below the surface. It is supported
by a PVC frame, for a hiding spot underneath. The softshells often
hang out under the sand; you may see one poking a head up to breathe.
- Basking Spot
- A wooden bridge (handmade) for a basking area. The turtles often
haul out to dry off and warm up. Two of 'em are up there now.
Under the bridge is a wooden platform, for a hiding spot. You
can see the two rocks used to keep the bridge anchored.
- Fountain
- A birdbath, with a spitting frog. It's been plumbed, and you can
see the string algae growing inside and hanging into the pond.
- Floating log
- A flat piece of cork bark, tethered to the fountain. Turtles will
occasionally bask here, but they prefer the bridge.
- Not pictured: hiding spot
- A wooden hiding spot is behind the fountain. It's placed very
deep. Some fish and turtles will sleep under it.
- Not pictured: Sandbox / hiding spot
- A second sandbox is under the floating log, placed deeper
and out of view of the camera. The big catfish hide in there.
