never a good thing to add copper. It will poison in great numbers. Pennies now adays are just coated with copper. its really iron. Try a magnet on them and you'll see. Any water you put outside in the sun will form algae and the only way to reduce it naturally is to grow oxygen producing water plants in your bird baths. That means you need a deeper container and get such plants like a a hydra or a parrot plant or a floating cabbage plant. there's another tiny floating plant that are found in lakes and ponds here. Small enough to help block sunlight and thus reduce algae growth. Pond plants will oxygenate water as it does in ponds and help tone down the algae growth. This is why in larger ponds people install those large fountains which helps to capture oxygen. its not just for decorative reasons. Bluegreen algae is particularly harmful to animals by the way. Its a form of cyanobacteria. if it does occur bleach out the container. You will know because it looks very slimy and forms noxious bubbles. Another alternative which I have used in aquariums is to use a fish antibiotic tablets. Because this form of algae is also partly bacterial - antibiotics will kill it. These thing will then turn reddish brown and die in sheets. I used to own a nature aquarium where I didn't have to clean the water for a year because of a good balance of plant grown and good bacterial growth. However one day, my dear husband introduced un-quarantined fish and petstore water and all and that destroyed the careful equilibrium I had managed. algae formed, fish died.. I had to resort to fish antibiotics to control algae.. alas.. we were never ever able to get back to that stage of balance..

So many nay-sayers! All it takes is a large pocket book, (preferably inexaustable public funding)and a panel of experts to create a "natural enclosure". Ask your most local zoo! My opinion is it could be done, and with appropriate habitats for different species, BUT, it would be expensive and have to be large enough to provide room for the transition of habitats. You would also be adding LARGE amounts of risk to your pets. Predators, parasites, pathogens, and other microorganisms that you would have no control over. Your pets would also have no defense against them, (other than their shell) as they are not indigenous to your area. None the less, you "could do it". You would have to create a large sump either covered, or separated outside the perimeter of the enclosure. My first thought is a shallow stream, where a slow moving, (but enough flow to carry waste away) stream would drain into your sump area through a screen too small for your smallest pet to get through. (Maybe large holes cut into the side of a 55 gallon drum in a grid pattern.) That sump would need to be AT LEAST a 100 gallons, (not necessarily all in one container), and contain a prefilter, mechanical filter, and bio filter to treat your tortoise wastes. Since they would use it infrequently, (after all, they are tortoises)it would probably work fine to treat the water so long as it could get enough time to chemically breakdown, and balance. Your prefilter could be as simple as a mat of plant roots near the drain to the sump, or a settling chamber, which would also pre-treat the waste, while allowing the dirty water to flow through. Properly chosen, the plants would also provide a food source. You would pump from the sump, beyond all the filters, back up to the head of the stream area, and the water would carry wastes back to the sump through the drain system. Experimentation would be needed to set the water flow, then it would have to be adjusted as the plant growth varied. The automatic requirement is the most interesting part of your idea. THAT could get very expensive! Filter back washing to waste, chemical monitoring, water level, etc. is quite a design feat in itself! But if you are willing to monitor the water level, and run a hose a little every few days/weeks, it would not be too bad to have it manually operated. In fact the bigger the sump, and filters, the less attention it should need if designed right. A simple toilet valve could control water level for you, but the supporting infrastructure becomes an issue. Solar pumps are certainly available to move the amount of water you need to move, and most likely, move it often enough to keep the water healthy, depending on system loads. (size of pond exposed to sun, wind, and relative filter sizes, how many leaves get in, etc.) Just like your pets, water features need attention. So you know, there is no such thing as a maintenance free pond, just one that hasn't been maintained, or is not yet completely full of stuff. Nature puts things in, we take them out. We do this to keep the area a pond. In nature, the pond is always changing, and always filling with gunk, getting shallower and shallower all the time. What you proposed is certainly not a simple project. What other proposed is simpler and more practical. It certainly is cheaper, and less risky to use a large saucer, and unless you are willing to create a large water sump, a lot less headaches! You have easy control over the quality and quantity of the water in the saucer, and simple disinfection with a weak bleach solution provides a micro guard. When you decided to take on pets, you decided to devote a portion of your life to their care. If you want them to live in a natural area, you will need to return them to their native lands and set them free. Other than that, continue to care for them daily. They deserve your attention! And you benefit from providing for them. Heck, they're tortoises, you only have about 25-100 years to take care of them! Buck up! -TT

One thing you need to be careful of is to NOT plant immediately around the shallow area where the birds come to drink. Have it open so they can land safely and see around the area. Frogs will hide in pond vegetation and jump the birds, with small birds being eaten and larger birds drowned. At least that happens if you end up with large bullfrogs which many of us do. Snakes can hide in thick vegetation too. Make the beach area bird friendly and safe from predation by making it shallow, non-slippery footing, maybe a branch or two as a perch, and plenty of open visability. Just like a feeder or a bird bath it has to be open but near cover. To prevent outdoor cats from jumping birds they recommend 10 to 12 feet of open area and then shrubs for the birds to dash into in the event of a cat (or hawk) attack.

The technology and marketing for solar pump has changed quite a lot along with the time passing by. The cost for solar panels has dropped significantly since the year of 2012. Chinese solar panel manufacturers are accused of dumping their products, so that USA has imposed higher tariff on Chinese solar panel import, while the punishment does not affect the solar pump import since solar pump is more of a pump than a solar panel. The good side of this matter is that the solar pump manufacturer in China can purchase much cheaper solar panel due to the over productivity of Chinese solar panels, therefore the Chinese solar pump manufacturer can sell their solar pump at a much favorable price. We are a manufacturer in China specializing in solar pond/fountain pump kits for water feature, waterfall, fountain and drip irrigation, solar pond air pump kits for pond oxygenation, filters for pond water filtration and associated battery backups. Compared with mains power, solar power is environmentally friendly, easier to install and has no operating cost, but perhaps even more importantly, it is much safer for kids. We have exported our products world wide for more than nine years, mostly to Europe, USA and Australia etc. and established a good reputation. Moreover, all of our products are CE and RoHS certified. If you are interested in our products, we could be your trustworthy supplier. To know more about our company and our products, please come to our web site at http://www.solarever.com. If you need any help, Please contact Mr. Larry Li at larry@solarever.com. Thank you very much for your time. Best Regards, Larry Li, Hangzhou Gene Solar Industries Co., Ltd. T: +86 0571 85020097-801 : F: +86 0571 85020097-806 E: larry@solarever.com W: http://www.solarever.com Here is a link that might be useful: Hangzhou Gene Solar