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

I wonder if you only heard "extension cord"? An extension cord is not to code and not desired. However, I've often installed small ponds using conduit and run the pump cord thru the conduit to the outlet. Pumps can come with very long cords, 15'. Running the cord thru the conduit keeps everything neat and safe. Your contractor could get away with no conduct and just bury the cord because most are rated for burial. But conduct makes it easy to replace a pump later. Tie a string to the male plug, pull the pump out and the cord out thru the pond. Untie the string, tie onto new male plug and pull the string thru the conduit along with the power cord. Sounds like a good contractor and I can count on one hand the number of times I've said that. Having an outlet next to a small pond is something I try to avoid. They're a little hard to hide imo. If the pond is changed later it often has to be moved. But OK if needed. Now for the myths...and there are many. I'm assuming you'll have a few goldfish and aren't planning on koi. 5' diameter, 3' and you want simple. Good news is simple is also the easiest way to keep a pond. People on the web are bored and like to make pond keeping as complex as possible so they have something to talk about. Retailers like complex as possible so they have something to sell, and boy do they have stuff to sell. 1. If you're in a retail store to buy anything other than feeder goldfish or food you are going to make your life very complex. 2. Steep sides protecting fish from predators is a myth. It only sounds good and for many people that's good enough. Raccoons can pin a fish to the side vertical pond wall no problem. Herons, including Night Herons, have no problem jumping into a pond after fish or taking one on the wing. Plenty of YouTube videos showing that and I've seen Great Blues do it in an 8' deep pond (was a pool). 3. Marginal plants do not need to be submerged. When the label says submerged 6" or 12" they're taking about the max depth the plant can take. All marginals do much better in damp soil than submerged. And your life gets much easier too. String algae will often grow in and around the plants and getting it out is pretty much impossible. With no plants in the pond pulling out string algae is very easy. Plant pots on a shelf don't stay on a shelf. Little wind and over they go, dumping stuff all over your pond. And pots are raccoon magnets because looking under rocks for food is what they do for a living. If picking pots out of your pond every few weeks and trying to get the soil/media out doesn't sound like fun I concur. Water lilies and floating plants are the only plants that have to be inside the pond. In general these don't have the raccoon and algae issues. Completely submerged plants also, but these make life harder for you. 4. Plants do not add O2 to the pond, at least in any meaningful way. They consume O2 at night so the net result is water O2 is higher without plants. Not saying you shouldn't add plants, I'm saying adding them to increase O2 is a myth. Water Gardens are fine with plants because they don't have high fish loads. 5. Bio filters are almost never needed in a Water Garden. There are few enough fish that the pond by itself is bio filter enough. But buying an ammonia test kit is a good idea. Seeing a growing level of ammonia that isn't explained by water changes is when you need to consider adding a bio filter. Bio filters are easy to add later. 6. Mechanical filters (pads, sponge, etc) are pretty much worthless. Yes they will collect crap, and it does look like a lot when you clean them, but 99% of the crap stays in the pond. Way more effective in your size pond to just use a net and scoop around the pond bottom every week or so in the summer. You'll remove more and stir the bottom which helps break down small stuff. Emptying a new is sooooo much easier than cleaning these crappy filters sold to new pond owners. 7. Pumps are not required, but are very nice to have and does improve water quality. 8. Skimmers aren't just for leaves. Water surface tension allows dust to settle on the surface. It can make the water look dull. Skimmer fixes that. If you have a water falls it can produce foam on the surface and a skimmer helps reduce the build up of foam on the water. I like a catch basin under the fall to totally eliminate foam and makes the surface still for better fish viewing. Personally I think a skimmer is a good investment. I build my own so I can place the pump behind the skimmer basket for the basket acts as my pre-filter. I like the pump up high. Easier to check and a pump on the bottom can drain a pond if something goes wrong. 9 Shade does indeed reduce algae growth...but not enough that you would notice. Whether it takes 20 or 22 days for string algae to become a problem doesn't really matter. Or whether a pond is sea green or forest green doesn't really matter, the pond is still green and unacceptable. 10. You didn't mention it but plants also don't use enough nutrients to starve algae to death. Adding plants increases the amount of nutrients in a pond in almost every case thanks to the soli/media/fertilizer we add. One good thing plants do normally bring is string algae. Algae species battle each other different ways and one is by producing chemicals that make the water toxic to some other species of algae. They're why clear ponds stay clear although they almost never get the credit. 11. UV filters are sized to keep a clear pond clear. If you wait until the pond is green you might need a bigger UV, although with a bypass and slowing the water thru the UV they can often clear a pond. The most likely time you'll get green water is during the initial startup. If you can get some plants into the pond, even if only temporary, string algae will likely come along for the ride and maybe get the upper hand and be able to stop green water algae from ever getting started. That's hit or miss. Green water algae also produces a chemical to kill string algae so the plants have to be there when water is added. But if you don't want to screw around a UV is your best investment. They can often be turned off after a month or two. The UV kills the green water algae so no chemicals to stop string alage (actually all macro algae) from getting established. Macro algae will appear on its own, spores float in the air, but can have a difficult time growing in green water. Waterfalls can help macro algae establish even in green water sometimes. UVs can just be turned off. In some climates there are sometimes special instructions. When starting them up after being off for awhile it's a good idea to remove the glass sleeve that has the bulb inside and make sure that's clean. Also, these glass sleeves can sometimes cloud over, like a lime deposit but it isn't lime. This can happen after just a few hours of use. It's rare, but if water doesn't clear it's something to check. It's easy to clean off and surprising doesn't seem to repeat. I've only seen it once. The most important advice I give is to not believe the most popular "facts". We live in a much different age than even 20 years ago. There used to be a filter on info. Now everyone's fantasy is presented as fact. It's getting harder everyday to wade thru the mountains of crap info. I think it's actually probably impossible. And that is by far the biggest cause for ponds to be filled in.

If you are planning a liner pond there is little concern with the concrete cracking around the BD. The liner seals to the BD, the concrete is only there to stabilize the BD. The deeper you can make your pond the better for koi, particularly in a cold climate. It helps moderate the temperature and also gives the koi vertical space to swim. In my case I chose to go 7' deep and to bury all the pipes. My pumps and skimmer are in an insulated below ground vault through which all the pipes pass and in which are all the necessary and convenience valves. I shut off one pump for winter but leave the skimmer running through the biofilter and back to the pond through multiple gravity returns. I use floating pool covers to help insulate in winter and depend on the open water in the running skimmer to serve as an open area for gas exchange. Better would be a frame and suspended cover, a greenhouse. You can design a pond in zone 4 to keep koi year-round, it just takes a little extra thought. There are a number of koi-related internet sites, including this one, you may wish to consult while doing so. Besides Gardenweb, I found one in particular to be invaluable - perhaps you've found it by now? Conflicting recommendations are the norm, it makes things confusing. If one spends dozens of hours reading construction and maintenance posts on these forums one eventually learns who to trust and what might work for your particular situation. This is only my 3rd year with artificial ponds, there is more sage advice out there.

1.) I bought my various pepper plants from a farmer's market and they were all about 15" high. Is there a way for me to tell how old they are? No way of telling, depends on the variety, some only get 16 to 20" tall full grown. Some get over 4ft 2.) When the little tag says 70-75 days to maturity does that mean when a seed starts showing green until the point when the peppers are ready to pick? DTM = Days from a 6 to 8 week old transplant, RED is not always the answer, there are Orange Scotch Bonnents, Lemmon, lilac, Tan, white and or chocolate habanero's and others, ( In Bells, theres a permagreen, that is green when ripe) 3.) How do you pick these peppers??? I have one pepper that's about 2" inches long and super bright red so it seems like it's ready to pick. Do I cut the stem it's on with clippers? Twist it off? If clipped, how far above the top of the pepper do I clip the stem? Depends, how hot are they, Real hot, I snip the stems and let the fruit drop into a plastic cup. 4.) How do I know the peppers are actually ripe? Again depends on the variety, a hot banana will never turn red.. 6.) I have read people recommending nitrogen and epsom salts. Is this a good idea? How do I test the soil to figure out what my plants need (note that these are all in ground). Epsom, add a tbsp to the soil around a couple plants, If the leaves get greener, you need epson salts, Odds are you don't need nitrogen ~ by the way Sevin kills all the earthworms when you spray. Big thing is Sevin kills bees and messes up the human reproductive system If your parents were farmers and used a lot of this stuff, and you are male you "Might" have a reproductive organ that will not grow any bigger than what you were born with. (Thank A tree hugger) ~~Although, too much nitrogen can cause the plant to turn yellow as well but usually a yellow plant means it is lacking nitrogen. 10-15-10 is a good place to start with fertilizers. The middle number is the nitrogen. This is B.S. The first number, in a 3 number system is ALWAYS Nitrogen, The second number is ALWAYs Phosphourous, The 3rd Number is ALWAY Potassium. Peppers only need an N = 1.8 (RE NMSU Chile Capitol) Using an N = 15 is 8 times more N than a chile plant needs. 7.) Am I supposed to be picking off some flowers or leaves to help growth? If so, how do I do that and which ones do I choose? I'm afraid if I cut some of this stuff it'll never grow back! :) Only if you live in a short season like a 90 to 120 day season, in a 150 to 200 day growing season, don't worry about it Try a few plants, see if it helps 8.) How much should I be watering? I know based on rain fall... but combined with that, how many total inches of water a week? Stick an empty tuna fish or cat food cans, open end up, out in your garden. If it fills up during the week, you don't need to water, in ground plants. Potted plants odds are they will need some 9.) I don't see any bugs on the plants but I keep reading about all the bugs people find on their plants. Am I not looking closely enough or not looking enough times during the day??? I haven't used any insecticide at all. When you use low to no nitrogen, you will have a lot less bugs, Aphids, cutworm, white flies, grasshopper. hornworm love it when you pour on the Mirical Gro. Also MG delays ripening, lowers heat of chiles. But it's your choice. Just my 2 after 55 years + of growing a veggie garden IMHO organic is the way to go. Byron