A pond in the shade is not a good place for turtles.
For turtles to stay healthy they need regular exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, so they need an area where they can bask in direct sunlight or under artificial lights designed for reptiles that produce UVA and UVB light. Without this light, metabolic bone disease will eventually result.

I will try. You can go to www.photobucket.com and join. It's free. Follow directions for joining and upload your pictures from your computer. While in your album locate the picture you want to use. There should b 4 lines of print under the picture. On the third line that starts HTML highlight and copy. Then go to the forum to the post that you want to use. In the message area right click and paste. You shoud get several lines of symbols and characters. Better known as Gobbledegook. When you preview, you should see your picture. Go to the correction area and add your text. Then when you are ready submit. Glenda

Thanks for the reply's. I have been thinking what I am going to do since the Turtles need sun.

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So lets say I put them in the shade, if I took them and let swim in a small kid pool once a week in the sun would that be ok. If not I have another area that is further away from the house that I could but the small pond, and it has sun. Then I could just keep the bigger one in this spot. My first idea was to have both ponds here and have a stream from one to the other. But now with the turtle problem I am confused with what I should do. any suggestions I have pictures of back yard I can put up later.

Not trying to be smart here, but won't the turtles just climb out, sunbathe, and return? Unless you have a way to keep them confined, I hear they are infamous for roaming. But I know nothing about turtles.

Looks like a nice spot for those 2 preforms if you can solve the turtle question. You can connect them with a little stream, one pump and filter, lots of plants, low critter load (ie: 2 turtles, 2 or 3 comets or goldfish). There are lots of aquatic plants that like shade, others don't mind but won't bloom as well (like water lilies), so do a bit of research before investing in a lot of plants that thrive in full sun. Also watch out for rain run-off from the roof. Lots of junk in that you probably don't want in your pond.

Good luck!

thanks for response, I think the turtles would get lost if I let them roam around. How much sun do turtles need, every day? What if I built a little area and put a uv lamp so they could go under, I could put a heat lamp to attract them. Part of this area will get sun in the summer time, just not during winter. To the right of the area there is a door, I was thinking about butting both ponds in and then putting a stream from one to the other, then having like a little walk way over the stream. hummm?

It's hard to say exactly what the minimum amount of basking turtles need to stay healthy, but I don't think once a week would be sufficient. I would think more like 3-4 hours a day would be more like it. My turtles bask up to 8 hours a day in the summertime, but of course they don't bask at all in the wintertime when the pond is frozen over.
I would suggest you try to get at least one of the ponds in the sunniest area you can find in your backyard and keep the turtles in there. Of course they is also a danger of small pre-forms getting too hot if they are in direct sunlight all day long.
Turtles prefer to bask right at the waters edge, on a log or a rock, so they can easily (and quickly) slip into the water at any sign of danger.
When turtles wander it is usually a symptom of stress or that they just aren't happy where they are, it would not be normal behavior for them to climb out of the water and wander any distance away from the water, with the intention of basking for a while, and wandering back.

Hello Derek,
You should really do a search on google or another search engine to find more info on turtles & their needs in your zone! We had turtles several years ago & they do like to sun themselves on rocks, alot. However, here in N TX in the winter they hibernate, not sure if that is what it is called with turtles, but they do not eat, & just kinda sit around & aren't very active. I like your idea for the smaller pond flowing into the larger one with a stream connecting them.
Good Luck!
Dianne