http://www.naturalwaterfall.com/waterfall.asp. This site has a free e-book (they need your e-mail address, but they’re trustworthy, and the e-book is good).

http://www.backyardponds.com/showcase/showcase.php. Click on Showcase Ponds.

http://clearwaterlandscapes.com/pondphotos.htm. This site also offers a free e-book. They want your e-mail address but they’re reliable. I used it myself.

http://www.exit109.com/~gosta/pond.sht. Good document on building a pond.

http://watergarden.com/Pond-Photos/pondphotos_2007.php. Great photos of ponds.

http://ca.geocities.com/rsab2100/pond.html. One person’s pond-bulilding experience, complete with photos.

I researched for a year before I started my pond. I also purchased a Watergarden book from Lowe’s that was extremely helpful. My personal “I wish I’d known that!” tips?

1. Ponds need an ecosystem. Plan to have:
a. Fish. Fish eat algae.
b. Plants. Provide oxygen and shade for fish. Compete with algae. Submerged plants, floating plants.
c. Sun/shade. Plants need sun. Algae hates shade.
d. Aeration–a pump with a waterfall, fountain, bubbler, sprayer. Keep the water moving. Provides oxygen, fights algae.
e. Filtration. For a big pond, a biofilter is essential. It is simply a big tub filled with a filtering medium. I use foam blocks.
f. Bacteria/enzymes. Liquid, powder, tablet form. These “eat” pond wastes and keep water clear and balanced. Should be added when water is fresh.
g. Location. It is ESSENTIAL that rainwater runoff does not enter your pond. Runoff may contain pesticides, fertilizers, oil, and chemicals that will ruin your pond.

2. Cheap pond liner is not good. It punctures easily and becomes brittle. I bought the most expensive liner available. I also used a stock tank for my pond, which is indestructible.

3. Landscaping around your pond is essential and fun. Use rocks and boulders, ground cover, sweeping plants like monkey grass, and tall plants like iris.

4. What do you need most? Patience. I spent a week building my waterfall, only to have it collapse into the pond, mud and all, when it developed a leak. Water does not flow the way you want it to.

Good luck to your mom and her husband. I hope this hasn’t been too long, but building a pond is like building a home. If you use cheap materials and take shortcuts, you will constantly be making annoying expensive repairs.

You can help protect your pond residents by making sure there are hiding spots in the pond — like little caves or small “docks” which the fish and frogs can hide in/under should marauders come around. I’ve got a few large clay pots tucked in corners (and weighted down) for the fish to hide in. If your pond is small enough, you can cover it at night with deer netting, or set it so its a few inches down in the water so the marauders are foiled (although you do need some space for the frogs to get in an out. Protecting it with deer netting also helps prevent the raccoons from splashing around in your pond, which is important because those sharp claws of theirs can rip the plastic liner easily enough.

There are certain repellents you can get at your local garden center, but I honestly don’t know how effective they are against raccoons. I have a spot in the yard where I throw leftover foodstuffs for the raccoons, and this does help as the little beggars are actually lazy and prefer an easy meal over working for one, and they get used to this being their dining hall. The best deterrent for marauding beasties is a dog that is allowed to stay outdoors all night, but then dogs often like to splash around in the pond to play with the frogs.

I would urge you to get inexpensive “feeder” goldfish. You will have a lot of die-off of fish until the pond is established. Once established, the fish will lay eggs and each spring you will have a new batch of baby fish to enjoy. These fish can grow as large as koi (depending upon the size of your pond), and just as colorful if you stock it with a variety of colored fish — right now I have one 13-year old who has survived several raids and is a foot in length, so with some planning and care, you can have long-lived fish in a long-lived pond. The frogs will move in on their own, probably a couple of months after your pond is running.

Best of luck.

Hard nursery pond liner..$ 150.00

A cement slab brick 12X12X1″..and 2 smaller bricks to hold up the slab. That way they can get under the slab for protection or sleep at night. $ 6.00

Barley keeps the water clearer. $ 8.00 optional.

A submersable heater $ 15.00 keep temp at 80 to 83 degrees.

Drop in 50 to 75 goldfish.

.**and clean every week.
Drop in 50 to 75 goldfish with some ‘amquel’ so the fish don’t die.
Turtles need no water condtioners.Tap water is fine. But without amquel the fish would die within an hr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/sets/72157620975823702/ my pond now

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/sets/72157612885877173/…basking areas over the yrs.

good luck

baby turtles are very hard to keep just due to the fact that they require a lot of care attention
Google “baby turtle care sheet” and you should find a lot of helpful material

since your low on funds, see if any of your friends have any extra tanks that they are not using that you can borrow till you can get the proper setup

im sorry to say that $ 50 just wont cut it for what you want