thats awesome! I'd love to do something like that for my turtle but I don't trust my little sisters and the kids in the neighborhood.

Thanks. Yeah that was the problem I was having. We have a fenced in yard and I am really afraid that the birds or other wildlife might come in at night and steal my fish. I'm not to worried about P-Body because she is about a 7 inch turtle so not much will bother her. My nieces and nephews have messed with it but after getting onto them they leave it alone. The dog gave them a scare though. She got in the pond and chased the fish. What you can do is get some chicken wire or screen material and make a lid of sort for the top. Keeps little hands and paws out of it.

I had a turtle out side once for a while till it finally past on. I felt so bad. . Any-hoo. I live in a, county with wildlife. Anyways I just put a screen over the top. Guaranteed to stop, raccoons, dogs, hawks, and even Childeren if you make it heavy enough or latch it down some how. In addition, Marsh plants can, but not completely help with filtration by absorbing nitrates and other waste, but the amount of plants to help reduce these is significant. How ever it helps as well as reduces stress to the turtle and fish by providing cover from liNe of Sight from a potential predator. And it looks pretty too. The world is massive compared to a turtle, make it a little more friendly.

I didn't think about the plants. I will have to add those too. This is not a permanent home for her though. When i move here soon I want to bury the pool and set up a fence around it as well as add plants and what not to it. So sorry about your turtle. It's sad to loose a pet. I want to get a friend for her but I want to wait until I get it set up in a more permanent spot.

Plants are always nice and they don't have to be perminate. I own, owned, three large tanks for various aquatic and semi Aquatic pets, and many more over the years that I had made(250 gallon +). Because I liked to move my scenery around a lot I would keep the plants in containers with screen or scrub sponges over the hole to allow water to pass but no dirt to keep the tank water clean. The only down side to plants is they tend to turn it yellow from dead foliage, the tannins get realeases. Countering this means an increase in charcoal, preferably activated charcoal, to the filter. Cleans it up pretty good and gets rid of the smells.
As for filters, I just made my own. The ones in the store are over priced and require you to change the filtration medium often. The ones I made never had to be changed and only cleaned once a month. But I never tried it on a turtle before. Mine were used for fiddler crabs; the second dirtiest creature next to turtles. Worked fine.