Brown water

[Mmathis]

I can only speak to box turtles (non-aquatic, but they still require a source of fresh water), but ditto everything that’s been said about turtles! They CAN and WILL climb, dig….anything they can do to escape an enclosure — turtles are escape artists! And yes, they are messy. I had a separate (escape-proof) habitat for my boxies. I made a satellite bog inside the turtle habitat, that was connected to the main pond — best decision ever!

 

[Hawkinszx12]

My turtles can and do climb over/onto the rocks, so make sure they're fairly straight up, too. But it sounds like they'll probably stay contained. That said, do you have place for egg laying? If you keep them only to the pond, any eggs will be laid in the water and be lost. I know, I had it happen a couple of times--didn't know they were mature enough and I didn't provide any land area.

Yes to getting more plants but the other way is to have patience--the water lettuce will indeed propagate quickly. I've been composting buckets now for weeks.

These turtles are 15 years old and have lived all that time in 55 gallon aquarium, so they are super excited about being free lol they’ve only laid a couple eggs over the 3 years I’ve had them and then they just eat them Which I guess is OK because from what I understand red eared sliders are a bit invasive. I’ll be patient and get more edge plants

 

[brokensword]

These turtles are 15 years old and have lived all that time in 55 gallon aquarium, so they are super excited about being free lol they’ve only laid a couple eggs over the 3 years I’ve had them and then they just eat them Which I guess is OK because from what I understand red eared sliders are a bit invasive. I’ll be patient and get more edge plants

you'd be much better off getting the floaters--edge/marginals are not as aggressive with nutrient uptake, compared to the floaters. If you get enough, should stay ahead of any predation by the turtles/fish. I've had to net them until they take off. Aim for 60% surface coverage and you get shade in the bargain (not to mention how it'll thwart algae propagation too).

The PRIMARY reason I even have a pond is because of turtles! They outgrew a 40 gallon and needed something larger. The kiddie pool worked for part of a summer but it was too obvious (though, not to my wife!) that I (they) needed a pond!

 

[Hawkinszx12]

Lol they (the turtles) love it! I’ll get more floaters too, I wondered which took up more nutrients.