Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Without the use of plastic or other molded ponds, how can I form a naturalistic pond with gravel substrate in a tropical vivarium? Since there is a layer of gravel at the bottom of the terrarium with or without the pond, could that be utilized as the pond? If this is done, would the chemicals in the soil (even with the use of a vivarium safe potting mixture) leech into the water and taint the pond? Any help is greatly appreciated.

i had thought of this when i was building my vivarium.

what i cam up with was simple.
have the pond at one end of the tank, scoop out most of the gravel from this end and use dome large rocks to hold back the rest of the gravel. then slope the dirt near the pond so it hills down like the bank of a real river.

chemical wise, i got no clue how it would work. can't assume it'd be bad though, as the water would get waste in it from animals crapping anyway. so maybe get a small filter for in the pond for that.