Well... I would start with one, i would go for the painted. Turtles are not exactly cheap. First thing you will need is a container to hold water for the turtle. It could be a pond, aquarium, or rubbermaid container. If your going for looks the aquarium is the better, but pricier choice. If your looking to save some money I would start out with a 50 gallon rough tote rubbermaid container. You can get them at target, walmart, ect. for about $10.00. Beats the $75.00 for a 55gal tank. For a painted you could keep it in the 50 for most of it's life since they stay small around 8in. Next you will need a submersible heater such as a Ebo-Jager, or Tronic heater. Next you will need a basking light fixture, ie shop light, and a flourecent light fixture. You can get both at a hardware store for under $25.00. Then just use a standard bulb, 60-100watt for the shop light, and a UV/UVB for the flourecent, such as Repti-sun 5.0. You will need some sort of filter to keep the water clean. I would reccomed a canister filter. My favorites are the FilStars. For a 50gal I would get the XP3, priced around $100.00. For the tank setup, you will need a basking area. You could use a rock, log, ect. Something that the turtle can easily climb out on to to bask under the heatlamp. Then you can throw in some live plants or fake plants to give the turtle something to hide and explore in. One tip, start out with the right equipment the first time, you will save yourself a heck of a lot of money and frustration. So dont go for the small tank, go for the larger one that will last a while. Well that pretty much covers the BASICS. For further reading go to www.austinsturtlepage.com It is a great site that has loads of information. Hope this helps,

Chris D.
-----
Hey mine name is Chris and I currently have 1.0 Midland Painted, 1.0 YBS, 1.1 Leopard geckos, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

[ Show Entire Thread ]