Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

I just purchased a Red-eared slider for my son two days ago. Of course the pet store gave me a "Its ok in a 10 gallon tank". And of course, I realized after reading through the forum, that it just ain't so ... So, after searching my house I came up with this set up for now - A huge (55-60 gallon) clear plastic rubbermade tub. I made it so that the turtle has the basking area, lamp, ect that it needs. Should that suit a small 4" turtle for now? And, should I worry about it being plastic and not glass?

Ang

thats great for you, i wish i would have done that with my hatchling RES 2 years ago, but now she is 5 inches in a 50 gallon rubbermaid tub($12 at walmart), i think these tubs are great, they give the turtle the privacy it needs. it is much lighter which makes it easier to clean if you dont have a good filter. just have hte set up as if it where a glass tank, ive been using a rubbermaid for about a year now and its great.

good luck on the new addition!

How old is your son?
the rubbermaid setup sounds good. How are you filtering and heating the water? Are you providing UVB light?
-----

My son is 5. I am currently teaching him the "Wash hands after touching" rule... His face, when he saw the turtle, was SOOO worth it. All lit up with smiles - He loves his turtle. We named it Nolan, after his cousin.

As for the light, yes, I do have one -- The filtration seems to be a bit trickier though.

Anyone know of a good filter that works with these plastic tubs?
I don't mind doing the water changing thing, but if someone knows of a filter that works well in this situation that'd be great.

And, what about heaters? Will the heaters melt the plastic? Right now, the water is at 80 first thing in the morning (New England summer is hot & humid) but I KNOW I will need a heater in less than a month.

Hi,

Congrats on your new turt. I have 5, 2 RES, 2 Painted and
one yearling Redfoot tortoise.

The rubbermaid containers works great! You will not need
a heater in it if your room temp stays about 68-70 because
with the heat bulb being on all day it will warm the water.
If it gets real cold at night you can use a red bulb over
the enclosure to keep the water warm at night. Red light does
not bother them when trying to sleep.

As far as a filter, I use the pond statuary submersible
filter. I use the 66 gallon one and all I do is every other
day take it out and clean the sponge part. You can get
these at Lowes, Home depot or Menards.

Hope this helps

Some of the really big rubbermaids can 'bow' out when filled all the way to the top with water for an extended period of time. I had a larger turtle in one for a while but stopped in fear that I was going to wake up with 60 gallons of water on the floor.
But they're fine filled halfway up, and I'm sure you're not even going to be doing that for a while. When the turt gets bigger they make things called 'stock tanks' which are plastic but are designed to hold water and are bigger and cheaper than even big glass aquariums.
I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to let you know the rubbermaid's limitations. Great set up for now, and think how much money you saved .

Hi,

Just wondered about these stock tanks. Right now my two sliders are only a few months old (and growing like weeds) but I am planning for the future. Where do you find these? Are they clear? and how much do they run? I'd like to know so I can start saving up now. Eventually I'd like to build them a pond, but there's about 300 projects in front of that right now, so this might be a solution.

Thanks,
KC

The ones I've seen are an ugly grey plastic. You can get them at feed stores. One of my local reptile stores sells them too. They come in like... 300 gallon sizes.

try these places or places they sell to
(but in general feed or animal/farm supply stores will carry them or can order them for you)
garden ponds are good as well.

rubbermaid

feed troughs

toter

tuff stuff

I already posted this in a couple of different forums, but I thought that it would help here... Good luck... And, if you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'm here to help...

I hope I'm not too late answering...
I've done my fare share of research on stock tanks (also called horse tanks and horse troughs), and I might be able to answer some of your questions...
Stock tanks can be ordered from MANY DIFFERENT PLACES, the only difference is price...
I know that Home Depot, Lowe's and Menards carry the Rubbermaid stock tanks... You can also find them at farm stores, such as Tractor Supply Co, they will have more variety, but they will also be more expensive...
The cheapest that I have been able to find them NEW is a 50 gal rubbermaid tank for $69... Which is not cheap at all... From there, it just gets more expensive, all the way to the 200 gal for $219...
The bigger, the harder to find... And also, you will probably have to wait for them to special order them for you... Except for the farm stores, they normally have these in stock...
If you really want to save some money, don't buy a new one... I know a lot of people don't like buying used stuff, but when you're trying to do what's best for your animals, sometimes you have to go this other route...
There are many different places to find used ones... Depending on where you live, there might be some farm/estate sales... I have found many different places that have been auctioning stock tanks but you have to travel to get it, and stay there for the auction...
Your best bet will be looking through the classifieds section of your local newspaper... Since people use these as kiddie pools and during the summer months is when they realize that they want a real pool, this is the best time to buy... I bought myself an 8ft round stock tank, 3ft tall, which normally sells for more than $300 for only $50... Not bad, huh???
Oh, before I forget, the best place to look is
www.thriftynickelads.com
this is where I found mine... I posted the link under the picture... By the way, this is a picture of my stock tank... For now it is my gator tank, but I'll be converting it into my turtle tank in a month or so, and now I have an actual island in the middle with some aquatic plants, rocks, etc... Much better now, I'll try to get some more pictures and post them...

Good luck,

~ El__Quijote