Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, this may seem long, but I REALLY could use your input!!!

I own an eastern painted who's carapace is just a hair over 4 inches. He grew up in inadequate housing (not that I didn't research, but I had trouble grasping what I read about turtle space requirements, etc.) but now resides in a 20 long with about 9 inches of water (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less). I have no filter, but change all of the water weekly and feed him in a seperate container, siphoning out about a gallon of dirty water for him to eat in and then replacing with fresh; so the tank is never grungy or gross.

I'm curious whether or not his tank is too small for him? I have read that he would need at least a 55 gallon, but I've also spoken to experienced and respected owners at TurtleForum.com and they say his tank is fine. What's your opinion? That leads me to my second question..

If possible, I'd like to add another 3 inches of water and create an above-tank basking area, such as shown here:
http://atphabitats.com/images/Wooden basker on top of tank.gif
(Copyright ATPhabitats.com)
Anyone know of any good ways to do this? It would free up a lot of space for "Ernie" to use.

He doesn't seem bored; I have some tank ornaments he uses, a background image, a large square of fake Springeri grass to look in, and I take him outside a couple times a week. I do this mainly because his UVB bulb has expired (getting a new one within a month though). Anyone know how long he would need to be in the sun in order to compinsate from his lack of regular UVB exposure? I know it wouldn't have to be 12 hours a day like a ReptiSun would need to be, as real sunlight is stronger.

Uh, I'm just wondering why the turtle can't spend more time outside since you say you put him out twice a week? Why can't he go out daily? Are you in an apt. or a house with a yard? It's not expensive or difficult to rig up an outside setup if you have a yard. The more turtles are exposed to natural unfiltered sunlight the better. Others are probably going to gripe at me about this (wouldn't be the first time) but I've heard that 15 minutes in the natural unfiltered sun is about the same as 24 hours with a good UVB light. UVB bulbs (even a new Reptisun 5) isn't near as good as the sun outside. Turtles kept indoors most of the time are always in a deficit for UVB rays. As you can see, I don't promote keeping turtles indoors on a permanent basis. Is your turtle a male? Remember mature females need dirt access to lay eggs in even if they've never been with a male. They can lay infertile eggs.
water turtle care page

Thanks for replying I'll take him outside as often as I need to until I get the light (though I agree, natural sunlight is always better so he'd still go out plenty, I think he likes to explore the yard a bit). So I suppose 3 times a week of 15 minutes or more would be best; that would equal at least 6 days--12 hours a day--of being under a ReptiSun.

I've heard screen lids filter out 30% of UVB rays from a synthetic source.. any truth to this? If this is true, I'm thinking I should get an 8.0 bulb instead.

I'm not really sure about how much screen would filter the UVB rays but I bet it filters it some. Putting a wire top on instead of screen would solve that problem. You could probably jerryrig something like that.

If you get a ZooMed Reptisun UVB light, I don't think they make an 8.0. Somebody tell me if they've come up with a new one I don't know about. The 5.0 is suppose to be the proper UVB range for turtles. They have a 2.0 put it's not for turtles.
GCTTS