Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my 2 turts for almost 4 months now. Have learned a lot from this forum and from interacting with my babies. I want to share with you all, esp. fellow beginners, my tank setup and some DIY ideas esp. for hatchlings. The tank has all the essentials and no decorations, hence very easy to maintain. I'm sure the turtles appreciate the clean water! In fact, they've grown quite a bit (from 1.25" and 1.5" to 2" and are very active and healthy.

Some features of the tank:

1) The basking platform is new---I took a small tray that I used to hold misc. stuff, inverted it, and suspended it in one corner of the tank using fishing lines. The platform measures around 6"x10" and does not take up any water space. You can probably find similar trays in a dollar store.

2) I use a 40W household bulb as their basking heat source, placed 3-4" from the basking platform. I have a coiled UVB clamp light which is usually near the basking platform but is not in this picture.

3) The caves (2 of them) are inverted plastic boxes stacked on top of each other, each with an entrance carved out using a cutter, and weighed down by a rock.

4) The green underwater platform on the right is a sheet of plastic (8"x10" sandwiched between the rock and the upper cave. The clear underwater platform in the middle is a plastic box lid to which I attached suction cups using fishing lines. The turtles love resting on these underwater platforms when they are not swimming and can easily stick their heads out of water to breathe. They usually sleep there too.

5) The water is about 7" deep. They love swimming and their leg muscles are getting stronger by the day. (I can feel it when they kick me to try to get away. ) Deep water gives them a chance to exercise, provided that they have some places to rest(like underwater platforms).

Please let me know if you have any questions/suggestions!

Very cute set-up, and cost efficient!!! Your idea of using a CD case to "dampen the waterfall" is a great idea!!! How did you get it to stay there? Wish I was more creative!!

Thanks for the compliments! As for the CD case thingy, please see my reply to Ivantheterrible further down in the thread.

Thats funny, I had that same filter and I also used a cd case to slow down the waterfall. It broke eventually and I replaced it with a piece of plastic cut from a milk carton.
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I read about the CD case thing on the forum. Maybe I read one of your posts! I didn't silicone it to the filter, but merely hang it in front of the waterfall.

How do you keep it on there? Do you ever add guppies or anything to the tank?

I used the cover of the CD case (usually clear plastic) to hang in front of the waterfall. If you look at the CD case cover, you'll find 4 openings on the side. I threaded fishing lines through 2 of those holes, held the cover a bit higher than the top of the waterfall, ran the lines over the top of the Aquaclear 300, and attached them to a hooked suction cup that I attached to the back of the filter. You can also just tape the fishing lines to the filter, since the CD case cover is so light. This way the waterfall runs behind the CD case cover and is also noiseless at the lowest setting. One drawback with this is that the filter is not working at its top capacity. I compensate for this by not feeding the turtles in the tank, always netting out their junk when I see it, and running the filter without the CD case cover at full speed for 30 min every day to thoroughly agitate the water and pick up any debris. Please let me know if you'd like to see a closeup of the filter setup.

Well, it seems there's so many things you can put in, but they are all virtually flat and you have to keep water level just right, and even then it's hard sometimes for them to climb up on it.

I had a storebought platform that has suction sups to the side and they began having problems getting on it as the turtles neared 3" long.

I got some of the aluminum expanded metal that's made to cover your gutters on the house...Hooked it on the far side, layed it across and left about 8" of it hanging off in the water.

It now acts as a sort of ladder. They really like hanging on it. It is no problem for them to climb up on, and also offers some grip so they don't slide when on the platform.

I'd take pics, but I didn't bother trying to make it look nice...and I'm too lazy right now to bother with pics

Also, if you are doing a DIY and need to provide some grip, you can buy these waterproof adhesive strips at places like Bed,Bath and Beyond. Its supposed to be for bathtubs so you don't slip but they work fine against plastic (and prob metal) to provide some traction for ramps. (I think the orig idea was kiwiturtle's but it works well for me)