Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I finally got the money and the time and have put together a new, bigger stock tank for my spotteds.

It is a round, 12 foot in diameter, two foot tall, galvanized stock tank. I found a great tree branch that is hard as rock and trimmed it to fit snuggly across the middle. I built up a small basking area with some pieces of sandstone and put a hardy Bacopa water plant in front of it. I also bought an Indiana red water lily today to shade the area that gets full afternoon sun.

I've also created a land area with a rubbermaid container. I believe it's two feet long and a foot tall. I layered pea gravel and a couple of pavers on the bottom, filled the bulk with a sandy loam potting soil, added a layer of sand and a layer of gravel. I also planted a blue carex and creeping jenny. I plan to add some hardware cloth around the edges hanging into the water to allow access.

It's a work in progress. I still need to build a security top, which I'm using some cattle panels to do. I'm also going to plant some red leaf cannas on the outside to soften the tank a little. Tell me what you think!

Pictures continued. Oh, I have put the turtles out a few times during the day. Today, they really took to it, the two spotteds were even basking on the log: really cool. I don't plan to keep them out until I have the lid finished. Anyone want to come weld for me?

The first two pics are the hardy bacopa and the water lily, then the third is the land area. Definitely needs some improvement, but once I get the hardware cloth on it and algae starts to grow, I think it won't stick out as much.

More pics

I really like the set up. How do they get on the land part. And how is that fixed down. If it rains do you just pump access water out? and is there a drain in it. last but now least how much was that?

Sorry, haven't logged on in a while. The tank was $200 at Tractor Supply. They have several pieces of driftwood, logs, etc attached to the land area. And I drilled holes in the side to drain excess water. Actually, I had more trouble this summer keeping it filled with the excessive heat we had here.

Coincidentally, I brought the spotteds in for the winter because I just couldn't figure out a good way to make a secure lid and I couldn't leave them on their own with predators in the neighborhood.

where do you live im in nj if your somewhat close i would come and do some welding for you.

Thanks! I appreciate the offer, but I live in Texas.

I am in Wickenburg AZ,where it gets real hot.I was thinking of building an outside enclosure for spotteds.I was wondering hot hot it gets in your area of Texas? I keep my group of albino red-ears out year round, but they are red-ears.

Sorry for the late response. It gets HOT here. I'm in Dallas. It gets into the 100s almost daily starting in late June through September. And little to no rain during that period. The horrible part here, is, it doesn't cool down at night. Summer nights stay in the 90's, so it never cools down by the time the sun is coming up, so it gets back up to 100 in the morning very quickly.

It looks like a nice setup. More people should make bigger enclosures for the turtles that they keep. But, looking at your pictures, if your tank really is 2 feet tall (and many of them are because of local safety regulations), then it is not 12 feet in diameter; it's closer to 6 feet. If you were sold one that was supposed to be 12 feet, and paid the price of a 12-foot one, then you need to get some money back.