Tank: He went from a 10g to a 20g, to a 30g, and now he's got a 75g. When I first put him in, he wouldn't travel too far, but now he's made himself at home.
Background: I got a vinyl 3-D wallpaper roll on sale at the hardware store and wrapped the outside of the tank with it. It looks like a stone wall and looks a lot better in person than it does in the photo. Actually, it's realistic enough that Sam started trying to climb the walls when when he first got in there.
Filter: I really like the Rena design, but so far I've had the worst luck with Rena filters. The first one was an XP3 I couldn't get to prime and it turned out that it was broken when I got it. Then I gave it another chance and ordered an XP4 a couple of weeks ago. It also arrived broken. This time I suspect UPS was to blame, because one of the intake tubes at the base of the motor (not sure what to call it) was crushed. The box looked like something heavy had been resting on it. I returned it, but really wanted to get the tank up and running, so I bought a Marineland C-series filter. So far so good, but I'll probably upgrade it down the road.
Substrate: Sam's vet suggested, and I've gotten the impression from this forum, that a bare bottom is easiest.
Plants: I really liked the idea of live plants, so I thought I'd try it out. I read up on which plants were turtle safe and also didn't need substrate. I've got some Anubias that I have to tie to a piece of flagstone, so they aren't in there, yet. I've got some java fern on coconut fiber mats that seem to be doing really well and he's not messing with them too much. There's a lily that he destroys when he's bored. It was pretty and I liked it, but given his attitude toward it, I probably won't put another one in. I also put in anacharis, but he makes more of a mess than he actually eats, so I'll probably leave that out. Down the road, I want to try water lettuce. I've got a wire mesh sock around the intake tube to keep most of the plant mess from clogging the filter and that seems to be working really well.
Basking spot: I liked the cork bark basking areas that I've seen here, so I made one. At some point, I'd like to do up a fancy above tank basking area, but in the mean time, I think he'll be okay with this. I glued two pieces of cork bark together, so one piece makes the ramp and the other makes a nice wide basking area. It pretty much floats there, but it can't float far, because it's held under the lights by a black rubber encased wire.
Lights: Just the usual basking and UVB lights. I've been a little leery about using a MVB, since he got a "sunburn" with one when he was a baby. Now that he's larger and I have the bigger set up, I might try it again.
Fish: The vet suggested providing live fish for him and gave me the name of the local source that the animal hospital uses. She said comets and red rosies were usually too fattening, so minnows were best. I put about a dozen minnows in there and he seems to be living harmoniously with them for the most part. When I first put them in, they would crowd around him during feeding time. He makes a mess when he eats, so they'd just clean up the crumbs. He'd use his paws to swat them out of the way, but one got extremely persistent about trying to take the pellets before Sam could get them. Pretty soon there was a silver tail sticking out of Sam's mouth. I wouldn't have thought minnows were that intelligent, but after that incident, they all show the big guy a little more respect. He hasn't really bothered with them, again.
Bill - RES