Habitat - Indoor :: 250gal Setup Progress - Picture Heavy

[jason2713]

I have this posted in the "Introduction" section, but figured I should probably post it here. I guess the moderators can decide to move the original thread and delete this one, or I can just continue it here without posting unrelated material in the wrong section.

I own 2 red eared sliders named Cojack and Sally, both are female. Cojack is massive compared to Sally, and I couldn't give her a sissy name! Sally is about 6" and Cojack is roughly 8", maybe more.

I had them in a 75 gallon tank but they started to get aggressive towards each other and was seeing Sally with big chunks of her neck bleeding and missing. They were going to kill each other. So I had to separate them, but I didn't have the funds to get them something much larger as I lost my house and job...had to move back in the basement of my parents house with my wife. Hard times forced me to put them in 40 gallon storage bins you buy from walmart.

After saving, purchasing a home with my wife, I was able to afford and have enough room for a huge 250gallon tank. It's a beast to move. What a project that was! The filter I selected was the Eheim 2180, I have no complaints with this filter after about 3 weeks. Keeps the water crystal clear and makes hardly any noise. The cost of the filter was a hard pill to swallow, but the results speak for themselves and will save me maintenance and time in the future. Totally worth it.

I put it in the garage to test for leaks for a few days. If it was going to leak or fail, I'd much rather it be in my garage!


When I first put them in the tank, they sank like a rock. I thought they forgot how to swim after being at the bottom for 5 minutes! I didn't want to drown them!


Was starting to get nervous after 5 mins and no attempt at going to the surface.



I finally saw them starting to float on the surface. Phew!

[jason2713]

Drift wood came in November 6, 2012 and I started soaking them in hot water to get the tannins out. This usually takes about a week or two, I'll know better after I change the water they are sitting in. As it gets clearer and clearer, I'll be more comfortable with it being in the tank. I put them in the hottest water that would come out of the faucet.

Here are pictures of the drift wood before I started soaking them in large vats of water:

1) This piece came mounted to a slate tile already. I'll be doing this myself to the other two.


2) I'll mount this one just like this on to the slate tile. It's going to take some creativity though.


3) I'll mount this one with the stump attached to the slate tile and the roots coming out of the surface so they have places to hang out while in the water.


The above tank basking areas plans are done, I just need to get the 1/2 inch acrylic purchased and molded. It's going to sit on the inside lip of the tanks top. I plan to do something very similar to this, I got the idea from here:


I bought the Zoo Med PowerSun UV Mercury Vapor Lamp 100 Watts to get both the UVA/UVB in one. Dang they're expensive!

The wife sitting next to it when I first got it. She's short, but this thing is massive. I almost got a hernia moving it with a friend into my basement. The tank alone has to weigh 300-400lbs. When filled, it weights nearly 2700lbs. It's a beast.

[jason2713]

[November 12, 2012]
Quick update on the set up, I've been soaking the drift wood in hot water for a week now. I have them in big plastic trash cans (34gallon), and I empty and renew the water every day now for the past week with piping hot water from the faucet. I may finish out this week to be sure the tannins are removed as much as I can.

I went to home depot and got 2x 50lb bags of tan play sand that had been washed and filtered. I placed one bag in on Sunday and the water became super cloudy! I turned the filter off to let it settle over the next 2 days, and then turned on the Eheim 2180 to get the water clear. Well after 24 hours, I came in the room and the flow of the filter was clogged. I had to shut it down, take it apart and rinse the entire filter out taking out the media, top filters, and refilling it with clean water. The flow immediately jumped back to high speed. Lesson learned.

I thought prewashed/filtered sand would have been ok, but I guess I have to wash it again. That sucks. I also got threaded 1/2" rods with bolts/washers/rubber bushing to mount the rods onto the slate tiles I purchased so I can raise the drift wood up 6-8" off the bottom of the tank. My goal is to have the root systems come out of the surface of the water so the turtles have basking areas while in the tank.

I've ordered 1/2" acrylic to build the 2x above tank basking areas to place on each side. The areas are 22" x 22", so should be awesome once finished. I'm just waiting on the precut pieces I ordered. I'll update with pictures.

Here are the drift wood soaking, this was before the sand was put into the tank. At this point, the bricks I'm using to weigh them down into the water are no longer needed.

[jason2713]

[November 22, 2012]

Ok Guys, I finally had some time to get some parts machined/custom made for this application of drift wood I'm trying to do for the 250gal tank! I scrapped the idea of putting metal rods because of the rust potential. So I'm going the plastic/acrylic approach.

My problem was the drift wood was not tall enough to breach the surface of the water to give them somewhere to hang out while in the tank. So we made a stand that we mounted the drift wood on. I'll be doing this for each piece of drift wood, but its time consuming. It took nearly 3-4 hours to get this one right, the others may take less since it was a trial by fire experience.

The parts are:
3x 1.75" clear acrylic cylinders
3x 5lb bag of black sand
3x 1.5" thick ABS plastic 12"x12" bases
3x 12"x12" slate tile
3x marine epoxy kit
1x sheet of sand paper
1x tube of aquarium silicone

So here were the steps:

First picked out the coolest piece of drift wood I had of my set of 3:



Test fit the custom bases we machined to fit the tubing, you can see it fits in the slot. That's also the sand I'm using to make the clear tube not stand out in the tank.



Using the epoxy, we sealed one of the slate tiles to the bottom of the custom bases to give it more weight. Combine that with the weight of the ABS stand and the sand we put into the tube, I'm hoping the drift wood will be anchored to the bottom and not float. We'll see, fingers crossed! Mandy my bulldog looks thrilled, doesn't she?



Letting the epoxy dry for an hour or so so the tile seals on the ABS. While that was drying, we started to work on the drift wood.



To mount the tube inside the drift wood, we had to get creative. Using a 1.75" drill bit that you use to drill through doors and mount your door knobs, we drilled a 2.5" deep hole in the trunk so that we could use marine epoxy to bond the acrylic cylinder to wood and create a seal. This took forever.



Success! Bonded and mounted, its on there tight, that wood is really heavy.



Filled the acrylic cylinder with the black sand, put a bead of aquarium silicone on the inside of the plastic base and outside of the acrylic tube and joined them together.



Success! Takes 2 days for the aquarium silicone to set up completely according to the directions so I'll be putting it in on Saturday!




Happy with the results, I'll have to repeat this 3 times. Took roughly 3-4 hours just for this one. Gonna take a while.



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[jason2713]

[November 24, 2012]
Well I put the first piece of drift wood in this morning and it was a success! Within 2 minutes of me putting it in, Cojack was already basking.

First I set up the timer and took out the UVA/UVB bulbs. Highly recommend these products if you're on the fence about what to purchase. The light bulbs are expensive, but worth it.

When I'm done doing all the other pieces of drift wood, I'll attempt to cover the base of the stands with another bag or 2 of sand so they aren't so obvious in an attempt to bury them. Then I'll be able to add some more decorations like plants too...but I don't want to get ahead of myself. I still also have to get to the above tank basking area project, building 2 of them.





Once in the tank, I went to plug in all the lights, and before I got off my knees, Cojack was where you see him loving life!



What a good feeling!










I'll have the other 2 drift wood pieces done next weekend and will update you. If you don't remember what they look like, here you go. If you need help finding drift wood like this, I can recommend the seller I bought these from. They were $40/piece free shipping

[papoopeepoo]

Very Nice!

One tip: The MVB bulbs should have a larger hood and should be mounted facing straight down. Mounting the bulbs at an angle is detrimental to the filament life and UV output. Also, having the lights facing towards the front like that is harmful to any human's eyes that would like to check the turtles out.

I'll keep checking this thread out. Large tanks are great for creativity.

[slider_keeper]

Yeah the UVB bulbs need to be pointing straight down, their life span will be cut way short setup this way. One way to set them up would be to build a metal bar that runs the length of the tank and and the frame would sit on the tank rim. It could be built to be adjusted up or down to keep basking temps in check during the changing seasons. I have a bar that comes off the wall behind my turtles tank to cover this purpose. The bar is from the zoomed riptile light stand. Check out Toku's photos in my signature to get a idea.

[jason2713]

I'm learning but the UVA/UVB bulbs i bought should be treated like UVB alone?

[papoopeepoo]

No, MVBs emit UVA/UVB and heat, but they are not full-spectrum. The light emitted is on the higher end of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation (light waves) leading from what we can see, up to just below x-rays. This short wavelength light is extremely harmful to our eyes in the amount that is emitted from these bulbs. Do not look directly into the bulbs.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions if you don't know something. We're here to help.

[jason2713]

Sucks, I went into the room to turn the lights off, and one of them already burned out. Wow. That's an expensive lesson I switched them for just regular heat bulbs. I'll have to wait until I make my ATBA to use these bulbs. I'm going to start making the other drift wood pieces next weekend. I'll be sure to update.

[slider_keeper]

Yeah it is a lesson learned, at least you won't do that again;)

[jason2713]

Different lights now. Can't wait to get the other pieces in, they love it.

[papoopeepoo]

Right on.

By the way, I hang my MVB hood from the ceiling on a hook. This allows for inconspicuous mounting and adjustable height.

[slider_keeper]

the basking area looks good they seem to be happy with it

[jason2713]

Thanks for the tips with the UVB lights. I'll try that.