Habitat - Indoor

Whenever I can manage to sneak a picture of my turtle in it I will...she is very shy about her tanning habits when she knows people are watching lol

Here is mine - I made one from a plastic storage tub.

I know it needs some decorations to make it less boring - not much just something more than gravel and a rock

I was just looking around this post and saw some really nifty ideas, but im impatient to wait tell payday to get the white egg carton stuff and went to town...i just used a plastic shopping basket from the dollar tree lol..and it works really good the handle even serves as a underwater resting spot...perfect height too..i must admit tho its not pretty like all the others ive seen and kinda getto lol. but it'll work untill i can get some of that deflecting stuff..

i feel really creative tho and now the water level is high enough that theres no annoying splashing!!!!

they really seem to like..

OK finally got some pics of Sassy in her tanning booth!

omg sassy is go big... ive never seen an res grow that big.. man if my get that big there gonna need there own room lol..
kiwi- did u use a screen on the sides of your topper? and the rest with ply wood?

Yes Sassy is a very big girl lol. She is probably about 6 inches wide and about 7 inches long. I hope she doesn't grow anymore or I'm going to have to invest in a bigger tank. Eventually when we move hopefully in the next few years, I'm going to build her an outdoor pond.

For the basking area..I used 2x4's to make the frame, then I used a piece of wood I found in the dollar bin at home depot for the sides. I used plexiglass for the front and aluminum screen for the top. I attached the ramp with flat corner braces/brackets and tacked down shelf liner on it so Sassy could grip it. For the inside I hot glue gunned everything. I used reptile carpet for the floor, hermit crab climbing stuff for the background and then an aquarium background for the other side of the background. She loves it!

Looks good! And she is big!!

yeah ima take a trip to home depot and get supplies i just got a bigger tank and i really wanna make a good basking spot..cant wait to start tinkering

Well I finally got around to start building my ATBA. I think I made it a little too tall but at least I never have to worry about them escaping.

Here is the old basking dock. It wasn't enough for both of the turtles.

I decided I wanted to have the platform be able to stay in place during cleanings so I laid down two ceramic tiles in the inner lip. They didn't fit perfectly so I bought a $7.00 tile nipper from Lowe's and nipped them to size. I also had to nip around the discharge hose from the filter.

Here is what the box looks like after it was built (minus the plexi). I designed the box so it had a 1" lip that comes below the top of the tank so there is no chance of it sliding off. My tanks rim size is 48 1/8" x 12 3/4". I made the inside dimensions 1/8 larger to give some playing room just in case. So the overall inside measurements are 48 1/4" x 12 7/8".

This picture shows the 1x's in the corners which I used to screw the side pieces in as well as the what actually supports the weight of the box. Note that they are an inch short. That is what gave me the overhang.

I then painted it before attaching the plexi. I won't bore you with painting pictures. Unfortunately the only color I had available at the time was Grey, White or Yellow so I chose Grey. I attached the plexi with wood screws and decorative washers. I pre-drilled the plexi so it would not crack and screwed it to the inside of the box to give it a cleaner look. I left the protective sheeting on it until I was completed as to keep from scratching it.

After letting the paint dry I had to cut out two notches in the back to allow the hoses for the filter. Here is a picture of the mock-fitting.

Here is what it looks like right now. I still need to modify the ramp and get some foliage/tank decorations.

My turtles are extremely shy and will bolt off of the basking area when you enter the room. What does everyone think about putting window tinting on the inside of the plexi so they can't see out?
I also went out and bout them a Zoo Med 100w Power Sun Mercury Vapor UVA/UVB/Heat Bulb.
What temperature should the basking area be?

ETA:
Finished the ramp and went down to the river and got some rocks for the bottom.

Very nice job Solie!

Sassy is like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the turtle world!

Well Moved my turtles to a bigger tank. I built a PVC rack that holds a granite shallow area with a flat stone dry area. They seem to love it so much better with the upgrade in room. I am really happy with my engineered basking area. It frees up all kinds of space under the platform. I created a video just kind of showing how it looks. I still need to upgrade filters and such but its a great start. Let me know your thoughts on the basking area. Thanks. =)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTYYSHomHss[/youtube]

I like it! It looks like my basking area but upside down

You can probably cut some tile to replace the granite. It won't be as heavy and you can close off those gaps -- but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

And that RES on the bottom seems pretty hyper!

Thanks, yeah I thought about tile but had the granite on hand already. I put the polished side facing down so that the unpolished area is up and the turtles don't slip on it. I noticed one of the turtles trying dig on the slab and borrow under between the granite and the stone that's on it. Never seen them try anything like that so I thought it was interesting. They are both pretty active. They seemed to love investigating their new surroundings most of the day and seem extremely happy with their large swim area. I plan on putting caps on the open PVC areas just to make it look a little nicer. Thanks for the comments.

Here is an updated picture after adding some decorations.

Habitat - Indoor :: POST YOUR BASKING AREA PICTURES HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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