Habitat - Indoor

Hey Steve, yes trying to build a basking ramp. Just came up with a new design and may give this a try today. Will use PVC to hang the ramp instead if submerging PVC structure inside water. Lets see how this goes. There are just so many ways to do this lol

Yes there is, hoping to see what you come up with!

Once my little guy and girl out grew they're floating basking rock from my local pet store, I needed to improvise. So it's a shoe rack which came with that white paint kinda feels rubbery so it's not rusting. Had to cut one side because it was to wide and that side is rusting a bit since its in direct contact with water. The suction cups are from Lowell's and they're supposed to be for your tub lol but they are very strong and holds everything. I also kept the H shaped suction cup structure which came with the old floating foam basking platform which the turtles LOVED to munch on

well anyways, this H shaped thing helps level out the shoe rack when they clime up. It doesn't allow it to C-saw to much. As for a ramp, they don't have one. Since the shoe rack is held by the two white suction cups, it has da chance to C- saw. So when they put weight on it with their front legs the shoe rack becomes a ramp- once they climb to the middle the shoe rack levels out flat. I hope you guys could understand what I did and you could make your basking spot.

I have the old filter in there, recently upgraded to the fluval 306 and new basking light fixture which isn't hanging inside the tank

That's one of them :mrgreen:

Looks like fun. Well done.

Here is a photo of my 55g tank with the (going on) yearlings. Pics of my 125g tank and basking area to come soon.. Still working out the plan of attack.. But for now, its just 2 zoomed floating docks next to each other.

That's cool.

Thanks! Its the 2 turtle cliff filters and a piece of driftwood wedged in there resting on top of the cliffs. Might as we put them to good use, right?..

Totally you should.

Evolution of "Turtle Town" - currently two 29g tanks with an ATBA connector for our 3 RES's - Torbert, 4" male, Kurt, 4" male, and Scrappy, 3" male - I used some tiles left over from our bathroom remodel, and some 7/16" acrylic sheets from McMaster-Carr. Only has natural sunlight from our South-facing deck sliders now - UV/heat basking lamps, potted plants for looks/barriers, and 25g annex TBD...

Turtle Town gets landscaping...

Wow. That's great. What do you have supporting those tanks?

thanks - I still need to work on a UV lamp solution that's not too ugly...
The tanks are just sitting on the floor, so we get a birds-eye view of the action;)

Smart idea. That would be heavy.

Hey everyone, just wanted to post the new basking spot I made for my 2 hatchlings. They are currently set up in a 20 gallon tank. When I first got my turtles, I made a 'table' design out of pvc for my dock support. I used a tupperware bowl filled with rocks that was wedged into this table as the basking area. At first I was satisfied, but really hated seeing the legs of the table take up swimming space and it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing. So I decided I wanted to design a platform without legs and use slate tile as the basking area. Here is what I came up with!

Here is a side view with my two little turts enjoying themselves. Initially I had the slate tile resting flat across the pvc, but hated having all the surface debris cling on and having obstructed water flow, so I added a tee connector to each side to give it some elevation. I could have just elevated the whole platform by shortening columns, but I needed to keep this water level without having the platform be too high for the turtles to be able to climb out.

Top view. The ramp is sitting on a pvc pipe that is connected to the main platform via tee connector. Put an elbow at the end so I could wedge the ramp under the weight of the main tile adding stability to both pieces.

Needed something to clamp my lights to, so I came up with this. It's nice since I can adjust the height of the heat lamp and the uvb since I needed to put them at different distances.

The weight of the whole structure is supported by these 2 pieces of piping. They run down the side of my tank and are wedged between the end of the table and my printer. I also have a tee connector with a small piece of pvc attached on the bottom of the main pvc body to help support the platform, seen in pictures 1 and 4. So far everything seems to be solid and stable and hopefully will get to use this until I upgrade to a larger tank.

Total cost:
1 square foot of slate tile cut to size: $1.68
10 feet of pvc pipe (plenty left over): $1.70
3 elbow connectors: 3 x $0.22 = $0.66
4 elbow connectors with side outlet (3 way elbow): 4 x $1.13 = $4.52
6 tee connectors: 6 x $0.34 = $2.04

Total cost: $10.61 + tax

Not too pricey compared to what you have to pay to get a turtle dock

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

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