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Okay, I have acquired much of what I need for Jordtim's new home:

Fluval FX5 (decided to upgrade from the Penn-Plax Cascade 1200 I bought last week due to the size of the tank I found on craigslist)
Both recommended filter media and optional media (for initial water polish after sand) for the FX5
100lbs of Pool Filter Sand ($10 per 50lb bag)
75 gallon tank (48wx18dx21h) with black stand and glass covers (no hood)
A couple of pieces of driftwood for decoration (currently soaking to remove tannins)
Dual dome ceramic basking light fixture and stand to hang it from.
300watt Fluval e300 submersible digital aquarium heater
Water test kit (drop style)
miscellaneous air line, air stones, air-line anchors, etc.
Aqueon water change siphon (25ft) (reversable python type)
3 different floating basking docks (various sizes)
A selection of basking lamp bulbs Reptiglo 5.0, Infrared, halogen turtle bulb (anti shatter)

Still need:
GFCI power strip
Tank background
other tank decorations
Need to figure out what to do about basking platform
temp sensors, (tank came with one of outside glass strips)
Light hood for the other half of the tank, the guy I bought the tank from gave me a slightly too short zoomed one that I'll use for now on top of the glass cover.

I have already run into my first challenge. The FX5 won't fit through the doors on the stand. The gap is only 12 inches wide without the door, 11 1/4 with the door still mounted. The way I see it, I have three choices, 1. new stand, 2. different filter, 3. cut an access flap in the center column and remount it with a hinge so I can flip it open when I need to remove the filter.

Any suggestions?

Sounds like you are off to a great start. I have a very similar setup and used only 50 lbs of sand in my 75. 50 lbs gave me about an inch evenly across the bottom. There's pics in my build thread (link in my signature) what 50 lbs looks like.

The FX5 is an awesome turtle filter. I wouldn't change the filter. Be careful cutting an access door in your stand... You don't want to disrupt the support of the stand. I can't see from the pic if the center column is support or decorative. A side panel access door might be another option. You could also put the filter next to the stand. Maybe build a little black cabinet to hide the filter but give you some storage and match the stand.

If you do change the filter, the xp4 is not as wide as the FX5.

When you do your optional media setup (water polish), I suggest you rubber band a good hunk of that filter floss to the intake of the strainer. If you can trap some of the sand before it enters the filter...even better.

I agree with the info posted above. For your basking area, use a wedge of cork bark. It looks great, is completely natural and will outlast most of the other basking areas.

Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to modify the cabinet and keep the FX5. I cut halfway across the center support about 1 1/2 inches down from the top and up from the bottom to create a little secondary access door, so most of the center support is still there, just with a bite taken out of it. I still need to paint the edges of the cut black so they blend with the rest of the cabinet and get and install some hinges so I can flip it open when I need to get the FX5 in and out of there.

Then I had to cut notches in the plastic lip in each corner so I could get the hose holders on the tank, the plastic lip was too wide to get the hose clips on. I managed to finish all this prior to losing power due to Irene.

While waiting for the power to come back on (ended up being 28 hours without power), I added the sand (about 1 1/2 bags) installed the in/out hoses for the FX5 and filled the tank with water. (my next post will have pics of the filled tank)

I got the clips for my FX5 over the rim of the tank... very very tight fit but didn't have to cut / notch the rim.

Did you paint / hinge that stand before you put the water in or are you going to do that after the tank is filled? My fear is when you screw the hinge to the wooden stand, the wood splitting and the 1000 pounds or so above your head crashing down. I would pre-drill and do anything you can to not split that wood when you put the hinge on. $0.02

Looks really good so far. Looking forward to seeing the next round of progress pictures.

Painting and hinges were done after the water since I had to wait until after Irene passed before I could get to the hardware store. I was careful about predrilling and such, so no issues.

So, yesterday, after power was restored, I got the filter running. Went to the hardware store and picked up an inline gfci, power strip, egg crate, paint and hinges. Also swung by the pet store (they still had no power but were still open (cash only)) and picked up some more bio media, as I realized that the two boxes of bio media I had would probably not be enough to fill the FX5, I also picked up a background for the tank.

Painted and hung the cutout. (looks good)
Put up the background,
installed the inline gfci and mounted the power strip to the back wall of the cabinet.
Cut the egg crate to fit the left opening on the tank, the right is set up with glass panel/door.
(As a side note, flush cutters (used by electricians) work great for cutting the egg crate without shooting pieces of plastic all over the room)

Filter has been running almost 20 hours now and the water is looking pretty clear, although the background is still a bit washed out.

I'll get some pics up this evening.

And in other news, Jordtim is definitely a girl. My wife just texted me to tell me she just laid a clutch of eggs, at least she thinks it is a clutch of eggs, she says it is white and huge! Maybe I should be planning for a nesting area too?

If its a female that lays eggs... planning for some kind of nesting area would be a wise decision. Congrats on your girl!

Are you thinking of attaching it to the tank? If you plan on keeping the tank on that wall, consider putting the nesting area behind the tank since you have limited wall space (or at least thats what I think by looking at the pic). The out of tank nesting areas never seem to be good enough for our picky turtles *evil eye to the giant box of unused sand and dirt in the living room*

I am glad you are doing a build thread, especially if you do a nesting area! There arent many build threads on those but half of us need them

Well, I just started researching nesting areas, but I would like to build something that would be directly accessible from the tank, behind won't work though, I would have to move the tank out into the walkway. How big of a nesting area does she need?

It has to be twice as deep as her shell :/ Keep in mind that females get pretty big..up to a foot. Thats why there arent many nesting areas on here.. its a tricky one to figure out

I still have another 40 inches to play with on that wall (yes it is a load bearing wall and the joists are perpendicular to the wall) I have a few ideas about a side cabinet with storage on the bottom and dirt in the top portion with a terrarium like top with her basking platform extending out of it over the lip of the tank. As I develop them I'll post more. Anyway, here are the pics I promised. After a little over a day of water polish filter configuration, the tank is crystal clear, water temp currently at 78.5 according to the heater, the outside strip reads it slightly higher, and my lab grade thermometer also reads it higher at 26.5 C or 79.7 F, so I'll drop the temp setting on the heater by a degree or two.

More Pics

One more for good measure.



Next I need to change the filter media, put in the pieces of driftwood that have been soaking since Saturday, and her floating docks, and move her over to the new tank. Then start planning/implementing her side of tank nesting area with attached overlip basking platform. I also need some better lights for the right side of the tank. Any other suggestions are welcome...

Looking good. Nice job setting up that filter... your water is looking very clear. I like the way the hinged piece turned out.
If you cut two wider doors that met in the middle of the tank, you wouldn't need the hinge and the gap where the doors are now would go away. Just an idea.

If you look at my build thread, I have a picture of the light I used for the other side of the tank. I used a 24" single bulb fluorescent light from coralife. It had two metal brackets that extended out from the light. One bracket hangs on the side of my tank. The other bracket rests on the center tank brace / support. The light was really inexpensive.

Do you have carbon in the FX5 also or just floss?