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Hello all, I'm new to the site but Ive exhausted myself reading about Red Eared Sliders and I love all animals and pets and try my best to provide the best home possible.

I've had my RES for about 2 months now and constantly trying to make his home better.
This is Turd:


Hes currently housed in a 55 gal aquarium with some live plant and a store bought basking area.
He has 2 cichlid friends and seem to get along. A couple jumbo snail and some ghost shrimp that slowly are getting picked off by the cichlid and the turtle.

I recently DIYed the basking platform as he seemed to have a difficult time climbing onto the platform.
It was originally a floating dock purchased from a pet store which had a decent sized basking area. So I bought a piece of plexi glass and heated the plexi over the oven element and bent and transformed the edges to create a ramp all the way around the floating dock. Then used silicone to glue the plexi to the store bought platform and glued a bunch of rocks to it. Couldn't have turn out better than I planned.

Basking area, harder to get a good picture



My Aquarium




Concerns: (Shell)




Alright now comes the questions.

I have a 24" florecent UVB bulb however its not right over his basking area. Note there is no glass cover blocking the UVB rays bulb rays hit the water directly.
IS he getting the UVB rays needed??

From the photos of his shell are there any issues?? Ive read a tons about RES shells being smooth and read a tons about pyramiding and his shell is concerning me.

Hes currently 3' and has yet to start eating veggies and Ive tried many different types. So all he eats is turtle pellets, ghost shrimp and turtle pellets with calcium/D3 powder. Probably 5 -7 pellets 2x per day as that seems to be approx the size of his head.
Should I be concerned?

Thanks!!

Welcome to the site. Very nice tank. It's screaming for some sand

Artificial UVB rays are pretty weak, so you will want to get some over him. Slight pyramiding, so I will cut down on the pellets/shrimp and try to feed more consistently. For the head measurement, use less than what will fit. Maybe 1/2 or 2/3... being conservative with pellets is usually safer. He's past the hatchling stage, so he should be getting less anyway.

Try using a veggie clip, they are pretty helpful.

Ya I wasnt told that pebble sized substrate wasnt safe for turtles. SO I had bought a massive bag of beautiful pebbles then had to remove them all. Working on getting some new substrate just trying to find what I want.

I love the ramp you made for the basking platform, it's a great idea! I may have to try that for my hatchling and young juvenile.

Looks fantastic. Steve is right on the money with the feeding tips so I think I can't add much more. Love the basking platform.

Note: the added section to my floating platform with the weight of the rocks did weigh down my platform as I made it pretty big and use d a lot of rocks but to counter act that weight I simply added a few floating object near the edge of the platform. If you look close I purchased small salad dressing container from the dollar store and glue to bottom of platform as floaters.

Also I cut the plexi so it had a round edge. To do so I just used a banana knife and cut over and over again till there was a decent groove then lined up the groove with the counter and applied some pressure and broke off with clean cut

I diyed a veggy clip today with bag clips from the dollar store and Velcro circles. Veggies clip is above water line because there is a metal spring but veggies are submerged.

Next time I take platform out ill take photos so it's easier to see.

You are quite the DIY-er. Love to see some pics.