Habitat - Indoor :: Need Some Ideas

[da sAUCE!]

yo gouz...30 gallons in nice for this idea. get a 50 lb bag of large river stones from your home depot or w/e. make a very thin layer on the whole bottom of the tank. Then on one side of the tank hill them all up. put a basking platform on the hill. my basking platform is an artificial tree stump. you could put anything though. just an idea.

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

I thought about doing that. But dosnt it take up alot of swimming room? how big is your tank. i like your turtle too. the tank very well laid out. hmm maby i can do something like that.

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

I think i am gonna have to go with Da sauses idea. I really like how it looks! I am gonna put som fake plants in there just lik you did. It look so natural. How much was a 50 LB bag of rocks like that? And were did you get the fake tree stump? Maby i will put a little less rocks in though so my turt has more room to swim.

[da sAUCE!]

oh...thanks for the compliments. if you buy construction grade pebbles (meant for walkways and stuff, but works the same) its like $5 for 50 lbs. at a Home Depot or Lowe's or w/e... you have to wash them like 3 times to get all the mud and dust off though. I improved my tank though. Now there is no pebble beach but some very shallow water. I filled the tank to the edge of the tree stump. It's better that way. Do whichever way you wish though, lol. I just got my fake plants at walmart. cheap-o. the tree stump was a hand me down from my little brothers fish tank project. I used it as a basking platform. I know he got it at PetsMart...but it was a while back and I havent seen it again at my PetsMart...I'm sure you can search around and find one...maybe online stores or even eBay. Good Luck and here's a pic to help you visualize it. let me know how it turns out gouzy...

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

WEll i wish i could poat some pics of it when i get it all done. But when my sister moved last weekend (far away) she took the only digital camra we had ( it was hers anyway). So i dont have a digital camra to take pics of and post on the internet.

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

WEll i just got payed $55.00 from werking my [---] off. So i am off to petsmart to get a UVB light and a Water Heater for my new tank! Cant wait till it is done. Shows you how much 55 bucks goes. lol $22.00 light and a $15.00-$20.00 heater =$40.00 someodd dollars+ tax and some missilanious filter parts.

OHH yeah BTW thanx for all the input guys. 3 pages WOW thats a record!

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

I just got my tank setup. It is beutifull! I wish i had a camera so i could show you guys. I went to lowe's and got a 40 Lb of rocks for only $4.30! I dont have my trtle in there yet. I am filtering the water to make shure all of the dust is out. BTW I got a great basking setup. I made a small mound of rocks like you said Da sauce. Then i staked rocks on top of the mound to make a cave and basking spot. Ohh and when i went to petsmart they hade a 7.0 UVB light instead of the 5.0 i was originally gonna get. so i am happy about that. well i'm off!

[RES Tampa]

GTA

The only problem with piling stones like that is when your turtles get bigger and you go to add more water to the tank, the amount of stones required will increase (more weight on your tank stand) and your swimming area will decrease. You may want to look into pvc pipes. (i think soopermum has these - look in pictures) or some type of blocks for height ( this is what I use) or a suction cup floating basking platform (widely available) Ultimately, you want to increase swim room for the turts as they get bigger.