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I know this is the outdoor section but I thought it might be a better place to get advice on what I need. Yesterday I bought a 110 gallon stock tank, a pond kit filter, and liner. I want to put this in an unused room by a window and make it look decent. So I'm looking for aquatic plants that will do of inside and can be eaten by my RES. Not sure if I will need special plant lights. Anyone know? Eventually I would also like to have some guppies or some other sort of reproducing fish in there. Whichever is healthiest for my RES. I went by Home depot and they said they wouldn't be getting any aquatic plants until march! Where else can I get some this time of year? And do I need to put some sort of material at the bottom of the tank for the plants? Which is best? Any and all advice concerning what I need to do to make this the best habitat possible for my RES (and look good if possible) would be appreciated here.

I can't answer all of your questions, but I'll give some of them a shot. First of all though, congrats on the stock tank, I can't wait to see some pics.

There are a list of edible pond plants in the feeding stickys. I don't know about what to plant them in, or about the lighting. From what a lot of people say, the plants don't last long enough to actually plant them. I know that Marisa keeps some of her plants in a bucket of water and from what I understand doesn't do much else for them. On the other hand, I brought my hyacinth in for the winter and it has since died.

Guppies and rosies are best for live foods. Goldfish are more fatty. Like anything high in protein, it should be a treat and not fed all the time. There is a sticky on breeding guppies as well, if you are interested.

I'd check ebay for the pond plants.

Here's a link to a possible set up with a preformed pond. It might give you some ideas for what to do inside the house. http://bitz.net/~latazyo/Pics/turtles%20004.jpg

You do need a particular amount of light and nutrient level depending on the plants you buy. Your RES will probably demolish any plant in it's stock tank pretty quickly, so it isn't really a matter of maintaining plants in there, so much as replacing them as they get eaten. I have a smaller tank which I am growing Anacharis, Amazon swords, and Water Lettuce in. My plan is to let the turtles have a go at a couple of the plants for a week and then switch them out to let them regenerate in the other tank. These 3 plants have fairly straightforward care needs, as do Hornwort and Duckweed. With most, you can find info at liveaquaria.com, and you can buy them there or through ebay. I have done both and been happy with both. If you are trying to maintain a certain look in the stock tank, I would either a) see if there are any plants your turtle leaves alone, or b) buy sturdy nice looking plastic that won't get eaten. Good luck!

Here's a place that will send you live aquarium plants through the mail:

Drs. Foster & Smith's LiveAquaria.com

Thanks for the info guys. I noticed that the home depot guy gave me a "pond liner" that was actually pond liner patches. Do I need to go back and buy a pond liner? What is the point of it anyhow? Is it not safe to just fill the tank without it?

I use stock tanks without liners. I don't know why you'd need one (unless there's a leak in the tank somewhere).

I've got water hyancinth in my RES's tank along with some duckweed. The water hyancith is slowly withering away, mainly, I think, because it doesn't have the lighting and warmth it needs (and my RES likes to bite the roots off). The duckweed does fine until it's eaten.

Ive always wanted to make a pond for my turtles but never knew how to set one up. Do you have any plans for this one that you could share?

Nice to see people taking the better route.

Check out my thread guys as i'm doing the same for my RES.

I haven't got round to ordering the parts just yet but hopefully fingers X
i will try and get this setup up and running in time for Xmas.

Thread Link: Here

Hopefully this should give you some guys some helpful tips on
a setup you might want.

Ordering from ebay was good advice, thanks. I ordered a bunch of water lettuce, some floating hearts, and horsetail. Was cheaper than I expected it to be. They have not arrived yet though. Another interesting detail I found was that many pond plants are illegal in my state. What a pain... I assume its because the temp here in texas(lower part at least) never reaches freezing year round except in rare occasions. It snows like every few decades or so. That would mean if left in a large body of water, they would grow uncontrollably here. I don't plan to put my RES into the new stock tank until I have gotten the plants in and observed it for a few days.

GTAkito, where did you find a list of what plants are illegal in Texas?

Actually I was just looking at ebay auctions of specific plants, and some like water hyacinth states it was illegal in several states including TX. I did a quick google search and found this page. http://www.texomalandscapes.com/illeagal%20plants.htm But according to that water lettuce is illegal here too...whoops. I hope they still send it to me. Not like im going to release it in the wild!

Edit: Oh but it does say this - "Aquarium plants sold as water lettuce are more likely to be broad-leafed water sprite, Geratopteris sp. (unrestricted) than P. stratiotes."