Habitat - Indoor :: Turtle Habitat!

[MichaelS]

Let me start off with this introduction:

Turtles are wild animals. In my humble opinion I do not believe that turtles should ever become captive animals (the turtles at the zoo would be an exception because the zoos are able to provide them with wild-like habitats). Now that that is out of the way, I got my turtles from my girlfriends mother who got them from one of her co-workers. They lived at my girlfriend's parent's house in a small 10 gallon tank without an appropriate basking area, UVB light, heater, and heat lamp. Since they outgrew the 10 gallon tank they wanted to give them away, this is where I come in.

I was able to provide them with appropriate necessities for their well being.
Here are 3 pictures of the 1st tank I got them right after I got the turtles.

http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/oldt1.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/oldt2.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/oldt3.jpg

Still not being satisfied with their environment I decided to provide them with the best captive habitat I possibly could.
I started out with a custom ordered 65 gallon acrylic tank with an overflow. On top I have designed a 40 gallon terrarium from custom cut acrylic that links both with a ramp.

At the bottom of the aquarium I have black slate rock that was chiseled to pieces and hand sanded to fit into the aquarium, I also used large polished black river rock as filler.
(Make sure you treat any rocks you use in your live habitat, I had all my rocks blasted with a torch and boiled prior to use in the aquarium)

Inside the aquarium I used artificial drift wood with artificial plants. The centerpiece drift wood is drilled full of little holes and has an air hose connection that goes inside the driftwood.

The ramp that leads out of the water into the terrarium is made out with black sheet acrylic that was morphed with a heat gun, it is lined with cork.

Inside the terrarium the entrance is lined with cork and the rest is lined with artificial grass carpet. On top of the lining I have one big slab of black slate rock with 2 smaller pieces that have a UVA/Heat lamp and a UVB lamp pointed at them. The end of the basking are has artificial plants hanging and a piece of real driftwood. On the side of the terrarium I made 2 planter boxes (one longer and one shorter to accommodate the hole which has the water filter hose running through it) that have live bamboo growing in rocks.

Equipment I use:
For filtration I use Fluval 404, I personally think that this is the best canister filter out there. It has a very quite and powerful motor. I have never had it leak. Those people that have it and complain about it leaking need to make sure that the sealing rubber piece is not dry or cracked. If it is dry you can use a small amount of petroleum jelly to lubricate it.
For my heater I use Rena Excel 300W. It has built in double temperature gages to make sure that the temperature is always right. For my air pump I use Rena Air 400.

I got my turtles for free. This habitat cost me over $1000.

Here are the pictures of my red ear slider habitat:

http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t1.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t2.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t3.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t4.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t5.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t6.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t7.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t8.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t9.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t10.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t11.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t12.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t13.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t14.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t15.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t16.jpg
http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t17.jpg

[ellman605]

for some odd reason, that still looks a little small, my new tank (craigslist) is 36x18x18, i took not of the width, as the turtles need room to turn around, its only 50, but it still looks big, lemme get a pic.....*i'm running down right now to take a picture* back. stupid camera wont work...

i'll get one later.

[MichaelS]

for some odd reason, that still looks a little small, my new tank (craigslist) is 36x18x18, i took not of the width, as the turtles need room to turn around, its only 50, but it still looks big, lemme get a pic.....*i'm running down right now to take a picture* back. stupid camera wont work...

i'll get one later.

My tank is not as long as a standard 65 gallon tanks, it's wider. My tank was a custom order. My turtles are 4" long.

[ellman605]

same as me, mines a pet store standard tank now, much wider,

http://photobucket.com/albums/b195/ellm ... G00044.jpg

[MichaelS]

same as me, mines a pet store standard tank now, much wider,

http://photobucket.com/albums/b195/ellm ... G00044.jpg

That looks quite a bit smaller than my tank. You also have to realize that my habitat provides full 65 gallons of swimming area that does not include the 40 gallon terrarium for basking and roaming. People that have tanks that are 120 gallons and they fill them 3/4 of the way up (to include the basking spot) provide about 60 gallons of total swimming area.

[TinySlider2]

Nice setup cute turtles!!

[steve]

Nice tank! (Though I'd try to get the UVB closer.) Do your turts get skittish up there or are they cozy?

Also where is the inlet for your filter, I couldn't tell how it was setup in the left-rear. I've had leaking issues with the 304 and it's handle's broke on me twice. To be fair, I was a bit more rough with it than my XP3, but that was because it seemed to be of higher construction quality.

[MichaelS]

Nice tank! (Though I'd try to get the UVB closer.) Do your turts get skittish up there or are they cozy?

Also where is the inlet for your filter, I couldn't tell how it was setup in the left-rear. I've had leaking issues with the 304 and it's handle's broke on me twice. To be fair, I was a bit more rough with it than my XP3, but that was because it seemed to be of higher construction quality.

Thanks, I do have the lights closer I just moved them up so I can take a picture. My turtles are very comfortable up there and are not skittish at all, I sometimes leave a few pellets scattered around there so they like to roam around there looking or them, after that they get settled down and do their superman poses.

The in-flow for the filter is in the overflow box. The water from the rest of the tank overflows into the overflow box and creates great water movement also prevents the turtles from getting sucked by the filters in-flow.

http://www.surkis.com/images/turtles/t12.jpg

I have had my Fluval 404 for a year now and I still have not had any leaks or problems.

[ellman605]

i see your turtles feet in that picture, lol

[staman]

Yeah I did some math the other day and this is wahat I cam up with:
1. Turtle: 30bucks

2.Tank: 120.00
2.Stand 80.00
3.Eheim Canister: 200.00
4.Tank Cover 190.00
5.Eheim Heater 45.00
6.UVB and fixture 50.00
7.Heat lamp /w f 35.00
8.Accesories 100.00
--------
Total:820.00

[staman]

Forgot to add: I like the plexi enclosure you built for the plants. I thought of something very similiar but discarded it. All the plants in my tank the turts love to eat and eat fast. How do you replace a plant when its been eaten?. Did you build a door on it so you have acces to the plants?

[steve]

When I designed my tank, there was a secondary glass wall on the side. it was going to have only a width of about 3" and was going to have fish and plants. I scrapped that idea because my turts would constantly try to eat them and I didn't want them to bang their heads all the time.