Habitat - Indoor

Thanks!!!

I uploaded more pics into another post. Check them out!
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=32566

MEandYouPhoto wrote:
dora wrote:Here is Dora's basking penthouse.
379656_10152413892805144_1407288107_n.jpg

Would love to see the rest of the setup in comparison to the ATBA.

Wanna get a sense of the size of it.

I found this ATBA on a facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Love-T ... 8596914405, and I wanted to share it.

This is absolutely beautiful! Makes me wish I had thought of it.

Wow. I wonder how the little guy doesn't escape. Of course, maybe he's just too happy. lol

Last edited by susb8383 on Thu May 30, 2013 8:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

This is a Christmas present I just made for my mother. She's taking care of the RES we got when I was in first grade. I know he should have a bigger tank, but getting her to upgrade from a 20 gallon to a 40 gallon is the best I could do.

I thought about this ATBA for a long time and looked at tons of pictures on this site. I planned to glue river rocks on the shelf like Gray Goose has. But then I read that the rocks sometimes fall off. I wanted to make this as easy as possible on my mother (she's retired) so decided to do everything with Weld-On 3.

The shelf sits on the lip of the tank and the walls sit on top of it to hold it down.

It fit perfectly, but when I put the eco mat on, it's so thick that the walls were now flush with the top of the lip. But the other ends of the walls are still on the lip, so the walls shouldn't fall off.

I welded on the steps on the ramp, purposely angling them so that water wouldn't collect.

I intentionally positioned it off-center. I wanted a gap between it and the wall on one side that was big enough so that his nails or feet wouldn't get caught, but I wanted the other side to be big enough so that he can easily dive off the shelf.

I planned to cut the shelf and ramp out of one piece of acrylic, but ran out of time, so I just welded on the ramp. Also Lowes really messed up the cuts for me. FYI: You'd think you would get a professional cut by having them do it. But it was kind of jagged, and one of the pieces shifted while he was doing it so that the cut was about an inch wider at one end than the other. My other hardware store said they only cut pieces 1/8 thick (this was 1/4), so I think that scoring machine really shouldn't be used on 1/4. Better to use a table saw or dremel. The ramp is one of the crooked pieces, and you really can't tell.

I set the whole thing up for my mom this past weekend and put the turtle in. It was a big hit. We were worried that having lived his whole life in a smaller tank with only 4 or 5 inches of water, it might scare him. But he immediately started swimming around, checking everything out. It only took him 1 day before he started basking on the ATBA.

I also built a little table for his resting area (seen here before I pulled off the blue protective film).

It has a UVB light with a Reptisun 5.0. It just sits on the walls of the ATBA which are 8 inches high.

The basking light is in a Flukers dome on one of those tank lamp stand. I used an infrared thermometer gun to measure the temp on the shelf. It is between around 88 - 92.

I used a cling background--incredibly easy to work with. FYI Petsmart has a huge selection of cling backgrounds. In my store, most of them are in the aquatic area but then two are in the reptile basking area, so if you only see a couple of choices, keep looking.

your pictures didnt come out.

Bummer about the pics. Sounds cool though.

That's really odd about the pictures. They show up fine on my browser, but my mother also said that she can't see them. Hopefully I can figure out how to fix it.

You have them linked correctly, but it's not showing up... it's returning a 403 message (forbidden access).

1st post, just got about a 4-5yr old Redeared slider, never owned a turtle or fish or anything that lived in a cage area. It came with a POS 20gal tank, POS heater, POS filter and POS basking platforms, but such a sweet turtle! It's name is Tudor, after discovering this wonderful and helpful Forum I learned alot. My turtle is a girl not a boy, it needed to bask more(compared to never), it needed a larger tank, It had way to much clutter(clutter for a fish not a turtle), needed a much better filter(this filter clogged in 1 day,lol), and the heater was broken(burrr!), and the largest floating basking platform sank when she got on to it. The good thing is everything, including the turtle, was FREE!

Time to take matters in to my own hands with knowledge from this site! So I was able to get my hand on a free 45 gallons tank. Bought a Fluval canister filtration system for a 75 gallon tank, so i thought that would be good enoguh. Bought a new heater. Then went to the hardware store, then again, and again, ect. I am a mechanic not a carpenter so after much inspirational pictures of liamlunchtray and kimchiboy, I fumbled together my own turle topper. I made the topper to be removable and the basking platform as well, for easy access ect... I used basic wood trim, painted black, 1/4 acrylic(easier to cut with wood saw FYI, not razor blade, may be easier with thinner pieces though...), and some screws and bolts. I still need to modify the top cover thats not painted, it came with the tank, I may keep it or build my own, not sure, hope yall like,

Welcome to the forum!
That is one solid looking ATBA done with some amazing attention to detail.

Thank you. Yeah i heated and bend the acyrlic for the ramp and drilled holes, i then zip tighed wire loom to the edges so it wouldnt be so sharp/intrusive on the edges. I left about a 1/4 inch of acrylic on the side that petrude on the downside to perfectly fit on the inner rim of tank rim so it wont go anywhere. I still have to dress it now though, so it looks a little bare, but the main build is done, i'll leave the decore up to my girlfriend...

Great setup!

add some sand and it will look really awesome!

Hey EASYRYDERDANGER, that's really cool!

What did you use for the floor of the basking area? I like the looks of that.

I'm pretty new as well, but I'll mention one thing I picked up. It looks like you have your UVB light over the water instead of over the basking area. What I've read is that you want it right next to the basking bulb so that the turtle absorbs it while basking. They also say that the UVB rays won't penetrate water very well.

^^^Your pics showed up for me!!! It looks awesome susb8383.

Habitat - Indoor :: POST YOUR BASKING AREA PICTURES HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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