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Hello, everyone. I have been lurking around for awhile, this is my first photo-post here.

tank view from above
tank view from front
tank view in room


The tank itself is a 30 gallon ExoTerra turtle terrarium. There are two turtles in the tank, each with a shell measuring approximately three inches in length (give or take).

The lighting fixture rigged on the wall beside the tank is a ZooMed UVA/UVB bulb. I had the fixture much closer to the surface of the tank and my turtles seemed very irritated when the light was on. After moving the fixture father away they are able to tolerate it much better.

I hope that you like my tank, my turtles certainly seem to.

-Jen

Welcome,

Can you put more water in there ?

Other than they cute set up.

Thank you.

I could put maybe another 2-3 gallons into the tank, but any more than that and my concern becomes my turtles taking a nosedive into the carpet. I really enjoy having the top of the tank open - just wish I could be certain that the little buggers can't escape.

Thanks for the input!

-Jen

nice setup. i also let my tank open for easy viewing my turtles.. hehe

nice set-up...mine is far from being that beautiful :shame:

novroz wrote:nice set-up...mine is far from being that beautiful :shame:

Me too~! hihi..

Couple of concerns/tips... I'm not trying to criticize just helping you out:

1) You need a UVB light AND a heat light... I can't really tell what kind of bulb that is but you say it is UVA/UVB... you also need a heat bulb for basking. If you want all in one, you need a mercury vapor bulb. And that bulb seems too far away from the basking area to really be doing much of anything.

2) If you turtles are each 3 inches you should have them in about 60 gallons of water right now. And when they are full grown you could need upwards of 200 gallons if they are both female. Be prepared to upgrade your tank/filter/etc... in the near future.

Your set-up does look very nice though, it's just a bit small for 2 turtles that size.

Hi Jen,
Your setup looks great! Are you doing anything to keep the water so clear? I think I have the same filter as you and my water isn't so nice.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for the feedback! Couple of quick notes:

joey - I was able to add about 5 more gallons of water and the turtles don't seem to be plotting any sort of escape. Thank you for the suggestion.

meltedspork - The light pictured in the photo there is a UVA/UVB light. I had the light much closer positioned before and the turtles did not tolerate the light being so bright, so close. They basically hid from it and never basked. I started to notice that my turtles' eyes were reddened and they rubbed at them frequently. I talked to a couple of people from my area with turtles and they suggested that the light was actually procuding a kind of sunburn effect on my turtles' eyeballs, sooo I moved it further away. They bask each and every day now (yay!). So far as a heat lamp, I guess I thought that my little light there would provide them with what they needed. I will need to get a mercury vapor bulb. Thank you for the suggestions.

missmandy - Thanks! So far as my water is concerned I do partial water changed weekly and complete water changes every four weeks. The filter seems to be working pretty efficiently, but I have seen the bad effects of poor water quality from some of the other local turtle owners around here and never want my little weenies to be in a situation like that.


More photos to come! Thank you all for the suggestions.

-Jen