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So, here's a quick update on their tank, it's been nearly two months since the last one.
The new layout has a space-saving purpose, as almost all the decoratios are either right next to the front glass or the back one. It looks natural and 'full' but it's actually almost empty. Before I had all the stuff laying around, as in a normal fish tank, but it was both too crowded and messy because most of the waste used to get trapped next to rocks, plants, driftwood. Now's slightly better.









Sorry about the low quality of the pics you guys.

Looks like a good job, the natural look works very well.

Yes it's nice looking but it's nowhere near a good tank. It's starting to get too crowded and I'll have to get rid of at least one of the smaller res pretty soon. I rescued them last year from a small pool of water (1.5 inches deep) in a park, one of them was pretty messed up, she was on a rock sleeping all dried up and dirty, wounded (probably bitten by birds).

I love the natural look of it, I'm jealous... I have a bare bottom with a few rocks and fake plants I also like the very "imaginative" photo names

kachua-love wrote:I love the natural look of it, I'm jealous... I have a bare bottom with a few rocks and fake plants I also like the very "imaginative" photo names

Thanks kachua. Trust me, just some sand and driftwood do wonders. You don't have do go extreme as I did.
This is how the tank looked respectively the very first day I put my turtles in it:




And after a week:




I still think it looked better, and i miss the simple layout and cleanness of the overall look.

I love the old one too, only the heater is an eyesore ! In fact now that I see the old one, the new one looks like a bitch to clean Although as you said it isn't as full as it looks. How do you clean the sand? Is it tedious?

kachua-love wrote:I love the old one too, only the heater is an eyesore ! In fact now that I see the old one, the new one looks like a bitch to clean Although as you said it isn't as full as it looks. How do you clean the sand? Is it tedious?

Yeah that heater is horrible and it's big too, it's something like 14". The sand is easy to clean, waste stays on top of it. You just have to remove itwith the siphon hose. I never clean anything else.

Yeah? I thought the turtles would keep messing it up and all the sand would cloud the tank and ruin the filter or something. I'll try it if I find some, the bare bottom looks very *yawn* boring... How come there are three lights in the new setup btw?

kachua-love wrote:Yeah? I thought the turtles would keep messing it up and all the sand would cloud the tank and ruin the filter or something. I'll try it if I find some, the bare bottom looks very *yawn* boring... How come there are three lights in the new setup btw?

Well turtles dig in the sand, but if you cleansed it well before you put it in the tank it doesn't cloud the water.
The 3 lights: the 2 on the larger basking area are the uv (reptiglo 5.0) and spot(50w), the other one is a regular 6500k bulb for lighting the tank and for the plants, otherwise it'd be too dark esp. in the evening. They're ikea Tertial work lamps theyre only $8.99, so I bought 2.

I'm trying to get a similar look. I'm going with large river rock when I can find some in bulk. Lets just say I'm not a fan of sand after my past experience. What I really want to find is a way to introduce plants so they don't get eaten in a day or completely destroyed.

Yesterday I put two potted plants and put a few extra plants in each pot then shoved them into a fake log decoration. In no time they ate all the leaves off one of them and nibbled at the others. Today I get back from work and they managed to take the plant pot out of the log (not an easy task considering how hard it was for me to put in) and ate the rest. I know plants are good for them, but I'd like a few to stay around longer than a day.

Very pretty. Is that corkbark sticking up in the corner?

marisa wrote:Very pretty. Is that corkbark sticking up in the corner?

Yes, it's a big chunk about 18"x15".

Listen97 wrote:I'm trying to get a similar look. I'm going with large river rock when I can find some in bulk. Lets just say I'm not a fan of sand after my past experience. What I really want to find is a way to introduce plants so they don't get eaten in a day or completely destroyed.

The only way to have real plants in a res tank is to put a glass separator with holes drilled in it at one end of the tank, but that'd steal you a lot of swimming space..

Marcus.85 wrote:

Listen97 wrote:I'm trying to get a similar look. I'm going with large river rock when I can find some in bulk. Lets just say I'm not a fan of sand after my past experience. What I really want to find is a way to introduce plants so they don't get eaten in a day or completely destroyed.

The only way to have real plants in a res tank is to put a glass separator with holes drilled in it at one end of the tank, but that'd steal you a lot of swimming space..

That's what I was thinking, and really don't think I'd like the look anyways. Although using a heat gun and plexi I might be able to bend something into a curved shape in a corner, so you see the pants from the outside and not the plexi. Hmmm

I don't think it would look bad as compared to egg crate. How would you secure the plexi to the glass? They don't silicone together very well.