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We've had Napoleon for about 4 months now, and we've been steadily upgrading his tank, first moving him from a 10 gallon to a 30 gallon, then adding a water heater and heat lamp. We've been thinking about adding a lot more water so he'd have more swimming room, and it's become obvious that a uvb lamp is a must. So we had some work to do. My main trouble was in finding an adjustable clamp lamp that was able to handle a high wattage bulb. I ran all over town, to lighting stores, hardware stores, pet store, and was told that no such thing exists. Finally I wandered into Petco (yes finally, I don't much care for petco so I avoid it if possible) and lo and behold, they had the ESU reptile gooseneck clamp lamp, exactly what I was looking for. So with that purchase we prepared to redo the tank. We double the amount of water, added a floating dock, upgraded the filter, installed the new lights and added veggie clips and some fake plants. I'm pleased with the result, I think it should be functional and doesn't look too bad. My only concern thus far is that Napoleon shows no interest in climbing up onto the dock, the ramp doesn't extend very far underwater and I don't think it's occured to him to go up there yet. So I'll keep you posted on how that goes, but in the meantime, here's some pics! I'll take more with the lights off at some point so you can see the underwater setup better, but I wanted to show how I did the lights because it was such a pain the butt for me, this might be a feasible solution for some people.

Edit: Forgot to mention that in the end I went with the Reptisun 5.0 compact!

So here's an overall shot of the tank




And here's a close-up of how my lights are attached



Comments are welcome!

That's a nice idea with the clamps, but the one closest in pic 2 looks loose, the screws probably didn't grab a wood stud behind the sheet rock. Maybe get those plastic anchors and insert them into the sheet rock, then put the screws into them. As you tighten them, the anchors will expand, grabbing the wall and giving a nice, tight fit.....this way, when cleaning, you could just push the lights out of the way.

It's actually not loose, it has those anchors in there, but they had about 3/32" lip outside of the main stem, so the plate is held off the wall a bit, but it's very sturdy. The second lamp has a different kind of anchor, a heavy duty metal one that you actually drill into the wall rather than tapping into a pre-drilled hole, and those drilled down flush. I may eventually replace the first one with those, and I'd recommend them to anyone who would do this, but I've had no problems with the first one as is.

Cool.

Can I ask what Petco charged for those lamps? I'm assuming they didn't come with bulbs. I got two Petsmarts near me (no Petcos), and their prices are pretty outrageous also....

They were 20 dollars each, no bulbs. This was a ridiculously expensive project, I think I've spent about 160 dollars in the last 2 days. Prices seemed comparable between petsmart and petco, but the selection was different so in most cases I had to buy what I found. I think in the future Big Al's will be my best friend.

Oh, absolutely, Big Al is the best! I buy all my stuff there. Even food. One time I had a problem with a compact bulb, after 1 call they shipped out another one right away with a pre-paid UPS envelope to ship the bad bulb back, the only question I was asked was how the bulb was shipped so they could correct it next time!

hey, I would take the gravel out ASAP. It could be ingested, and get stuck and your turt could die if it cannot pass it... here, read this post, and you will change your mind about the gravel:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2342

Try some river rocks, that are bigger than your turts head, that they cannot swallow.

Nice setup.

If your turtle has trouble getting up on the dock, I'd suggest moving that plastic from with the rubber suckers lower down on the tank wall, so that there's more "give" and the ramp can dip further down into the water.

Hoooneylynn,

Will he really eat such large gravel? Each peice is nearly the size of his head. He's never shown any inclination to eat it or bite at it in the past, would he start?

i take offense to that Petco comment, im jk. but yeh, i work at petco myself and my store has everything a turtle needs and a bag of chips. maybe your area's petco just arnt that great.

Starchick wrote:Hoooneylynn,

Will he really eat such large gravel? Each peice is nearly the size of his head. He's never shown any inclination to eat it or bite at it in the past, would he start?

If all the pieces of gravel are larger than his head then it is fine for now but as he grows you will need to take it out. And yes they can and will eat it. Just because you haven't seen him try doesn't mean he hasn't. Gravel also makes a mess of the tank because it traps turtle waste and makes it a real pain to clean the tank. A dozen or two river rocks works so much better. It provides the turtle with something to play with but doesn't trap turtle waste so much and the rocks are much larger than the turtles head so no fear in them trying to eat them.

To me, those gravel pieces look small enough where he can swallow it. River rocks are pretty big, and those pieces look quite small in comparison. I may be wrong, but it looks like you have a lot of pieces in there, and they just appear to be small. Just because youve never seen him do it, or seen him have an interest in doing it, doesnt mean he wont. Food gets trapped under and on gravel, and they eat a piece trying to eat the food. If I were you, I wouldnt risk it. But if you think they are too big for him to eat, keep them in there then. Im just trying to help. Heres a thread, with pictures of my tank and river rocks:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... and+fiasco

Starchick wrote:Hoooneylynn,

Will he really eat such large gravel? Each peice is nearly the size of his head. He's never shown any inclination to eat it or bite at it in the past, would he start?

Don't take the chance; you can't be standing at their tank 24/7 watching them to make sure they don't eat it. Turtles do strange things when they are bored (trust me on this fact....I have 18 yrs of stories....!!!!). I know the gravel looks pretty, but honestly, it is a pain to keep clean & after a while traps a bunch of turtle waste which will make the water permanently cloudy (in addition to the turts eating it!).

While a plain bottom may not sound appealing, keeping the water clean in their tank is definitely a JOB. Don't make it any harder than you have to! Having said that, a few well-placed larger rocks (larger than 1 inch across) are fine & are easy to rinse once in a while (they get covered with algae after a while, but it isn't hard to clean them).

Starchick wrote:My only concern thus far is that Napoleon shows no interest in climbing up onto the dock, the ramp doesn't extend very far underwater and I don't think it's occured to him to go up there yet.

I have that dock and my Tanner will go on the ramp part to and just stick out his head. However, to get up on the dock, Tanner finds it *easier* to climb it from the side. After 5 minutes of struggling, he manages to get up on the dock but for the life of me I don't know WHY he won't just use the ramp!