General Care Discussion :: Environment Problem?

[Yururin]

Hi i'm new here and i have a question about my turtle's little home

I currently live in an new apartment complex and we tend to have some pretty crazy temperature changes here. First of all i have to say, i live in Vancouver and we're pretty known for having some crazy weather here.

Sometimes on hotter days, the temperature inside my apartment can be, i'd say, somewhere between 2-5degrees Celsius higher than what it is outside (or even my lobby)

On colder days, we have the heat on

When it gets REALLY crazy hot, we have an electric fan and an AC in here. But we only turn on the AC during freak hot days (i tend to think its cold when we turn it on). And i live in a complex thats facing south, stuck between the two end suites...


So, because of all that ^ my turtle tank water seems to be warmer than what i set my water heater to. ---- As of 2hrs ago, i decided to unplug it to see what the base temperature of the water in the tank would be without the heater ----
I'm also planning to upgrade my tank as he's about 3 inches now (length of shell), to about a 50gal if i can. Being in an apartment like mine, it really limits where i can put one of that size, as we speak, he's sleeping in his tank that sits on the kitchen counter top where my breakfast bar is, or well should be (=__=)

My questions are as follows:
- Will the weird temperatures of my apartment effect his health?
- Will the bigger tank size help? (so he can swim to different sides of the tank to cool down/warm up)
- Any suggestions to some good upgrades for a 50gal tank?
- Any other kind of advice for a newbie?


Thanks everyone in advance~!

[industrial_girl_2000]

Get a Visi therm stealth underwater heater. It will cost you a few more bucks than the glass-tube heaters, but is really worth it because it will only turn on/off when the water temp changes a bit. It holds the temp in the tank better than any underwater heater I have ever seen & since it isn't glass, your turtle can't break it (a big plus when you have a turtle as big as mine!).

And to answer your question, yes, too many fluctuations in temp can make your turtle sick (especially if the water gets too cold). There are many tropical (salt water) fish that require extremely perfect temp levels & they have some very complicated temp-regulating equipment for pets like this. We are lucky that turtles aren't THAT picky about temp (within a few degrees is fine & you will love that visi therm stealth heater, trust me!).

A bigger tank will definitely help. So will keeping the tank away from a window. Sun beaming in thru a window can heat a tank up really fast.

50 gallon tank: start looking around for sales. Some pet stores have really good sales on tanks every now & then. 50gal is a pretty common size, so you should have no problem finding something in-stock.

[Yururin]

thanks ill keep that in mind

it's a good thing i live near 2 big pet stores, 1 pet supply and Big Al's XD;;;

[SpotsMama]

When you're getting that good heater, also pick up a digital thermometer with a probe. With it you can accurately measure either the temperature in the water or the temperature on the basking area so you'll know for sure whether you have a problem.

Another thing some people do is get a couple of the inexpensive plastic stick-on thermometers. Although they aren't terribly accurate, they're in the ballpark so you can use them to let you know when there might be a major problem.

People who have trouble keep the water temperature warm enough because the air temp is very cool sometimes cover their tanks with towels or a blanket to help hold the heat in during the night.

People whose tanks get very warm will sometimes set fans on them to cool them off through evaporation. I have a hard time imagining it getting that warm in Vancouver though.

[Yururin]

Thanks for the advice, I actually already have one of those submersible heaters in my tank right now and I also have a thermometer to measure the temperatures.

Vancouver itself is on the cooler side, but when it does get hot, it really can. Like I said before too, I live in an apartment building. There's always a general heater for the entire building I think, because it's still kinda warm inside when you don't have the heaters on. So with the added sunlight through our apartment windows (one entire side of the living room wall), it can get pretty hot/cold.


Starting to think I have another problem, my mother's skeptical about getting me a bigger tank because there's really nowhere to put it in my apartment :S and my grandmother's exaggerated tales of the woman who bought me the turtle's past experiences with them, isn't helping me either. Ugh, just when I thought they'd think I was being responsible by taking care of it properly.
>O they want me to release him!


On the bright side though, i managed to buy him some cuttlebone, and i removed the hard piece while leaving the rest in one piece But i ended up with one band-aid.
=__= I bleed for my turtle