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OK, I'm so tired of trying to figure this out. I need your help. I have a 120-gallon tank (trying to take pix now), with a cherry finish and overhead canopy for my two RESs. Very nice, much better than the tupperware I used to keep Tommy and Tina in! Anyway, I got a 48" combo light fixture that rests on the top of the tank, which has the 2 basking bulbs on left side, 2 moon (night) bulbs on the right, and a long flourescent UVB across the fixture. Since the tank was so big when I first got it (and the "kids" so small), I also had a small sun light and basking area on the other side of the tank too, which the vet recommended at the time. Thing is, they NEVER basked on the left side, and always on the right where the smaller light was! Go figure. My temps were fine, setup too, but they gravitated towards the right side. The vet also told me to get a dome UVB fixture because she said the long flourescent doesn't work as well. So now I have two domes on the right side - a UVB done and sun lamp dome! PLUS I have the combo light.

Sorry this is so long, but I'm trying to paint a picture. My question is two-fold: what do you think of the combo light thing vs. domes, and the other question is, if I eliminate the domes and just use the combo, do you think they'll learn to go baske where they're supposed to? (or should I just spoil them and accommodate their natural instinct to "go to the right"????). Help! Signed, turning pauper because of 2 turtles

Many turtle people have trouble with the domes, so if you want to get rid of it, that's understandable. Meanwhile, they should instinctually go to whatever is warm, so they should learn to go wherever. Is the "right" side near a corner where they feel safer? I think pics would definitely help out in this instance, I'm having difficulty picture the "big picture".

Thanks - I'm trying to figure out how to post pix for you - you're the computer gremlim, can you help

You have to sign up for a photo sharing site like phtobucket and upload your pics onto there, and possibly resize them if they're really big. Once you've done that, you'll see that there are links under each of your photos in your photobucket album. Copy the image link (it starts with [img]) and paste it into your post where you want the picture to show up. If you're still confused, theres a sticky in the photo gallery section of the forum that explains what to do.

If you have a Yahoo account, you already have a Flickr.com account, that's where I get my photos from. If you post the picture, and make sure it's public, then click on the picture until it's in its own window, and right click and click copy this image location or something like that. Then in the window, start with [img]and%20end%20with[/img] and make sure the end of your link has something like .jpg and not .jpg?v=0, you can delete that ?v=0 garbage and it will post correctly. Or, worst case scenario (if you can get it in the window), post the links to your photo and we can follow them.

Ok guys, I figured it out! Very exciting - thank you SO MUCH for your help. Here is my setup. What are your suggestions? Please help, thanks again. Val

if it is possible i would add more water. more water= more room to swim= happier turtles. also get rid of the gravel. they could eat it and it could become impacted in their intestines. if you want rocks at the bottom, make sure they are bigger than their head. river stones work best. otherwise things look pretty good.