General Care Discussion :: Soon to be a new turtle Mama!

[Carrie-LuVsTuRtLeS]

Hi all

I am new to turtles & currently setting up for the new arrival of two baby red eared sliders! Yay! I am super excited because I love turtles, however I want to be prepared & would love your help/opinions!!

We just bought a 29-gallon tank to start with while they are still small; we are getting a submersible filter & have already gotten a heat lamp to rig up above where we want the basking area to be. Also of course we want to get wood, rock or a plastic store bought thing for the out of water basking area. Haven’t decided on what yet as there are so many choices!!
Any ideas on what's the best or what works for you?

A friend gave us TONS of colorful gravel rocks (neon) to put into the tank however I’m not sure if it is safe but my husband loves it & says that there are rocks/gravel in nature so it shouldn’t be a problem. What do you think? Will the turtles eat it & possibly choke?? Or are the neon colored ones poison in any way? They shouldn't be because my friend had used them for her fish & they were fine but who knows!!

I think that is it for now but I’m sure I’ll have tons more questions in the near future!!

Thanx!

[tammi]

Gravel isn't good they can eat it and cause blockage. Large stone is better.

[rsour24]

gravel is bad, and u also need a uvb/uva light alogn with ur basking light
i would suggest a turtle dock bc it gives them more swimming room bc it takes up almost no space

[gwennie]

I'd go against a rock basking area - turtles in the wild don't have much rough things to scrape on, and scraping the bottom of their shell over and over again on a rock basking area can lead to massive shell problems.

[Carrie-LuVsTuRtLeS]

thanx, yeah we've decided to not use the gravel because it is small enough for them to eat & thats not good obviously...
We do also have the uv light that goes into the tank hood, I'm just not sure how to rig the basking light & keep the hood on now... We were going to put the screen top on & rig up the basking light but we completely forgot about the uv light in the hood. Can we just get a sub heater instead or do they need the uv light too?

[tammi]

You need both. The best way to do the lights is get rid of the strip light and get to reflector lamps. They have clamps and are cheap in the hardware section of most stores. Clamp them on the side of the tank and point them at the basking area. The heater is to maintain a constant water temp.

[wiccabrat]

Temporarily you can lay the tube light across the top sideways to make more room (just pop the light hood off the lid). I know the uv bulbs are expensive so if you can't run out and buy another right now that'll work. I use the "turtle dock" and mine all like it but I know some peoples like to eat them. Remember to float a cuttle bone for them to and maybe a few fake plants for them to rest in.