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Hi, i' m new to this forum.

I have 3 very small RES in my tank about 1.5 " each ive had them for about 2 weeks. I have both a submersible heater and heat lamp (10 gallon tank). When the lamp is off the temp of the water is pretty stable at 80 but when the lamp is on the water gets to about 83. They seem to be really happy in the tank they spend lots of time swimming around and even sleeping underwater. They come up onto the floating dock fora couple of minutes about once every 2 hours. My main question is howh ot can i let the water be without stressing threm?

I'd try a lower voltage bulb or increasing the distance of the lamp. The water temp should be no more that 80F for healthy RES. Why are they basking for only a few minutes? Are they being disturbed?

I guess they mostly leave when i come over, the scurry off the dock, one usually sticks around seems less timid of me. They are probably there longer as im usually sleeping during their daylight ( i chose this time cycle because i dont feel comfortable leaving the heat light on while im away at work during the day - maybe im just a little paranoid)

You should try craigs list for a bigger tank. 10 gallons is really to small but workable for 1, 1.5 inch RES. With 3 of them you really need a bigger tank to keep them healthy. More water would solve your water heating problem as well.

I agree and I plan on getting a 55 gallon tank once they get about 2 inches each.

A few suggestions, you need a larger tank. The turtles require at least 10 gallons per inch of turtle. The water temp should be between 75 and 77 degrees. When the water is so warm they have a tendency not to bask since the water temp is near the basking temp. Your basking area should be around 90 to 91 degrees. When you purchase a filter make sure you get one that exchanges the water at least 5 times per hour. Some filter pumps are sold according to tank size which is meaningless when it comes to turtles. Focus on gph. Good Luck!

I managed to get the temp down to 76- 79 by keeping the lamp a little furthere away. Hill, thanks thats definitely the reason they are not basking for very long. FYI i do have a filter large enough for my tank i bought it when i bought my tank. Unfortunatly living in a small NYC apartment i do not have much space for a tank bigger than 55 gallons. Because of this i may have to give away one of my baby turtles when they get too big.

I've been looking for a large tank myself recently when Petco started a 1 dollar per gallon sale on tanks up to 55gallons. I had an extra 40 bucks and I picked up a 40 gallon breeder..honestly I wasn't expecting it to be as large as it was. It took up the entire backseat of my car (mazda 6) So I got to thinking..wow how would I even obtain a larger tank? lol. Anyways. Mine are both 1.5/2.0 inches. Once I get this new tank set up I think they'll be good for quite a while. Good deals on 75gal+ tanks are hard to find around here where I live it seems. The turtles look so tiny in that thing. I haven't set it up completely but I stuck them in there just to get an idea of what kinda space they'd have.

awkward_turtle wrote:I managed to get the temp down to 76- 79 by keeping the lamp a little furthere away. Hill, thanks thats definitely the reason they are not basking for very long. FYI i do have a filter large enough for my tank i bought it when i bought my tank. Unfortunatly living in a small NYC apartment i do not have much space for a tank bigger than 55 gallons. Because of this i may have to give away one of my baby turtles when they get too big.

An adult female RES requires at least 120 gal tank.... Might want to keep that in mind for when they get bigger. I live in a small apartment as well and have been trying to figure out how to size up from my 65 gal Waterland Tub to the 200 gal. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be hard to get through the door.