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I've had my turtle for 3 days and he will not get out of the water to bask. The water temp is anywhere from 70-4 degrees and the basking area is around 88 degrees. He eats when I feed him but is still scared when I walk by the tank. Also should i leave the UVB light on at night? And he is 4-5 inches.

I dont know if this applies for something that is 4-5 inches but when i got my new hatchling, she wouldn't bask either for almost a week. She would eat the floating pellets but would spend all her time in the water. Sometimes i would walk in the room and see her basking but as soon as she heard me come in she would scurry right back into the water. Finally after a week she was fully comfertable with me being there watching and i could even stick my face right up to the tank and she wouldn't mind at all. I think your turtle just needs time to get used to you.

New turtles regardless of the size will tend to be shy when you first get them. As for the water temp.. do you have a submersible heater? The temperature should remain constant with just the basking area changing temp depending on if the light is on or not. The UVB light should be on a daylight schedule along with the UVA light, which is around 10-12 hours a day. What sort of basking area do you have, is it easy for the turtle to get on?

As TNTurtles said, just give him/her time to adjust.

Thanks for the help, the basking area i made out of rock bought at the store. I bought a ramp to make it easier for him to get on the area. should i just go buy one of those floating ramps? also for lighting should i take the tank cover off? it is a screened one and i cut lagre holes in it to not block the uvb light.

thanks for all the help here. she finally got out of the water today. Also this site is great and I have read prolly thousands of posts the last couple of days and learned tons. I wish I had found this site before buying my res becuase I would have done so much stuff differently, mpst of all is buying a different tank. I am moving soon and when I move I am going to invest in a different tank. I got one of those long ones and really dont like(not enough money to buy a different one right now.

Make sure the rock that's being used for basking isn't abrasive--they can wear down their shells quickly moving around on abrasive surfaces.