Habitat - Indoor :: Water Depth for Adult Turtles?

[Pizza]

I know that I should fill as much water as I can without the turtles escaping, but so far, my tank's height is 24 inches, and my largest turtle is 11-12 inches long, so I was wondering what a suitable height of water would be, without chance of escape? I think the safest would be to have the water at 12 inches high, so there isn't a chance they could climb out, but 12 inches is half of the tank's height, and seems a little extreme.

So what's a good height to put the water at, for an adult RES, say at 12 inches long?

There's also another turtle living alongside my larger one, and it's about 7-8 inches long and the shell measures 3.5 inches high, so if one climbed on another, could they get out?

[Kallistos]

If you cover the basking area then you can fill it up around 20 inches. Make sure the cover is secure so they can't push it off, you can make this with some sort of large mesh and pieces of wood. Another option is creating an above tank basking area, someone else can help you with that. When the turtles are in the water, they'll have difficulty pulling themselvs out since their shell is so heavy, the only danger is when they're basking.

[Pizza]

If I make a cover with some kind of metal mesh, will the heat lamp (I just use a regular incandescent light bulb) heat it up too much, so if the turtles tried getting out and touched the cover, would they burn?

[Kallistos]

Your heat lamp will only be at most 90 degrees, the metal will not start to "burn" at a much higher temperature.

[steve]

Your heat lamp will only be at most 90 degrees, the metal will not start to "burn" at a much higher temperature.

All the heat lamps I've used provided temps well above 90, but a metal (uncoated) mesh would still be OK to use.

[Kallistos]

What I was trying to say was that the mesh would be located far enough away from the bulb that it would only be in around 90 degree heat. Pizza, 90-100 degree materials may feel a little warm ,but will not burn your turtle.