Habitat - Indoor :: my turtles new tank! =D

[Jaydemdorifto]

it's a 20 gallon long tank
and shes just a hatchling so for the time being she should be fine in there =]

....shes also hiding under the floating basking area

let me know what you guys think

[Lantic]

maybe add some more water they love it. and it would be best to take out the bed rock soon.. because they will swallow it, and thats very bad news for you.

Also make sure to buy a UVB bulb for proper shell health.

Do you have a filter also ?? i cant see it.


P.s. i dont mean to be harsh. Just trying help ya!

[Jaydemdorifto]

maybe add some more water they love it. and it would be best to take out the bed rock soon.. because they will swallow it, and thats very bad news for you.

Also make sure to buy a UVB bulb for proper shell health.

Do you have a filter also ?? i cant see it.


P.s. i dont mean to be harsh. Just trying help ya!

actually for the turtle being only about 1.5 - 2" in length the water level is about 5" deep so i THINK its fine

the bed rock is about 2x the size of its head right now so i know it can't swallow it..yet, to which when it gets big enough to i will.

the bulb is a uvb
and the filter is actually in the waterfall on the left of the picture its rated at 90 gph

[Lantic]

then you are ready to go i believe !

[zoologist]

take out the gravel and the food dish. turtles eat in the water, so it's pretty unnessesary.

get a new filter. i know you like that rock one, and i wish i could use it too, but its pretty useless.

fill the water up about 3/4 of the way. they love to swim and would appreciate the room, more so than just 5".

get a water thermometer and a heater too.

try sand as a substrate, most board members swear by it.


sorry if i'm being blunt, bad day.

[zoologist]

and if the bulb is UVB, great. but you need a heat source to entice the turtle to bask. a 60 watt regular house bulb would be perfect

[Jaydemdorifto]

take out the gravel and the food dish. turtles eat in the water, so it's pretty unnessesary.

get a new filter. i know you like that rock one, and i wish i could use it too, but its pretty useless.

fill the water up about 3/4 of the way. they love to swim and would appreciate the room, more so than just 5".

get a water thermometer and a heater too.

try sand as a substrate, most board members swear by it.


sorry if i'm being blunt, bad day.

it's fine, i know the gravel will eventually be useless but as it seems right now, she likes to hang out on the gravel closer to the waters surface.

the filter is just something really as decor being a waterfall as well, and for the time being till i get another HOB it will suffice.

Im going to pull the heater out of my 30 gal fish tank later tonight and put it in, i have no use for it in there right now as its been ABOVE its needed temperature naturally for the past 2 months

thanks for your concern

[zoologist]

i get that its decor, and i get that its expensive. but as for fuctionality, its not gonna cut it. You should want what is best for your turtle, not what looks good, lol. my tank was lacking for a few months until i had the money for decorations, but the whole thing was functional and worked well for the turtle.

[blackforces get you]

take out the gravel and the food dish. turtles eat in the water, so it's pretty unnessesary.

get a new filter. i know you like that rock one, and i wish i could use it too, but its pretty useless.

fill the water up about 3/4 of the way. they love to swim and would appreciate the room, more so than just 5".

get a water thermometer and a heater too.

try sand as a substrate, most board members swear by it.


sorry if i'm being blunt, bad day.

take out gravel!!!. dont use gravel, use rocks!!! big chunks of rockksss!!!.
they can swallow that stuff. its not good for them to pass that through them. but most concern to me is loose the bits and pieces and get some big chunks of those rocks. i found some good looking rocks and now my turtles are pusing them around and setting up the bottom of my tank the way they want it. fix it again, gets back to the way it was

[Daniel3507]

your better off fixing the things she pointed out ASAP. everything she said was spot on and she knows ALOT about turtles to say the least.

[francinemarie]

yea could remove the gravel & if you want some kind of rocks in your tank, you can use river stones instead. they're MUCH larger & most likely easier to clean than what you have now. or you can use sand as a substrate. ChrisBarnett has a sticky on all the FAQs about sand .

you'll also need a thermometer for the water (digital ones are the most used here & easier. you can find good deals on ebay ). a water heater is also needed. i think the most preferred here is visitherm. your filter will do for now, but keep in mind that you'll need a much stronger one (so you can start saving for one).

[untsmurf]

If the turtle can't fit the rocks in its mouth, then technically it's fine. That being said, it's taking up valuable swim space and they collect a lot of waste which can mess up your water quality. You can use sand, I use it and it's wonderful, but for a tank that size a bare bottom tank would probably work out best. If your turtle likes to sleep on them, you can put in some fake plants or a reptile hammock and it would do the same thing.

You need to add a heat bulb to warm up the basking area. Also, you could get more UVB light on the basking area if the lamp was on the opposite side of the tank.

The filter you have is not going to last long, so you should look into getting a better one soon. Usually, the 'pretty' ones are made for just that, looks, not efficiency.

Thermometers and heaters are a necessity for turtles, especially the little ones. Fortunately, neither are very expensive.

[megcornell]

Welcome to the site!

You're off to a good start. Adding the heater is really going to go a long way to ensuring your turtle is healthy.

Have you noticed him or her basking? If not, it's likely due to the lack of a heat bulb. The heat is what entices turtles out of the water to dry off. You can use a regular house bulb, just get the wattage that gets the basking area about 10 degrees warmer than the water.

As for the gravel and filter, that's your call. Once your turtle is larger, the gravel will have to be removed to prevent it from being eaten, but for now it's fine if you leave it. Just be ready to do extra cleaning as the gravel traps A LOT of debris. The filter may be fine for now, you'll see with how the water quality is. If it were me, I'd return it and use the credit to get a stronger filter, but I suspect you could get away with just using that filter for now. In general turtles require a filter that rated for a tank 3x the size of their actual tank because of how "dirty" they are in terms of the waste they produce and uneaten food etc.

Finally, turtles need water to eat- they don't produce their own saliva, so you can remove the food dish. Also, you may want to look at the main site for a feeding guide. Too much protein can cause stress on a turtles' organs and shells. We recommend about a "headful" a day for hatchlings. If left to their own devices most turtles would eat pellets all day, so you can't really depend on them to tell you when they've had a healthy amount .

[Jaydemdorifto]

the food dish has already been emptied and now sits at the bottom of the tank

she likes to lay in it so its not a complete waste.

i know the whole deal with gravel as i've said. i got these sized rocks due to the fact she could not eat them. and once she gets bigger i will be moving up to larger river rocks as well as a larger tank, for the current size of the turtle i believe everything is sized accordingly.

tank temps are already at 86 degrees without the heater if it drops below this i will add the heater in, but like i've said about my fish tanks, they maintain 86 degrees without the use of a heater, its just very hot in my room.

[Jaydemdorifto]

also i moved the light so it aims directly on the basking area now

and just for a size reference here you go



ALL of the rocks are bigger than her head
so i'm not worried in the slightest about her eating something bigger than her head =p