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Well since my turtles started munching away at their Zoo Med turtle dock. I decided to take the plunge and build them a better design along with a setup that allows more water. Here's my draw up:




So I headed over to home depot and bought a sheet of 1/4" either acrylic or lexan (i forgot which), some aquarium silicone, a jig saw & blades, and a tape measure. Total cost into the build sofar $70. Expensive piece being the jig saw at 40.

I then headed over to petworld and bought two Zoo Med hanging natural bushes. These will be used on the 10" high back wall. I also bought some green Zoo Med Repti-Cage Carpet. Spent $30 there.



Not the exact one but same line:



So I got all the pieces cut and mocked up and ran my first lines of silicone. Tomorrow morning I'm planning on running the final beeds along with siliconing down the carpet. I'm only going to do a few spots so the carpet can be easily changed out. I'm planning on cutting up my old Zoo Med dock to make the ramp.

More pics in the morning.

Here it is, just waiting for the silicone to cure.

nice, do you think the 5 inch wall will be enough to keep your buddy in?

It should be ok for now (they're getting a much bigger tank within the next two months). I'm planning on building another setup just like this for their new tank when I get it. That one will be much higher.

cool beans. i like it, nice work.

how hard was the plastic to cut? would it be too hard to score and break?

Well I was planning on using the jig saw and returning it. But I think I'll keep it now. As for ease of cutting it was super easy and really nice smooth cuts.

Score and break would probably be impossible since it's so thick. That was one of the reasons I didn't get the 1/8" thick stuff. IMO it would be to flimsy. This whole setup is sooo easy to do. Just keep in mind measure twice cut once

Test phase complete, not onto the ramp build. Since I'm going to be cutting up my Zoo Med dock I had to make sure everything else was complete, fit right, and dry before going onto the ramp part of the project.




After all is done the turtles should have a much better basking area along with an additional 5 gallons of water at least.

Omg, this is awesome. I'm so jealous.

You craftsmen on this forum should really consider making stuff like this and selling it to other turtle owners. I'd buy one!

queenjane wrote:Omg, this is awesome. I'm so jealous.

You craftsmen on this forum should really consider making stuff like this and selling it to other turtle owners. I'd buy one!

I would be more than happy to build this for people at no more than the cost of material and shipping. You'd just have to give me specific dimensions of your tank top and what you want made. I could ship it glued together or leave that to you.

Hmm, we are close neighbors... I might give that some serious consideration, once I get my new setup brought in!

So, may I ask, how much did this cost you to construct? What size is your tank?

Rubicon wrote:

queenjane wrote:Omg, this is awesome. I'm so jealous.

You craftsmen on this forum should really consider making stuff like this and selling it to other turtle owners. I'd buy one!

I would be more than happy to build this for people at no more than the cost of material and shipping. You'd just have to give me specific dimensions of your tank top and what you want made. I could ship it glued together or leave that to you.

That looks really good!I'm jealous too!!LOL

queenjane wrote:So, may I ask, how much did this cost you to construct? What size is your tank?

Rubicon wrote:

queenjane wrote:Omg, this is awesome. I'm so jealous.

You craftsmen on this forum should really consider making stuff like this and selling it to other turtle owners. I'd buy one!

I would be more than happy to build this for people at no more than the cost of material and shipping. You'd just have to give me specific dimensions of your tank top and what you want made. I could ship it glued together or leave that to you.

It's a 55 gallon tank. Pretty sure the normal style not wide kind or anything like that. I think the sheet of 1/4" was 14 or something like that. The tube of sili was around 4 or 5. The green mat stuff was a few bucks.

Probably could do it again for around 30 if not a little less, obviously without the plants.

Whoa! That's a nice price! I may take you up on it sometime in the near future, if that's all right.

Do you have females? I'm wondering what I could do to make a sort of egg-laying/basking area for Tank when she is of age. Perhaps your design would provide a solution.

I'm sure we could work something out.

And yes I have a male and a female, and god I hope they don't mate.