My name is Rene and I jut recently "inherited" a RES. My niece went on a vacation to Hawaii and decided not to come back. In the mean time, she had a RES that a friend was "caring" for in her absence. My sister asked me if I wanted it and I ignorantly said yes, having NO idea what I was getting myself into. Of course she told me that it was in a small aquarium and just needed a weekly water change and a few pellets per day. Easy Peasy, RIGHT? When I got the little booger, he/she was in a 1-2 gallon, plastic container with about 1 inch of small gravel and 2 inches of water and a rock on which the turtle could climb out of the water. My sister gave me a small container of turtle food that had both pellets and dried shrimp. All seemed well for a few months. We live in AZ and I had him by a window. He ate, "swam" (as best he could in the little bit of water he had) and sat on his rock. Then, when colder weather came, I noticed "George" wasn't eating anymore. That was when I started researching and discovered that the poor thing was in the wrong conditions in EVERY way.
Over the last 2 months I have spent far too much money trying to rectify the situation. George, who is about 3 inches long, is now in an aquarium that is 30 inches long by 12 deep and 12 wide and it is filled only half way. He has LARGE (marble sized) turtle rock on the bottom of his tank and two basking platforms, one small and one large, attached by suction cups to the side. The tank has a few fake plants for added variety as well as a few large rocks arranged in a way that allows him to hide. The filter is the one that came with the turtle tank and seems to be keeping the water pretty clean. I only have the gravel at one end and try to keep the area below the filter free of gravel so that it can better suck up the muck. I have a gravel vaccuum and try to replace about 25% of the water weekly. The filter uses a carbon filter cartridge. I have both a 75 watt full spectrum "day blue" light bulb and a tropical series 25 watt UVB bulb that sit directly on the screen cover. The screen cover has an approx. 1/4 inch mesh so the light should be making it through just fine. I have added a few snails to the tank to help with the algae control and have tossed in some feeder guppies that seem to be slowly disappearing so I guess he is eating them. I am also throwing in some red leaf lettuce now and again and he seems to like that as well. I do still give him some pellets and shrimp but at least it isn't all he is getting.
I am using RO water, and the tank is kept indorrs, away from any windows. I did put in a thermometer and the water appears to be staying right about mid 70's, which is pretty much what we keep the house temp at.
Okay so that is it in a nutshell. I am a bit concerned about a few things but I will post those questions in the appropriate forums.
