Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Hi from Missouri

[Caveman]

I have three 6+ year old RES turtles in my care... Friends who could no longer care for thier pets brought them to my home. I have put them in a indoor pond with about 800 galllons of water. They seem to be happy living on goldfish feeders. One named houdini has escaped multiple times and every time I have found him trying to return to thier habitat.

Well I will spend some serious time on this board and site to make sure I am offering a "good as I can" effort for these little guys. They have been raised from babies and may still go home with thier previous owners when they settle. I am holding off on my Koi pond until then.

I have added a second row of concrete block around the pond to keep Houdini in or at least slow him down...
Attached is a picture of their home.

The current turtle habitat

[steve]

That looks incredible, are they able to get any UVA/UVB light?

[Caveman]

You may notice the Vanilla Bean plants on the left. ( little experiment of mine ) the lights are full spectrum grow lights. I may need to add some specifically for the RES's.

[my.lovely.turtle.]

wow! more pictures please!

[steve]

You would need to purchase UVB lights made specifically for reptiles as they are necessary for Vitamin D3 synthesis.

A self ballasted mercury vapor bulb will do well over that pond, as well as some drift woof for the basking area.

[Caveman]

Drift wood I can do. I have multiple mercury vapor bulbs on the ceiling of the room.... The room / chamber is 100' long by 80' wide. There are a dozen MV Bulb's do they produce the UVB light? I will look further in to this. They came from a tank with a florescent fish type light so I felt just giving them clean water and room was a massive improvement.

[Caveman]

Distance from light to "basking surface" seems to be 24 to 36" ... this may be difficult to achieve. The Vitamin D3 Synthesis is how critical to the turtles health? With Koi, not having true Sunlight can diminish and potentially eliminate growth, however there are no particular medical dangers. I intend ( long term ) to have a grow tank in my yard for the warm part of the year and house my Koi back and forth.

Is there specific water tempature ranges as well?

Thanks for all the advice. I really appriciate it and do not wish to harm these turtles.

[steve]

Drift wood I can do. I have multiple mercury vapor bulbs on the ceiling of the room.... The room / chamber is 100' long by 80' wide. There are a dozen MV Bulb's do they produce the UVB light? I will look further in to this. They came from a tank with a florescent fish type light so I felt just giving them clean water and room was a massive improvement.

Most lights are filtered or lack the elements to produce UVB. It is intentional because you don't want to expose people. You need a reptile UVB like these (check http://www.reptileuv.com and http://www.t-rexproducts.com/products/l ... e-uv-heat/) or you can get a fluorescent UVB and a heat lamp.

Vitamin D3 is extremely important to reptiles that bask or semi-baskers. You can buy stands (or make) to hang the light over the basking area. They do need to be pointed straight down for maximum effectiveness.

A 6 year old RES will be fine in 75-78F. Do you have a male or female RES?

[Caveman]

I have three RES turtles each about 6 to 8 " across.... Sounds like my temp rescue may be on the cold side for water and lacking in proper lighting. The rock wall along the back of the pond has some excellant basking space, I will install a haging light at the proper distance for them. Not much I can do on water temp. We run 65 to 70 depending on room temp. I may be able to keep it closer to 70. I will put a thermometer in the pond.

[steve]

Older RES will be fine in 70F, though most of us prefer to hit the 75-78F range. You can easily add a heater to that pond, though you might require a few big ones.