General Care Discussion :: Pyramiding ?

[pmkls1]

I do my shopping on Amazon and there's tons of different reptile lamps available so there's no shortage of options for both the basking lamp and the UVB lamp. I saw dozens before I put the zoo-med kit in my cart because of convenience, but I could easily find another. As for distance, the mounting stands that I saw were all highly adjustable so I don't have any worries about being able to get the placement right. Those stands are meant for any kind of dome that uses a hook type mounting setup so they are sort of universal. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255OUO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[unclejoe]

Yep don't take em long to figure out where there is easy food.. Once we trained a couple to eat by hand they all took to it within days.. It appears they watch each other and what goes for one is accepted by the next..lol I think we have some pics maybe video of our young softies that we fed for four years.. they grew quite a bit in that time.. but they never appeared aggressive at their ages.. but I think at the rate they were growing they were gonna be girls, and girls are very intense.. Goldy and her two cohorts would reach up right past our knees to try and get food that we were holding.. several times I had to put my foot on their noses to tell them to back off.. They just seemed to be way more wild and instinct driven then the hard shells.. We have many pics of the hard shelled turtles lining up and taking turns to get food.. They were much more polite..lol This summer was the first summer they started to crawl over each other to get there first.. but no one snapped at another.. Sept for the big ale Softie Girls..

Our Snapper was much shyer then these guys.. he would always come up from the depths of the pond.. at first when he would show up he was creepy.. just a stealthy shadow at the outer circle of all the feeding turps.. Then one day he decided to try the pellets and that was all she wrote.. Once they tried pellets they were hooked..lol but he never floated up top like this turtle in your pic.. he always stayed down at the bottom.. only coming up to gulp food.. and yes I say gulp cause all he had to do was open his massive jaws and pellets would suck in..lol He was an impressive specimen.. We soon learned to find him beautiful..lol He wasn't an alligator Snapper.. Just a common Florida Snapper..

[unclejoe]

once you figure out what you want,, also check this site out
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/
Sometimes their prices are cheaper then amazon, especially if they have sales.. I can guarantee you their prices way cheaper then petsmart.. Petsmart had the dual Zoomed Mini domes for $75 yesterday.. the same set on doctor foster and smith was $25.. Also when you are ready for a good quality canister filter.. Everyone Recommends Fluval Filters here.. DFS has them way cheaper then pet store too.. But it is comparable to amazon.. And Amazon you can get free shipping a lot of the time.. but it don't hurt to price shop.. DFS has sales a lot..

[pmkls1]

Those are the only snappers that I've ever seen that would swim up and beg like that. There were dozens there, but we only took a couple quick shots with the camera as we were taking pictures of a lot of beautiful scenery. If you've never visited there I recommend putting the Outer Banks on everybody's bucket list. It is just unique and beautiful. I've been all over Florida barring Miami and the Keys and nowhere I've seen was better than the Outer Banks. There are lots of beautiful places in Florida (I have family there too), but the Outer Banks is fairly unique due to it's geography so it's hard to compare.

I've used Drs. Foster and Smith before when I was breeding African Cichlids I just forgot to look there for stuff for the turtles. I think that the zoo-med domes without bulbs were about $25 on Amazon, but I'll go wherever's cheaper. I don't buy anything from PetSmart or Petco unless it's an emergency. The prices are just so much higher at those places. The main reason that I shop Amazon the most is because I have a Prime account. I spend in the order of thousands with them each year so it pays off to have the Prime service for me. With free Prime shipping on most stuff it's cheaper to shop there a lot even if the actual sale price is a couple bucks higher than other sites. But, I go where I can get the best deal plain and simple.

I know that Fluval filters are very popular, but I was always partial to Rena Filstar filters. I used them with my Cichlid tanks and it was so much easier using bulk filter materials with the Filstar canisters because the filter elements are perfectly square without any holes to cut or anything like that. I saved a lot of money by buying my filter media and carbon in bulk rather than having to buy it pre-cut and packaged. I think maybe the newer stuff uses square or rectangular media, but before a lot of canister filters I looked at had odd shapes and were just more difficult to deal with if using bulk materials. I'm actually toying with using a pond filter or a sump setup for their larger home. It all just depends on what I decide to use as their home itself. I'm looking at large plastic tubs and small preshaped pond tubs at the moment. That stuff is easier to customize and is a lot more affordable than aquariums are when you start getting into larger size. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades so building an enclosure and reinforcing the floor joists in my house for the extra weight are no concern. Not to mention the fact that the floor where their new home will be and is located now sits against the fireplace and is supported underneath by a cinder block structure anyway.

[unclejoe]

fantastic, you need to do a build thread when you decide.. We also want to have an indoor pond of some sort. We know nothing of canister filters yet. I have had some experience with pond filters but only for goldfish so not sure how much better a filter we would need for a turtle or two or three.. If we can build a big enough outdoor pond We would like to get a couple more species of turtles.. We have been discussing the problem of the floor not being strong enough to house an indoor pond atm.. Problem is we are renting right now, and really aren't sure if we want to continue to rent or to buy a house again.. Only reason to buy is so we can customize house and yard for our pets...
I like the idea of a pond filter if they will work for turtles, because maybe can move outdoor filter indoors to indoor pond when winter comes..

Lived in Florida 4 yrs but barely saw any of it.. That's what happens when you are a struggling student trying to get through college..lol My hubby lived there almost 30 yrs. One thing I loved about florida was all the wildlife we were exposed to on a daily basis.. Never got boring. But I don't miss living there.. Specially not the tourists.. haha..

We use prime for one month free, but it didn't seem cost effective for the things we buy.. Seemed like Prime items were marked up higher then the same item with free shipping that wasn't prime. So we unenrolled in it.. Seems like a great deal if you can take advantage of everything it offers..

We have ferrets and DFS is by far the cheapest place to buy all their supplies and now they offer prescription meds so we have been getting their meds through them too.. Too bad they don't have rewards for frequent buyers..lol A few months ago I never thought we would be browsing the reptile section..lol Animal Lovers what can you do??

[pmkls1]

I'll definitely do a build thread although I'm sure I won't be doing anything that unique for the forum. Luck is all we have on our side as the house is inherited and the floor is strong in the only spot we have to do the build lol. The main thing about a pond filter is cost effectiveness as even though it sounds likewise we are dirt poor. I haven't had any income in 3 1/2 years and been battling Social Security for disability almost as long. Between my "ingenuity" and our tax returns that is the only way they're getting an upgrade from the 20 gallon they're in. The pond filters I was looking at had very large media sections and moved a lot of water for the money compared to a canister. Put the word aquarium on anything and you've just tripled the price basically. Pond pumps and filters are very cheap by comparison and for large amounts of water they are a better bargain. There are downsides, but for something like turtles I don't see them as a big concern. A standard canister filter is going to have a decent sized area dedicated to biological media, and while that is still needed for turtles it can be separate from the filter and still get the job done. To me, fish are more delicate and demanding on the biological side as they breathe the water they live in and turtles do not. Also, the mechanical media does serve as a biological media to a certain extent alongside other static items in a tank. Even the bottom of the ceramic tile that I used in their current tank is an excellent surface for beneficial bacteria to grow on. You also have aesthetic concerns too. You wouldn't put a pond filter in a decorative fish tank because it would look silly and out of place. A black pond, though, and you can't see it. Here is a pond filter of the type I was referring to http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=5163+5186+5225+20275&pcatid=20275 Now pay attention to the kit price and the size of pond it is recommended for. Try buying a 250 gallon aquarium filter and you're looking at quite literally 10 times the cost. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't try to use that filter in a fish tank for several reasons, but I don't personally see an issue with using it for turtles. But enough with my filtration sermon, you get my point lol. And you know what they say about opinions........ That is just mine.

Florida, eh, I like it don't get me wrong but it all depends where you are and why. The Outer Banks are a lot more laid back and have excellent times to visit just out of season too. The begging snapping turtle picture I showed you was taken in the middle of September and I thought they were gonna roll-up the sidewalks after dark everything shut down so early that time of year. Don't get me started on where I live now. I know you're at least somewhat familiar with the area and the nightmare associated with it. I cuss this place every time I have to go to town nearly year-round these days. They have extended the tourist season with different activities that the off season is only January and February and they'd fill them up too if they had their ways. The mountains also kill me physically with the air quality. I have severe allergies and this is literally one of THE worst places to live in the country for allergies. That was another quality of NC (or FL for that matter) is the ocean air is excellent for those with extreme allergies such as mine. VA is nice too out on the coast. As a matter of fact it's only an hour drive or so up I95 from the Outer Banks to the Chesapeake Bay area and all the shipyards and such (Norfolk, Suffolk, Newport News, etc......) which I'm sure you're aware of.

I was surfing DFS and honestly for what I was looking for Amazon could match them due to the free Prime shipping, BUT that is just the selection of items that I need. I never expected to end up jumping headlong into the turtles as I did, but they were bigger than I thought and a heck of a lot cuter than I remembered when I agreed to take them. We already have tree frogs (want one ? lol) and we just freed some toads this fall and we got our daughter a GloFish aquarium as a Christmas present so we're all stocked up on pets here too. As I said before, I wasn't planning on shopping for another creature (or two) that long ago either, but when I saw their living conditions I had to act. They could literally only sit there in the BRIGHT GREEN water and stick their heads up out of it and move a couple inches back and forth. That was it, no exaggeration. I'm going to post some pics, but I'm going to put them in the pictures section because I'm gonna play the crap out of the cute kid card lol and they belong there anyway so keep an eye out.

[unclejoe]

We had a pond filter similar to that when we had an outdoor pond with some goldfish in it. The pond I think was max 250g. Did the job as long as we threw a bag of I can't remember hay or stray in the pond as well.. The pond would sit stagnant over the winter though.. it wasn't deep enough to leave the fish in and I originally come from Ontario Canada.. So long cold winter it sat frozen solid..In the spring we pretty much cleared the whole thing out, fresh water got pumped in from subpump in the basement.. put filter and sprinkler back in the pond and a bag of what I think was hay.. But I am just not sure.. Kept the pond crystal clear all spring,summer and fall. I am wondering how something like this may work year round. We did find we had to replace pond filter every two to three years cause it wore out.. But I like the simplicity of this type of filter if its gonna do the job with turtles.

I had fish when I was in my early 20's but I really didn't get into all the complicated details of proper water ph and such and the fish were rehomed once Babies came along. I found the aquarium with the fish way more work then keeping Phil happy..

Yes I moved to Florida from Ontario 4.5 yrs ago.. Was great at first beautiful warm weather all year round pretty much accept it got Cool in January. But not having the seasons got old for me. Dealing with tourists, is very hectic and stressful and traffic was down right crazy for about 8 months of the year there.. May- to end of June and Sept to Dec was off season.. Rest of the time it was crazy.. I like this area a lot reminds me more of being home.. People are more polite and the pace of life is slower.. I like feeling like I am back in the late 80's to early 90's here. But getting a job here has proved very very difficult. Hubby finally got a job in the profession he graduated for last May. But I am still looking.. I am really getting tired working nights and weekends at my age.. a nice weekday job would be good about now..lol

Hubby has terrible allergies too, he is originally from PA and Maine, but so far he hasn't been hit by them here.. a couple days here and there and he is ok.. He and I take a mineral called MSM for our inflammation and man I really think that stuff has worked for his allergies because when I first moved to Florida he was really bad.. coughing all the time and not able to breathe at all.. We even have a stray cat that decided to adopt us since moving here and he is highly allergic to cats and yet no complaints of itchy burning eyes.. If you are not taking MSM now I highly recommend researching it on google.. It has helped my back pain incredibly..

YOu have to remember DFS has free shipping after $49.00. So that makes it comparable with Amazon.. But honestly if you can get it from Amazon same price, DFS has the slowest shipping I have ever seen..lol If they offered rewards for being a frequent shopper it would make it worth it to shop over Amazon. I have to admit though,, I ordered my Zoo Med UVB bulb from them, and when I screwed it into lamp and turned it on.. It flashed once and was done.. I had waited over two weeks for it because it was I think the day after thanksgiving sale and they had been swamped with orders.. So at this point I was pretty upset that Phil hadn't had UVB for almost 3 weeks.. WE called DFS and told them the bulb was broken, they said no worries we will UPS you one overnight tonight will be there tomorrow.. They told us to just throw the broken bulb out.. I was really impressed with that service.. Don't see that often on online sites..

I will go check out your picture thread, I hope you saw ours while you were in Photo Gallery. Not many pics of Phil yet, but we have tonnes of videos and pics of the pond turtles..lol

I am not very american so I am really private about where I live. I am gonna pm you where we are. We are closer then you think..

[unclejoe]

We got a tank btw.. Petsmart had 10, 20 and 40g tanks on for $1 a gallon this week.. Really wasn't the best time for us to get a tank.. but I just couldn't past that deal up.. so we got the 40g.. which is sooo huge Phil is gonna be in that tank for a long time before he out grows it...lol Not sure if you were looking for 40g or bigger.. but thought I would mention it..

[pmkls1]

I sent you a PM, but hadn't read your post on here yet so disregard the part about the tank lol. The 40 may seem huge now, but he'll grow into it faster than you think. Our two little gals would probably be bigger if they had room to move in their previous home. They seem to be OK with the 20, but it's a bit cramped for them. I know that PetSmart has sales on tanks occasionally, but I didn't know they were having one ATM. Until the new one opens up in town we still live an hour away from the nearest pet store other than one local pet shop that you don't even want to look at their equipment prices. I want bigger than a 55gal tank for them because they really need it. The depth isn't the problem it's the footprint and a 55 doesn't have a huge difference than a 20 long in that respect. That was why I am looking for either a tub or a pond insert is because once you pass the 55gal mark tanks get real expensive fast.

[unclejoe]

Yeah I was having that same thought when I bought the 20g long first, cause our local petsmart didn't have any 40g in store.. a member on here talked me into getting 40g anyway.. but it was only 6 inch longer then 20g just higher.. but when I went to store they had the 10g, 20g and 40g stacked on top of each other on the shelves and when I saw them like that,, I could see that the 20 gallon wasn't a heck of a lot bigger then my 10g. I am hoping him being a painted and hopefully a male that by himself 40g will be big enough for him full grown.. but if Phil turns out to be a Phyllis we may need bigger tank.. on the other hand hopefully by that time we are settled and we can build him/her an indoor pond that we have been talking about.. so don't need a bigger tank..