Habitat - Indoor :: Underwater substrate...

[CReeder14]

So what kind of substrate would I put on the bottom of my turtle's tank? I remember either reading somewhere or being told that the regular small fish tank gravel wouldn't be a good idea because the turtle would likely eat it and that would cause problems...

And I don't think that I want to use something as large as river rock... cus I just think it's too big... anyway...

So I've been prowling the pet stores in my area, not neccesarily looking for only substrate, but anything that I would use with the setup (whether I would get it from a shop or online or not), and I've been seeing slightly larger sized gravel (I guess when you get bigger than pea sized it's not gravel, it's just rock =P) the kind that are maybe about the size of a jellybean... Would this be ok to use, or would the turtle try to eat it when it gets bigger...?

I know that a bottom layer of something isnt required in the water part of the tank, but I just think it looks better with something covering up the clear bottom of the tank (which would other wise be looking over the area under my stand... which is for hte most part a storage area =P)

-Thanks

[megcornell]

Anything that the turtle can eat cannot be used. You're correct about them eating it and having health problems from the impaction.
One alternative is to use river rocks, you don't need to cover the whole bottom, just get a few to anchor plants in or to allow the turtle to rearrange.
If the bare bottom is annoying, you can buy the aquarium backing pictures and put that on the bottom. A few people have used a substrate like sand but that can lead to filtration problems and tends to be more of a mess than anything.
If you do get stones, be very careful to check that EVERY stone is too big for a turtle to eat, one turtle on here just passed stones the size of jelly beans.

[DavidY]

...and it sounded very painful for the poor turtle!

[Starchick]

Rocks on the bottom get annoying. Any size rocks will trap debris, and usually over time they get covered with algae which is a huge pain to try to clean off. And megcornell is right about being super careful with your choice of size, you might think there's no way a turtle could swallow something, but unless it's bigger than their whole head, you never know. Grey Goose's turtle recently ate (and thankfully passed) a penny sized rock. He posted a pic of it somewhere.

I like the idea of sticking something to the bottom of the tank, a little more decorative but without the risk and without any extra effort to clean.

[Pito007]

I dont have any substrate on the bottom of my aquarium, and it looks like a mirror. I think no substrate looks kind of cool.

[CReeder14]

well that was mostly my plan... to use the substrate to anchor plans that I might use... I might try to find some river rock, but i don't know how expensive it can be...

Thanks

[octpusgirl8]

When i get plants for the turtle tank, i remove the rubberband and lead strip that they use to weight them down at the store, and i clip the plants in a veggie clip and suction it to the bottom. This wouldn't work well if you were wanting the plants to grow and thrive and whatnot, but they're going to get eaten/shredded before that would happen anyway.