Habitat - Indoor :: 2 4 inch turtles

[musicalturtles]

the ittybitty container or the pink bucket?

[musicalturtles]

which thing? the itsy bitsy container or the bucket? (i think both?)

[Tenodera]

Well they are both pretty small..lol

[musicalturtles]

to me, and the turtles, the bucket was huge. not implying that thats the best we can do. im thinking right now. :sigh:

[megcornell]

That bucket is not huge to the turtles at 4 inches. It's like living in a closet to you. You need to realize that RES are aquatic and need a lot more water than that.

[marisa]

Although they do have some shell issues, they're in amazingly good shape for being in what you say you've kept them in (I confess I haven't read the complete thread).

Your ladies are good candidates for a stock tank. Cheaper than a regular tank, easy to clean, comes in large sizes, durable and less likely to break. You do need space for it, though (but you'd need space for a large tank as well). Do a web search for stock tanks. If you've got a Tractor Supply Company near you, you can get a Rubermaid Stock for a fairly reasonable price.

If you're patient (and lucky), you can also find tanks (regular and stock tanks) in on-line and newspaper classifieds.

[musicalturtles]

can you put stock tanks outside? being in LA, i think thats the best way.
but then, what do people do during the winter?

[N4784N R4613]

Yes, you can put one outside. Do you have an indoor set-up now? If you do just keep that, and use it as his/her winter home.

[marisa]

I've got two, soon to be three, stock tanks outside for the summer. I bring them in when the weather gets too cool for my turtles to be out.

[bluedragoon85]

Why dont you try a Rubbermaid container? They are relatively cheep, not more than 15 dolars if you are getting a 50 Gallon one. I have 2 1 1/2 inch turtles and I have them in a 35 gallon Rubbermaid container that cost me like 8 bucks I think they would do fine in a 50 gallon rubbermaid container, much better than in what they currently are and it wouldn't cost you much at all... It would be a good choice while you decide on getting something better and hopefully bigger in the near future...

[musicalturtles]

okay thank you everyone xD much help. i will go this week to find a tank/stock tank/rubbermaid and i'll need to get filter and basking light and whatnot. should i get the tank first and then after i find out the dimensions etc, get everything else?

[N4784N R4613]

Yes, that would be wise.

[musicalturtles]

is it true that if you have a 50 gallon tank you need a 100 gallon filter?

[marisa]

Turtles are really messy, and need a filter more powerful than fish do (most filters are made with fish in mind). Twice the size of the tank is OK, but if it were me and I had a 50-gallon tank, I'd try to get a filter that was rated for use with a 150-gallon tank (3X the size of the tank, not 2X). In general, the stronger the filter, the less cleaning you have to do, and the better the water quality.

[N4784N R4613]

I have two 400 gal. filters on my 240 gal. tank. Thats a little over 3X the size of the tank. I only change my water if the bottom of the tank has a lot of "junk" on it, or it has a spike in ammonia or nitrates. Usually every three mouths give or take.