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i would be more than happy to share pics and design ideas with everyone.

please do! if you can, maybe draw or take a pic of them and post?
i'm looking for a tank and how to design it

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here is a couple, new tank not finished yet will be soon. will put new pic then. send me an email with what your looking for. size and soforth and ill help as much as i can.

You have beautiful turtles. But unfortunately I have to disagree with your setup.

First thing first, the gravel, it is not good to use gravel, because they can eat it and it can cause impaction, which of course will kill your turtle. There are other substrate out there that is better.

Second, it doesnt look like they have enough room to swim, a lot of it seems to be land. RES are aquatic turtles, they need more swimming room than land. And they look kind of crowded to me too.

Just my opinion. They look good. How long have you had them?

there only 7 months old, got then at christmas. the reason there is so much land is i have one male and one female and there starting to you know what. my new tank is four feet long, with 20 gal of water and no obstructions. this is still a bit of a learning for me i need to get some knowledge so i can help my customesr, hence why ive just about read every forum here. but please any critism is welcome. i need to learn as much as i can. ( they are a long term investment)

I like the idea of giving them a fair amount of land for them to walk around, but I think it is much wiser to give them that via 'above tank basking area' if you could pull something like in the pictures, but through a above tank basking area, that would be awesome!

I bet you would realy make some money if you sell custom made docks/above tank basking areas, some of us turtle owners arent that handy, and rely on already made products, but a lot of those already made products are made out of cheap material and tend to breakdown over time..an above tank basking area, or good sturdy turtle dock, is something a lot of us want. The benefit turtles get from these 'above tank basking areas' is more swimming space! This allows the keeper to fill the tank with water all the way! RES love deep water, so this is a plus.

Are your RES starting to get aggressive? I didnt understand 'are starting to you know what' if it's the fluttering, it is probably territorial. You can buy or make a tank divider instead of wasting all that swimming space.

fluttering... for sure the male is swimming backwards in front of the femal and what looks to be doggy style. they bask side by side, and she's starting to dig holes in the sand. i never seen any agression. side note for the tanks i have made for others. pvc pipe is the best with plexy glass, it bends and can by molded, i have put those pond light under it to briten up the underside during the day looks nice.

hmm... theyre okay. but yeah. the gravel is a problem. try smooth river rocks instead? big ones. not small ones. if theyre bigger than the head, its okay i think... is it?
im thinking about what saturday said. they ARE more aquatic than land. so if they are starting to "you know what" then may i suggest a bigger or at least deeper tank?
ill draw something that sounds nice, cuz i do that a lot. and ill post it. till then

Very pretty setups. But I also agree with saturday about the gravel and the need for more swimming space. Two adult RES should have a lot of water, like 180 gallons (general rule is 10 gallons per inch of turtle). You should take a look at some of the tanks in the Photo Gallery where people have built above tank basking areas with walls around the top of the tank.

Right now I am putting together an "L" shaped setup using a 40gal breeder tank and a 90gal tank. There will be a ramp from both tanks going to an above tank basking platform so the turtles can use both tanks if they want to. I'm also incorporating a live plant area under the basking platform to grow some vegetation for them to eat as well as for natural water filtration. I'm updating my progress in this thread...http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10180

I think you could do something similar but instead of using the 40gal breeder for another water tank, you could use it as the nesting area for the female. Or you could make another nesting site using a cheaper rubbermaid tub that you could attach to the tank when the female is ready to lay her eggs and then remove it when it's not needed. Hey, good idea! I may try that too.

here is kosmo basking

this one is my holding tank, until i get the indoor pond built

Wow, that is impressive! That would make an awesome nesting tank for a pregnant female. I think the indoor pond is going to be a great investment 'cause those two turtles would benefit more from having more water than land.

i'm in the process of ordering a custom designed tank right now....they're both girls so they need the land area and i was thinking about a similar idea to the pictures posted, only elevating the land area and only making it 5-6" deep so that they could have swim space under the land area....i already spoke with the people that will be making the tank and they can add glass basking areas with a lip....the top of the lip i think will be about 6" from the top of the tank.....the tank's gonna be huge--6' long x 1.5' deep x 2' tall.....