Habitat - Indoor :: 150 gallon tank Paludarium...

[CReeder14]

hello there... I am in the market to aquire a western (or eastern, not sure) paited turtle or two... I currently have a wide 150 gallon fish tank that I plan to house the turtle(s) in...

I have been somewhat researching the best methods to house these types of turtles, and it seems the me that a combonation of land area and water area would be best...

Right now, unless convinced otherwise, my plan is to aquire the tank and then glue (with silicon of some kind) a sheet of glass/plexiglass somewhere around 3/4 or 2/3 into the tank, seperating it longwise into two sections... The smaller section would be for a land based area with substrate and things like that, while the other part of the tank (the majority of the tank) would be filled with water (complete with pumps and such things neccesary for water based tanks)...

At this point it doesn't seem that dificult to imagine what would be neccesary to setup the water part of the tank, but when it comes to the land based area of the tank I am unsure of how to set it up...

What I'm trying to find out is what kind of substrates would be best for the land area? Whether it be sand or dirt of some kind, or even specially made "reptile" substrate... And also, would there be any need to layer different types of substrate... such as you would lay a patio... with a layer of plastic on the bottom, followed by a layer of crushed rock and sand, and finished with the stone patio...

And also, I have seen some references to the use of underground heating pads for land based substrates... would one of these be required?

other than the set up of the substrate I think that I know most of the things that I need to have... filters, uvb lights, heating elemnts (probably bulb and water) and things like that...

Any help someone can provide would be greatly appritiated...

-Thanks

[confrontinglife]

Hello,
It sounds like a cool idea you have there. But if you're going to be getting two turtles they could potentially need up to 200+ gallons of water. Turning 1/3 of the tank into land will take up a lot of those valuable gallons. If you stick with one turtle you may be able to get away with it.

Heating pads wouldn't be neccessary they'll get all the heat they need from the basking and UV lights.

If you do decide you want 2 turtles it maybe best to fill the 150 gallon to the top and build an above tank basking "land" area. Like the one in this post

If you look around the forums you'll find many more above tank basking areas

[CReeder14]

Ok, thats fine... Like I said, I'm open to suggestions...

But anyway... as far as an above tank basking area... Is there something thats a little... Less large scale and over the top (not literally of course...) I could do? My tank doesn't sit really high up of the ground, so maybe the plexyglass front wouldn't be neccesary... and since my tank is like 6 feet long (normal for that size of a tank i guess) but would a full length basking area be neccesary? Like would maybe lhaf the length of the tank be sufficient?

And I'm not set on getting two turtles... i just meant that it was a possibility...

[confrontinglife]

No a full length basking area is not neccesary. As long as it big enough for your turtles to fit on, and you can keep the temps needed for basking, you should be fine.

here are some I've made, cheap and easy

here

and here

[Bumby's Mom]

150 gallons is fine for two painted turtles. You can go with an above the tank basking area or some sort of dock that is suctioned to the glass OR you can get some aquarium sealant and seal a piece of plexiglass for a dock that sits above the water line (you would need a ramp for the turtles to get onto it. I think there is a basking platform page on here somewhere that gives examples of all the different types of docks and the pros and cons for them.