Habitat - Indoor :: renovation! here's what i'm thinking...

[laurapa]

We've decided to renovate Oliver's tank. Right now he's about 4 inches long (which seems small for a 3 year old turtle?). He is bored swimming around the 10gal that came with him when we adopted him! And probably unhealthy, too, since it's way too small.

So. Here is what we are thinking of buying after some research online and a sight-seeing trip around the pet store.

Tank: Either a 40gal or 55gal regular ol' rectangular aquarium

Filter: New TopFin 60 power filter plus our old Whisper waterfall filter (I think it's a 20gal). Can you use two filters instead of buying just one big (expensive) one? Will I get adequate water circulation?

Water heater: Can I use an in-tank tube heater if I have some sort of guard around it? Can I make a guard? I can't afford much--we're probably going to buy a heater in the $20 range.

Basking site: Cork bark. I'm going to try to be creative and build some sort of ramp for it. We might build a little cave for him out of cork bark too.

Basking heat: We have a clamp lamp with a ceramic heat bulb in it. Keeps his basking temp about 85.

Lighting: The aquarium comes with a hood for fluorescent tube lights. Planning on buying a 5.0 UVB for it.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm posting on here to see what you think of the brands/products we're looking at. We're on a tight budget so we can't afford the BEST, but I just want to know if what we're looking at is good enough.

Let me know what you think!

[DocShay]

So. Here is what we are thinking of buying after some research online and a sight-seeing trip around the pet store.

Tank: Either a 40gal or 55gal regular ol' rectangular aquarium

Go with the 55 gallon, or if possible maybe a little bigger.


Filter: New TopFin 60 power filter plus our old Whisper waterfall filter (I think it's a 20gal). Can you use two filters instead of buying just one big (expensive) one? Will I get adequate water circulation?

Personally, after moving to a canister filter i'd never use a Waterfall again. I'm not sure how many gph (gallons per hour) its rated for the one you posted. I'd try looking for a XP2 or XP3 online, you can get good deals.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp17290/si1380030/cl0/aquariumpharmaceuticalsrenafilstarxp3canisterfilter

My motto is, if you can't afford the better, expensive equipment - save the money and save for it. You by all means can go with a small, less powerful filter - but you will have to change the water more frequently - and when you have a larger tank (55+ gallons) it gets to be quite the hastle.


Water heater: Can I use an in-tank tube heater if I have some sort of guard around it? Can I make a guard? I can't afford much--we're probably going to buy a heater in the $20 range.

That would work fine if you made a guard, i'd be a little worried if you didn't have a guard though. You can buy in tank heaters with guards, try looking for Stealth heaters (brand name)


Basking site: Cork bark. I'm going to try to be creative and build some sort of ramp for it. We might build a little cave for him out of cork bark too.


Creativity is great, i've build a few of my own ramps, and out-of-tank areas for my turtles. Have fun with that!


Basking heat: We have a clamp lamp with a ceramic heat bulb in it. Keeps his basking temp about 85.

Perfect!

Lighting: The aquarium comes with a hood for fluorescent tube lights. Planning on buying a 5.0 UVB for it.

That will work okay, but UVB doesn't penetrate water very well. You may want to consider getting a compact UVB/UVA light and put it on their basking area someday in the future. Repi glo 5.0 would work great.


Hope this helped!

[octpusgirl8]

Good for you for upgrading Oliver's tank, i'm sure he will really appreciate having more room. If at all possible, get a bigger tank, 75 gallons maybe. The rule of thumg for tank size is 10 gallons per inch of turtle, so a 40 gallon tank wouldn't last too long. If that's not an option, go for the 55. You can use 2 (or more) filters, if you're going with the hang on tank variety that would probably be best. You can also buy a powerhead for extra water circulation (make sure you get one with a foam intake filter). Canister filters are a lot better for a bigger tank, but they are more expensive. A Rena Filstar XP3 would be perfect for your new tank, they generally run around $100. Trust me, they're a great investment. Visitherm Stealth heaters are great, they aren't too expensive and they aren't made of glass so you don't have to worry them breaking. If you use cork bark for a basking area, you need to wedge it or secure it somehow so that it stays under the heat and UVB lights. Your lighting plan sounds fine, in the future you can just use a regular incandescent lightbulb for heat, no need to spend all that extra money on a ceramic heat emitter or specialty basking bulb. Reptisun 5.0 is a tried and true option for the UVB light.
4 inches does seem small to me for a 3 year old turtle, there are many things that could cause that. Parasites, underfeeding, genetics... A vet can check a stool sample for parasites, it's not too expensive. What's his diet like?

[laurapa]

In response to the size question...I think he might have been underfed as a baby. When we got him, his previous owner told me to just feed him 4 reptomin pellets every other day. I later learned that that is not nearly enough variety or amount for this little guy. NOW he gets 4 reptomin pellets every day (instead of 8 every other day, which would fit the "size of his head" rule--but he likes eating so much that I divide it in half daily), a piece of red-leaf lettuce about 2" square every day, and once a week he gets a small piece of carrot (shredded), a torn-up green bean, and/or kale. He has also FINALLY decided he likes eating cuttlebone. I hope I'm not STILL underfeeding him.

His shell was unhealthy but is slowly improving after changes to habitat, water quality, and diet.

Thanks so far for the references on filters, etc. This is really helpful!

[Bumby's Mom]

I would spend the extra $15 and go for a Stealth heater. They are plastic so they can not be broken by the turtle. You can buy other heaters and buy a guard for them but I don't know how that works.

[ilcapo21]

Ive learned the hard way buy the BIGGEST EVERYTHING you can afford more money now means less money later. They'll keep growing for awhile so if u buy something small now you will have to buy bigger later.