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I posted my story but I'll post it again. My friend had a turtle in a plastic tank with the little plastic palm tree and it had no basking area or food. It was full of poop and disgusting! I told her that I'd take it since it was in such bad condition. I didn't want to get a 100 gallon (or more) tank so I decided to give it to my other friend. She has a pond where it will go in a few months (it's one of those plastic ones but is really big).

Right now it's about 1" or a little bigger and I think it is 3 months old. It is in a 10 gallon (at my friend with the ponds house) until the middle of summer (when its 6 months). I bought it a Zoomed small turtle dock, turtle water conditioner, and reptomin pellets. She had the 10 gallon with a filter and a heater and a thermometer for the water. She keeps it at 76-78 since it's younger.

What I told her to get is: a thermometer for the basking area (it should be 90), two light holder clamp things to hold the bulbs, one UV light (UVA rays) and one incandescent light (heat and UVB?). I told her to try and make it eat veggies and gave her a list. I told her 1 guppy or rosy red or another thing I forgot a week. I told her enough pellets to fit in its head hollow.

Did I miss anything? She'll probably go to the pet store tomorrow and I might go with her. Thanks!

Well the tank will be out grown quickly, but may be alright for a few more months. You should only feed Rosie Reds once a month, stay away from guppies. The lighting should be a UVB bulb, and a UVA Basking lamp for heat, you have it backwards (UVB does not give off heat UVA does). You have the amount of pellets right, you should also try giving fresh veggies there is a list in the info section. You should try and get a cuttle bone for it to chomp on during the day for calcium, which reminds me that I need to by one for my turtle. Good job trying to get it the best you can get on probably a very limited budget.

Incandescent bulbs only produce heat and UVA for the turtle, They are standard household lighting bulbs.

You want to get a UVB bulb, It does not have UVB if not clearly labeled on the box somewhere. You will need to get one of these through a pet store of some kind or online. You want a UVB bulb with a 5% rating at least, and no Higher than a 10%. I would recommend a 5% because anything higher can easily make a turtles eyes red or puffy from too much exposure.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, please, but I believe the popular UVB bulb is a Exo Terra Repti-Sun 26Watt 5%.

The UVB bulbs should be replaced every 8-10 months as well because they wear out and the output decreases greatly.

Sounds like you pretty much have it all covered and the info others have given is very accurate. The only thing I saw missing is a different feeding place, but at that size it may not be to much of an issue. You did your homework which is great.

Ok, thanks! I will add cuttlebone to the list. I'm not very experienced on turtles.. I was told he'd be fine in the 10 gallon since he will be moving to the pond shortly. What about mosquito fish? Those are in the pond so I'm not sure she can do anything about them.

-2 light clamps

-1 UVB/heat bulb

-1 UVA bulb

-cuttlebone (from bird section, peel off backing)

-thermometer for basking area (should be 90)


I need some one to check to see if those bulbs are ok. I am unsure on wattage and if they are the right kind. If they are wrong, it has to be a kind of bulb that fits in that clamp and from petsmart (only pet store near us).

Another thing, is this the same thing as cuttlebone? If yes, would it work?

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752636

The only thing that needs clearing up now is that the Bulbs are fine, just your description is off. The UVB bulb will not produce heat, just the beneficial rays. The UVA bulb will provide the heat.

^I said that already, lol.

Nessa wrote:Another thing, is this the same thing as cuttlebone? If yes, would it work?

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752636

Same thing just in a different package.

Lol whoops! I thought I fixed that. Ok I need to get this in my head. UVA has HEAT! I don't know why I keep thinking UVB is heat... thank you SO much this will help a ton!

To save you a bit of money (especially since this is a temp setup), don't bother with the spotlight (The UVA bulb). Just use a regular incandescent bulb. Depending on the distance from the basking area, you can use a 60-100 watt bulb (I use 60). (of course, check the temp with the thermom).
This leads me to my second money saving tip: You don't necessarily need the zoomed or other reptile brand ceramic clamp lamps (like the one you pictured). You can get clamp lamps for pretty cheap, starting at about $5 from a hardware store. As long as it's rated for at least what your bulb is (most I have seen are rated for 60W bulbs), then it's fine.

What is the winter like where you're located? If it gets below freezing, then your friend will have to bring the turtle in for the winter. Hibernating RES, especially in a plastic pond, is not recommended. So at that point, you'll probably need a bigger setup, but you can reuse all your lighting and whatnot.

@Vtolds...why no guppies? I thought guppies were ok???

Vtolds wrote:^I said that already, lol.

I know, she just had mistaken it in the picture post so I was making sure she was clear on what was what.

It's so hard to get these darn bulbs just right. The UVB bulb - exo terra 26 watt 5.0 compact fluorescent - is just right. UVA lies on the spectrum between visible light and UVB, so any visible light bulb that provides UVB also provides UVA. So the one bulb covers both areas.

The other bulb is required for heat. Turtles are motivated to get up and bask by heat and since the fluorescent bulbs don't give off enough heat, a second (incandescdent) bulb is required. The bulb in the photo above is fine, but it's really overkill and more expensive than necessary. A plain, household 75 watt light bulb will work just as well. A household light bulb will generate some UVA but not enough to make much difference, but that's ok since the UVB bulb will provide enough UVA. So next time, you can save a few bucks on the heat bulb and just use a plain light bulb.

It never gets cold enough to snow here. I live in California in the San Jose area. It is good temperature. Doesn't get too hot or too cold. The pond won't freeze at all. I think the coldest it ever gets in winter is like 40, but that is really rare. I think it's usually 50-60 coldest in winter but I'm really bad with temperatures. I researched and this is what it said: "San Jose, CA climate is warm during summer when temperatures tend to be in the 70's and cool during winter when temperatures tend to be in the 50's." I think it gets to be in the 80s and 90s in the summer though.. If needed she can bring it inside. So I change out the UVA bulb for a normal household bulb thats 60 watt?