Hello all.
My wife and I have two RES. We've had the male, Buddha, for about 5 years now. My wife bought him when he was the size of a quarter, and knowing nothing about turtles, believed the petshop guy when he told her the little bowl of death he was in would last him for life. That became a 10 gallon aquarium, became a 20 gallon aquarium, and is now a 55 gallon aquarium. When he got him the 55 gallon aquarium, she thought it looked so big and lonely, so she showed up one day about 3 years ago with Lucy.
Basically, I stayed out of it, because she took care of them, and hey what wifey wants wifey gets. Fast forward to recently and the care of the turtles has become my job because it is too much for her. We used two fluval 4+ filters that are completly inadequate, so cleaning involved weekly 100% water changes. I took a step back, decided my knowledge of turtles was very limited. I knew they needed UVA,UVB, a place to back. . . and that was about it.
I found this forum and have been implementing information from here. I built an above tank basking area. It came out great if I do say so myself. It completely covers the top of the tank. Its wood and wire screening. Half of the sruface area is open, half with a wood floor for basking. I built the ramp out of PVC tubes cut in half to form U shapes and sanded smooth.
Just yesterday I installed my new XP3 so hopefully once that settles in and grows the good bacteria I'll have a crystal clear tank for more than a day or two at a time.
So my main question is this, I've seen examples of above tank basking areas with ceramic tile flooring. IS this for looks or is there a benefit to this? Is the wood they are sitting on now not good?
And thank you for the great info I have already read and used from this forum.
