Habitat - Indoor :: Just committed to buy a 220 gallon tank - now what?!?

[UpTheStox]

So, we've been up and running for a week, with not many issues (other than my turts eating the anacharis I keep planting). I am having a problem with basking.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40183145@N02/5610058304/

This is my basking area. It's a turtle ramp I bought, rigged up with some floor tile to give a larger area, being housed in an old 20 gallon aquarium to prevent escape/fall. There is ample room for them to get up the ramp, and the temperatures are pretty good (75-79 water temps, 90-94 basking area temps). I've tried leaving them alone (I set up a motion activated webcam on the basking area, and went away for the weekend, and didn't get a single alert). They like to hang out at the bottom of the ramp. I'm thinking about removing the tile, to allow some of the UVB to penetrate. Good idea? Any ideas?

[dcsocal]

So, we've been up and running for a week, with not many issues (other than my turts eating the anacharis I keep planting). I am having a problem with basking.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40183145@N02/5610058304/

This is my basking area. It's a turtle ramp I bought, rigged up with some floor tile to give a larger area, being housed in an old 20 gallon aquarium to prevent escape/fall. There is ample room for them to get up the ramp, and the temperatures are pretty good (75-79 water temps, 90-94 basking area temps). I've tried leaving them alone (I set up a motion activated webcam on the basking area, and went away for the weekend, and didn't get a single alert). They like to hang out at the bottom of the ramp. I'm thinking about removing the tile, to allow some of the UVB to penetrate. Good idea? Any ideas?

They will get up there on their own time. Once they start getting used to all that space they will be fine!

[steve]

I would move the light closer to the edge, let them feel more of the warmth. And leave some snacks up there for more encouragement

[UpTheStox]

Set up my old heat lamp closer to the ramp, and I'll see how that goes. If that fails, I'll figure out a way to put something tasty up there for them (lack of planning led to a hard-to-adjust basking area).

This is all temporary, until I can find a solid woodworker to build a custom hood (a 72x24 basking area, with some kind of live plant shade).

[sflemin2]

Any update on the basking area? I am curious to see how you do it..I have a 150 gallon now and I am not happy with the in tank platform I built. The build thread was really great but most of those were smaller tanks..