Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:18 pm Re: HI.. NEW TO THE SITE!
I'm Jen, new to the forum and fairly new to caring for my Red Ear Slider named Squirt. He's a special lil guy, about 6" long and 5" wide when I got him he was stuck in a 10 gallon tank with no basking platform, no special lighting and a zoo med dock that was missing the suction cups and rod to hold it in place. I immediately got some rocks and created a basking platform but hadn't figured out a resolution for the lighting just yet so he wanted no parts of the platform except for when I wasn't looking. Just after a couple months of research I moved him to a 20 gallon long and fixed up his platform even more and he started to go on it more frequently. Just the other day I moved him one last time to a 55 gallon tank and he loves it. So much room to swim and pretty soon he'll have a seperate little basking area on top of the tank with a ramp for him to get up there and chill. It has definitely taken some time and effort and creativity but we'll get there.
So I have a 55 gallon tank now, currently running a 30-60 gallon no name brand filter that hangs off the side and also the Tetra Repto Filter just because I have it and I figured the tank could use as much filtration as possible. I am researching canister filters and planning on going with the Cascade 1500 unless I come across some horrible reviews in the next couple of days, or get some bad feedback on here. I've seen pretty good reviews so far. I plan to replace the bulb in one of the 18" lighting fixtures with a UVB bulb to put on top of his basking area. And I have a 75W bulb that also points into the basking area for heat. I'm considering some floating plants for the top of the tank for him to float on.
Any suggestions/advice are welcome.
