Habitat - Indoor :: Floating basking Areas

[elefunk]

I am in the process of making a new set up for my RES to take into account the comments made on this forum and have recently bought a floating basking area. I notice many members have had problems with them sinking as the larger RES try and get on them.

I have noticed many of you are now using PVC piping as a means of support for them. However, its my personal opinion that they are a little unsightly, in my tank and propose to fabricate samething out of metal.

My question is therefore, would there be any problems with putting a metal structure in the turts tank? Am thinking of either steel or aluminium

Look forward to the discussion

Stu

[steve]

Exactly how would you fabricate it?

I think PVC is the safest, strongest basking platform you can DIY, but the white pipes are a bummer. A huge benefit of PVC is that it is easy to take a part.

If you see some of the posts by Grey Goose, he as a few great pics of his own type of platform.

[elefunk]

Hiya

Thanx for your reply.

Was thinking of 6mm box section with the joints welded. The design being something like a mini table with the floating "basking plateform" permenantly fixed to it. It sounds a bit grande but think it may be simple to keep the water levels right.

What do you think?

[sneakyburrito]

i dont think metal would be a good idea, aluminum and or steel will eventually rust causing bad things to be mixed into your water making it unsafe for your turtles

[steve]

I don't think aluminum or stainless steel will rust, but it will probably be expensive. Have you seen some of the above tank platforms? Some of them are beautiful and very functional.

[elefunk]

I have seen them thanx Steve. They do look functional but unfortunately space is limited unless I go for an extension to my house lol.

Do you know if aluminium gives off any turt "nasties" over time? Fortunately I can aluminium weld

Stu

[steve]

I think those above tank areas are fairly space-efficient. Plus, it allows you to remove a major obstacle in the tank and allows you to really fill the tank up.

[BullDog]

When I upgraded my tank, I was going to make a new basking in a fashion similar to my old one, but with a new material.. My dad has "connections" and I was able to get a couple nice size pieces of stainless steel mesh, similar to this:

Except it's very rigid, and there's no loose ends.

My concern was, being that it was from a steel fab. place, it was pretty oily, and I would need to do something about the edges. I ended up just using the same dock as before, but I extended with it.

This is what I do for my dock, and I would have done a similar thing if I used the stainless steel:


The lower right hand side has a piece of cord through the dock, under the water, then attached to a suction cup which is stuck to the inside of the tank. The upper, left hand side is just "friction fit" against the glass. I ended up using two pieces of the plastic twisty things that you use to open and close blinds with, because I had to extend the dock so it would fit.

You could do something similar with a non-rusting metal.
My suggestion though, if you're using a solid piece of aluminum or stainless would be to maybe drill a few holes in it for drainage and grip, or at least add maybe some strips of silicon for grip?

[elefunk]

Mnay thanks for the advice and photos. They are very useful indeed and take on board your comments about the holes in the metal.

Cheers

[industrial_girl_2000]

I am in the process of making a new set up for my RES to take into account the comments made on this forum and have recently bought a floating basking area. I notice many members have had problems with them sinking as the larger RES try and get on them.

I have noticed many of you are now using PVC piping as a means of support for them. However, its my personal opinion that they are a little unsightly, in my tank and propose to fabricate samething out of metal.

My question is therefore, would there be any problems with putting a metal structure in the turts tank? Am thinking of either steel or aluminium

Stu

What about something out of acrylic/plexiglas materials? As a long-time turtle keeper, metal anywhere near the tankwater really sucks for long term use....after a while it rusts or oxidizes & looks unsightly. My last tank had a basking platform on top of the tank made of acrylic. The small "L" shape brackets holding this acrylic box together were steel & they rusted like crazy over time. After 8 years, they needed to be replaced (literally crumbled from all that humidity). The good thing is that they were small pieces of metal over the water (not IN the water with the turt) so it wasn't like I had a lot of bad things going into the tank water. Maybe you can do something like that.

[SpotsMama]

Kristin, along those lines I've been wondering about something. Aren't you using magnets to support Sheba's basking area? How is the one that's in the water holding up?

[elefunk]

industrial girl and spotsmama some good points there. I think from the comments so far metal of any kind isnt a good idea and some of the points raised above seem, using Mr Spooks term, logical.

Plastic seems to be the answer.