New red belly turtles

[PythonWallace]

My girl friend's been nagging me to set her up with a turtle tank, so this weekend I got her a pair of southern red belly turtles with a 30g aquarium, then I made a light hood and a filter over the last couple of days. Just thought I'd share since they are pretty cool.







Hood (the stain is still drying)





I'll add some update pics once the hood is dry and I get it on the tank. It's got 4 sockets hardwired to an on/off switch with a single cord, then I'm using 4x 13w bright white CF bulbs. Once I monitor the temperature I'll be changing 1 - 2 of the bulbs to provide a proper basking spot, if it doesn't get hot enough with these.

[Patrick Long]

Damn dude thats actually really really nice.

[PythonWallace]

Thanks Pat. I thought it all turned out good.

[kurgan]

That is a nice set up. My only comment (and I'm no expert here) is that they could probably use deeper water to swim. There seems to be a myth that deeper water is a drowning risk but the turtle forum I consulted when i got my cooter told me to go for as deep as I could. Also i would lose the gravel as apparently they can eat it and get impacted (fatally or to the point of needing surgery), get some bigger river pebbles or slate etc. That's another second hand piece of advice form the same forum:
http://www.turtletimes.com

[PythonWallace]

That is a nice set up. My only comment (and I'm no expert here) is that they could probably use deeper water to swim. There seems to be a myth that deeper water is a drowning risk but the turtle forum I consulted when i got my cooter told me to go for as deep as I could. Also i would lose the gravel as apparently they can eat it and get impacted (fatally or to the point of needing surgery), get some bigger river pebbles or slate etc. That's another second hand piece of advice form the same forum:
http://www.turtletimes.com

Thanks for the tips and the link. I plan to raise the basking rock up so I can raise the water level. I know they won't drown. Right now, the water is about 6" deep so they have plenty of area and depth to swim. I also bought the larger pebbles to prevent them from swallowing it. The pebbles are at least as large as their heads, but I will be replacing it with a custom foam display insert for my ease of cleaning.

I bought and read a turtle book a couple of weeks ago, and have been reading on the internet about which species we liked and how to care for them, but this was sort of an impulse purchase as I usually have the display set up and ready for the animals before I buy them. I got a great deal on the aquarium, and the turtles were at the same show so I bought it all together. I scrambled to get this temporary setup for them, but I am planning to do a lot with this, including deeper water, the foam substrate, more hides, some fake plants and an additional basking spot.

[STORMS]

It looks like it turned out GREAT Cute little turtles too

[reaxion07]

Nice work! What are you going to use to heat the water?

[Beardedragon]

Nice! What uvb are you using?

[West Coast Jungle]

Looks good Jake. I was very close to getting a turtle setup going(I love turtles) just not sure if I have enough room between all the snakes and beardie stuff. I may set one up in the greenhouse one day, we shall see.

I would put a Mercury Vapor bulb in one of the sockets over the basking rock for a high UV basking area.

What kind of filter are you going with? I did alot of research on turtle forums and they mostly reccomend using a filter that is double the capacity of the tank since turtles are so messy, especially of you feed in the same tank. They are so friggin cute!

Tell Briana we said Hi

[RichardA]

Looking great!

Any updated shots to share?