Oh Dear.. Turtles..

[blackcrystal22]

So a good friend of mine no longer wants his two turtles, that he says are male and female, and pretty big.
They are aquatic turtles, but I know nothing about what I'm getting myself in to. He's not sure what type of turtle they are either.. I would assume sliders of a sort.

What do I need to know.. if his tank is too small what size is a good size?
I NEVER wanted turtles, I've always thought they were smelly and dirty difficult to take care of. Please, if you have any good advice and are keeping turtles, show me enclosures!

AND how do you EVER keep that water clean?? I'm very worried because changing aquatic tanks often will be difficult in this cold weather and we don't have a hose.. :[

[reaxion07]

SWEET!!! Finally something I'm knowledgeable in :p Do you have pics? They're most likely Red Earred Sliders. They're going to need a big tank - do you know what size they are, in inches? Getting something 150 gallons +. You can get preformed ponds at home improvement stores for pretty cheap, with high gallonage. Also, stock tanks are cheap and high gallonage. As for cleaning, it is tough to keep their water clean since they eat in it. One way to reduce waste is to feed in a seperate container, and let them chill so they will poop in it too. You can make your own canister filter out of a rubbermaid tank and a pump. It's really easy, and effective. They'll need a dock, which you can buy/make, a heat lamp, probably a water heater since it's cold in your area, and UVB.

Summary:
Tank - 150 galon +, stock tank or preformed pond (or custom indoor pond)

Filter - Rubbermaid tub, pond pump - something with about 3x or more GPH then what your tank holds, tubing. For the filter element, people do multi layers - I've heard of Nylon, air conditioner filters, and some sort of biofilter like lava rocks. You can buy a DIY pond filter kit, and get a pump - I'm running one, and I added lava rocks to it.

Light - clamp lamps, for the heat source use a Turtle Tuff bulb. They're water proof. I used non-turtle specific ones, and they burned out real quickly. Reptisun UVB bulbs are the standard. Mine get sunlight from a window above the pond.

Docks - we use a Zoomed large dock, and stuck shower tube through the holes and attached it to a pump at the bottom to keep it in place.

Diet - some people are super against feeding retail food. I feed a little Reptomin every night, and supplement with spinach, carrots (to prevent ear infections), live fish, and occasionally little treat shrimp/krill. Make sure the retail brand food has D3 injected - that along with UVB give them the ability to process calcium. You need to dust their food and feed them calcium once a week.

Heat Source - you'll probably need one. I don't use one yet (live in Soutern CA, lows of 60 ). When you get one, make sure it is un-shatterable, or comes with a shield.

Austins Turtle Page is a good source for info and care sheets. Here's some pics of a couple of mine:


Pastel Red Earred Slider - got at Pomono Show for an awesome deal, she has some shell damage so we were glad to get her away from the shop.


Pancake - Western Painted Turtle. These guys are waaay more outgoing then the Red Earred, Pancake lets me pet his head, haha. He grabs the live fish, and swims with them in his mouth for a while before he eats it


Pancake and Butterface (long story short - rescued her from being dumped in a lake, and she had a major ear infection. Big bumps on each side. Not being able to remember her name at the time - it was Nalu - I renamed her Butterface) basking in our indoor 35g pond setup. You can see the canister filter in the background, my cat Ono, the clamp lamp with Turtle Tuff bulb, dock, and if you look real closely beneath the kitty, the pump. In the background, you can see our 20g long setup for our two hatchlings.

If you have anymore questions, I'll do my best to answer it. Turtle keeping is challenging, but super rewarding. Watching them is awesome, they're really great animals.

[mainbutter]

I love turtles so much

I don't feel like I need to keep them, I get to play with them plenty in wild during summer.

[blackcrystal22]

SWEET!!! Finally something I'm knowledgeable in :p Do you have pics? They're most likely Red Earred Sliders. They're going to need a big tank - do you know what size they are, in inches? Getting something 150 gallons +. You can get preformed ponds at home improvement stores for pretty cheap, with high gallonage. Also, stock tanks are cheap and high gallonage. As for cleaning, it is tough to keep their water clean since they eat in it. One way to reduce waste is to feed in a seperate container, and let them chill so they will poop in it too. You can make your own canister filter out of a rubbermaid tank and a pump. It's really easy, and effective. They'll need a dock, which you can buy/make, a heat lamp, probably a water heater since it's cold in your area, and UVB.

Summary:
Tank - 150 galon +, stock tank or preformed pond (or custom indoor pond)

Filter - Rubbermaid tub, pond pump - something with about 3x or more GPH then what your tank holds, tubing. For the filter element, people do multi layers - I've heard of Nylon, air conditioner filters, and some sort of biofilter like lava rocks. You can buy a DIY pond filter kit, and get a pump - I'm running one, and I added lava rocks to it.

Light - clamp lamps, for the heat source use a Turtle Tuff bulb. They're water proof. I used non-turtle specific ones, and they burned out real quickly. Reptisun UVB bulbs are the standard. Mine get sunlight from a window above the pond.

Docks - we use a Zoomed large dock, and stuck shower tube through the holes and attached it to a pump at the bottom to keep it in place.

Diet - some people are super against feeding retail food. I feed a little Reptomin every night, and supplement with spinach, carrots (to prevent ear infections), live fish, and occasionally little treat shrimp/krill. Make sure the retail brand food has D3 injected - that along with UVB give them the ability to process calcium. You need to dust their food and feed them calcium once a week.

Heat Source - you'll probably need one. I don't use one yet (live in Soutern CA, lows of 60 ). When you get one, make sure it is un-shatterable, or comes with a shield.

Austins Turtle Page is a good source for info and care sheets. Here's some pics of a couple of mine:


Pastel Red Earred Slider - got at Pomono Show for an awesome deal, she has some shell damage so we were glad to get her away from the shop.


Pancake - Western Painted Turtle. These guys are waaay more outgoing then the Red Earred, Pancake lets me pet his head, haha. He grabs the live fish, and swims with them in his mouth for a while before he eats it


Pancake and Butterface (long story short - rescued her from being dumped in a lake, and she had a major ear infection. Big bumps on each side. Not being able to remember her name at the time - it was Nalu - I renamed her Butterface) basking in our indoor 35g pond setup. You can see the canister filter in the background, my cat Ono, the clamp lamp with Turtle Tuff bulb, dock, and if you look real closely beneath the kitty, the pump. In the background, you can see our 20g long setup for our two hatchlings.

If you have anymore questions, I'll do my best to answer it. Turtle keeping is challenging, but super rewarding. Watching them is awesome, they're really great animals.

Wow, this is great stuff! Thank you so much for all of that information. It will come to good use.
Do you have any ideas on where I could get a tank that large? I'd prefer something not too tall, because I feel that would be very difficult to get into and clean.

I don't have pictures, I don't even know what they look like. Thanks a bunch though, I'll get you picture later if I can't figure out what type they are. :]

[reaxion07]

I don't know much about Il, but if you're in a more rural area, or near one, I'd look on craigslist for used stock tanks. I found a 330g one in Ca (still really far from me) for $90. If you can't find one used, the 300g ones are like $280-$300 new online. You can get 100g for under $100, either a stock tank or a preformed pond from Lowes. We're using a preformed pond in that picture, works great and is more durable then glass.

[Darkice]

You can use huge rubbermade tubs. Just go to a tractor supply company and look around. They carry lots of plastic tubs for feeding animals and they make great turtle ponds.

Here is my little guy.

[West Coast Jungle]

Turtles are soo cool! I have been on the fence about setting up a turtle pond.

[reaxion07]

You can use huge rubbermade tubs. Just go to a tractor supply company and look around. They carry lots of plastic tubs for feeding animals and they make great turtle ponds.

Here is my little guy.

How fast has he been growing? We got a baby Mississippi Map at the Anaheim Super Show, and he's probably quadrupled in size, while the baby Western Painted is probably only twice as large as he was. We've had them since September.

[blackcrystal22]

You can use huge rubbermade tubs. Just go to a tractor supply company and look around. They carry lots of plastic tubs for feeding animals and they make great turtle ponds.

Here is my little guy.

Oooh, interesting!
Do you have a picture of one? Are they clear?
What do you use to filter it?

Very cute turtle too!