Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:51 pm   There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

My name is Eric, and my oldest daughter came home about 7 years ago with two silver dollar sized turtles that she was absolutely going to take care of, they were her Children Turtles, the "Churtles". Well as happens occasionally in life, the young mother soon found her attention drawn elsewhere (Freshman year of High School as I recall) and the Grandparents had to step in and take over the care and feeding of the churtles. Fun fact; of the two turtles that I now have, one is original, and one is a replacement, with the other having managed to either escape to a better place, or was eaten by his brother (who had bullied him his entire life and left him half as big), we prefer to think he's basking at the local park in a better place.

I enjoy my churtles, I like tinkering with their cage, doing little improvements, learning their personalities to tell when they are happy and displeased (cause you can't go by the look on their mug, now can you). With any luck, their actuarial chart is pretty close to my own and we shall go into the sunset together. I can only hope that my kids are as nice to me in the end.

Thanks Steve for this great resource, it's nice to have someplace to read and exchange ideas. And to everyone else, hello, and best luck with your pets.

Full Picture of tank setup: Image
Chilling Upstairs: Image
Night Falls: Image
ekuyper
 
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:16 pm   Re: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

Welcome to the forum Very glad you've found us helpful :)

I really like what you've done with the tank though I am a bit concerned about the weight on the shelving and casters. Do your churtles have any names?
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steve
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:34 pm   Re: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

Steve, they don't have individual names, I think I like them more as "the churtles" than individuals. On the weight, you make a really good point that I'd like to comment on for anyone else thinking of doing the same thing.

The shelves were purchased at Home Depot, the HDX line of shelves. In theory, they are rated at 600lbs per shelf which the more mathematically adept in the crowd will see might be a bit under the weight of the tank and water. To that end, the shelf supporting the tank itself is not from Home Depot, but is a heavy duty wire shelf with a 1200lb limit. Also not obvious, I have filed down the connectors in the 6' poles so that the entire top is removed in one piece for tank maintenance. Because of that, nothing of any significant weight is placed above the tank, which also helps to mitigate potential instability due to adding the casters. Not shown is the earthquake straps that are added to the back of the tank (below the separation, of course) as I live in Sunny Southern California.

I think of this as v0.9 of the tank, I'll be posting pictures and specs after I've had time to read and learn from all the great stuff others have already posted.
ekuyper
 
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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:06 pm   Re: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

Thanks for the explanation. What about the adjustable clips? Those are only plastic with a thin ridge of plastic. Do you take the girls outside? You must get some great sun for them.
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steve
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:19 pm   Re: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

As for the clips, what you have to consider is that they hold the shelf not so much by the weight on the clip, but via compression, ie the shelf physically cannot move lower as the plastic cannot compress enough to let it pass. The care and patience with wire shelves is ensuring the 4 clips are snapped in correctly with the indent on the pole, and that you then lower the shelf gently not dislodging the top rim of any of your clip sets. Once seated properly, the metal joints will fail before the plastic could either disform/extrude or more likely split the metal like ice in a fridge.

For getting them real sun, well the other nifty "trick" I did, the top enclosure, the 4 sides are attached to the top, and I reversed the clips on the wire rack shelf and taped them, so the top is really just sitting on the inserts and the cage portion can be removed separately from the top half, so I just pick that part up, put it in the front yard and put the churtles under it. Make sure to put it where there's some shade, but mostly sun, and that's where I keep them during tank maintenance.
ekuyper
 
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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:26 am   Re: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Turtle

Dual use topper is pretty clever, really a great way to maximize their equipment.
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steve
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