General Care Discussion :: new owner with lighting questions.

[berretta]

Hello all.

I purchased a res for my kids about a month ago from a small town fall festival and have some questions now. The vendor was selling hatchlings less than 2 in shells in the small 8 in pet containers you usually see spiders or hermit crabs in for $10. They also said i could keep them in that container for the first year or two and just feed it pellets . I have since done a bit of research and realized i was duped. I have since upgraded to a 10 gal aquarium with a 5 in high basking platform and i bought the 2 pack of heat lights that come with the blue day and red night light. The blue light has uva light as well as heat. I was going to get a small submersible heater also for the water soon. The temperature here is still in 70s but fading fading fast. I am on a very fixed income. I mean very fixed. I spent $16 on the 2 light pack and can still return them. I have been reding that the res need uvb and uva. But if i can only afford to provide one for the time being which is more important. I was thinking about returning the 2 pack and getting a heat uvb combo plus the submersible water heater. Would that be better than the blue day with uva? I also don't have a filter how often should i clean water as to not stress hatchling to much? If i want to feed them lettuce should i put it in water since they don't have saliva glands?
Thanks for replies.

[bananakiri]

Congrats on being a VERY smart new owner to not trust that idiot vendor! Most people just follow the vendors instructions without doing research, so you are on your way!

First of all although your turtles need needs both, they particularly need UVB, for Vitamin D3 production (without it, it can lead to metabolic bone disease)! When you put your lights on, check the basking temp as it should be about 85-90F, as well as the water should be around 75-78F.

Im also curious how many turtles you have? Because if you keep a lot in a small container youre gonna find that you'll have to clean the tank a lot more often as the waste load is a lot bigger in a smaller area. You should definitely invest in a good filter since turtles are extremely messy animals, and will just keep getting messier as they get bigger. But for now, you might want to keep the tank bottom bare so you can siphon up any poop you see easily and do a 3/4ths water change about once a week.

Also, you can totally provide them with lettuce (not iceberg however), but they most likely will not even bother looking at it since turtles tend to be VERY carnivorous when they are babies. As so, you should be feeding them baby turtle pellets (theyre very small so they dont choke and they have more protein in them, which baby turtles need more protein than adults), and insects (you can look up insects suitable for turtles). If the vendor gave you any pellets, just go ahead and throw them away please, as they most likely dont contain much, if any, nutritional value. You should go petco or something and find some baby turtle pellets in the reptile section. And yes make sure to put all food in the water, since like you said, they dont produce saliva and need help from the water to swallow their food!

[steve]

Can you still return the 10 gallon and use a storage container? If not thats OK, just a suggestion. I would return the lights. You can use regular incandescent lights for basking heat. Bananakiri is right, you will need to get a UVB light. A water heater is very important... what's your air temperature?

[berretta]

I just bought a 3 thermometer today as it is all my budget can afford at the moment. My main question is should i loose the 2 heat lamps and get a basking uvb combo and a water heater or just a add a uvb light source to the 2 lamps(blue day.red night )? It will also probably be a few weeks before i can do either. Is there any low budget alternatives to use in the mean time?

[steve]

Which basking uvb combo are you referring too? Can you put up links? I'd return most specialty bulbs as they are not effective or necessary.

Is there any low budget alternatives to use in the mean time? ----> regular incandescent lights for basking heat/light