Habitat - Indoor :: New Tank and ABTA - Almost done

[Mimi2cas]

These are pictures of the new ATBA for Yertle. I am almost done with the basking platform and need to stain and seal the new stand which you can see in the back ground of the pictures. I am going to put the old 40 gallon aquarium on the bottom of the stand and try to grow plants for Yertle the turtle. Everything is dirty still as I have not finished. I still need to drill holes in the ramp as well. I appreciate any suggestions or advice on this project. Thanks! Sorry I did not take photos as i built but I will answer any questions that I can.

basking platform and 55 g tank

Inside the basking platform

Tank view of ramp

[vear]

Very nice, looks good! Make sure you're able to remove the top easily for access to the tank during cleaning.

[Mimi2cas]

The whole thing lifts right off the top and the tiles are set up to lift right out as well. Its made of Pine so it does not weigh much. The tank on the other hand I have to have help with. Definitely going to need a step stool to clean it once I get everything done and set up!

[VeipaCray]

Looks great! more pictures as you set it up please.

[steve]

Great work! Are you only going to have holes on the ramp for traction?

[Mimi2cas]

Yes, Veipacray said that it worked for him. I am looking into some cork, if I can find a piece big enough to wedge tightly I may do that on top of the acrylic or by itself. It will really depend on how Yertle does with it. He is fully grown,so he is sizable, he is pretty good at getting up on his "platform" now even if the water gets low (I had to travel for 2 weeks for work and my husband forgot to tipoff his tank while i was gone. Winter in Maine is very dry so massive evaporation from my tanks). Someone has also suggested using hemp rope wrapped around it. I will have to see what works for him, plus I would like to be able to clean it as necessary.

[steve]

I'd look into cork bark since it's completely natural. Some said they found larger pieces here: https://www.joshsfrogs.com/

[Mimi2cas]

Here is the new double tank stand. The first photo is ready to stain and the 2nd photo has the first coat of stain (Walnut).

Stand ready to Stain

With 1st Coat of Stain

As you can see with the 1st coat of stain that I am not an expert, all of the areas where I used wood filler to fill screw and nail holes are showing up instead of blending in. This being my first attempt at making a piece of furniture I am not going to beat myself up about it. I will say that in the future I will buy my stain ahead of time and use wood filler that you can pre-mix with the stain and of course, before using any filler, find a scrap piece of wood and test it with the stain. I was picturing a nice pretty stand with it all looking like something from the furniture store and I think it is going to be more DIY/distressed looking than what I was picturing in my head. Learn from the mistakes and keep going I don't think that Yertle will care what it looks like.

I have it on a dolly in my garage as it is much easier to work on that way. Has anyone tried to put wheels on a stand? It would be a lot easier to move when necessary if it was on wheels, would not have to drain tanks all the way down. I use furniture sliders on my current set up, of course the stand is only coffee table height with a 40g breeder tank 3/4 full at the moment. This is much larger and by the time I put a 55g and a 40g on it,it will be very,very heavy. It would still be nice if it was some what mobile. Let me know if anyone has done this success fully!

[steve]

Looks very good! Water weighs 8.3 pounds a gallon, so I would not put casters on a wooden stand. A large tank that is filled should not have the chance to move either, it could be disastrous.

[Mimi2cas]

The casters are pretty much wishful thinking. I am going to put furniture sliders under it, which are flat, but very slippery so that if I have to move it I can, after I bring the water level in the tanks down of course. On its own the stand is very heavy since its made of 2x4 and plywood. I am at a stand still as my husband does not want me working with the electrical panel. I was going to run new wire from an unused circuit to put my tanks on their own circuit ( no more tripping breakers when using the vacuum), but it made my husband very nervous and he would rather pay an electrician to come in. So I have to wait for that to happen before I can move forward, I am not the most patient person so this is kind of frustrating, but I do understand his unease when working in the main electrical panel for the house! I also glued my acrylic ramp to the wrong side of the tile, so I have to re-do that as well, at least there is no hurry to re-do it. I am still looking for cork to put on the acrylic lamp, Pet life had a large piece, but wanted $42.00 dollars for it. I need to check Josh's Frogs still.

[steve]

It never hurts to have a licensed electrician deal with this stuff. If the cork is just a liner, then I think the zoo med bark are fairly thin... not sure about the price however.

[Mimi2cas]

The electrician is coming Monday, for that and to look at some other areas that may have to be tweaked due to a required structural repair, there is nothing better than finding out that all your 2nd floor doors are out of square and the drywall is cracking due to improperly installed structural beams! Can you say $$$$$$$$! Oh, well it has to be done and at least it will be done correctly this time! Anyway, I finally got to Josh's Frogs website and found what turned out to be a huge piece of cork bark for a grand total of $14.00 including shipping, way better that the $42 dollar one at pet life! I am going to finish the ABTA today and see if I can put it on Yertle's current tank and let him start getting used to it. I can't swap the tanks unfortunately as the one holding the 40g is not long enough for the 55g. If Yertle starts to use the ABTA, then I can get rid of the concrete paver blocks in the tank and fill it up to the top for greater swimming room. I spent some time catching guppies this morning so Yertle is currently occupied hunting fast little male guppies, fun to watch him try and figure out how to get them (he is learning to corner them).

[steve]

Sounds good! I think I'll order soon as well. Sorry to hear about the house problems, home ownership can be really expensive sometimes.

[Mimi2cas]

Here is an update on the ABTA:

The stand is completed:

Right now I can't bring it in and set everything up because of some structural repairs and electrical upgrades that I need to do to my home. I did finish the ABTA and I decided to try and put it on the current tank:

It works pretty well and I have it nice and stable. As you can see below Yertle is not too sure about it. He got pretty upset with me cleaning and rearranging. He has gotten in a couple of times and then heads right back into the water. For the last day or so he goes up the ramp, looks around (see not so great picture below, you can just see his head to the right of the end of the acrylic door line ) and then turns around and goes right back to the water.

I thought it would be a good idea to get him used to deeper water and the ABTA before the final move happens. Hopefully he won't freak out as much once he gets into the 55g tank with the ABTA. I am using diamond 3/4", 13g steel mesh for the cover. I tried the egg crate and it started to melt under the heat lamp. My local hardware store had 24"x24" sheet, i used my dremel to cut it in half and I am going to paint it with rustoleum for BBQ grills. I will take a picture once it is painted. Now it can get hot and I won't have to worry about melting anything! I appreciate any feed back on what I have going. Thanks to everyone for ideas and information. The cork bark ramp attached to the acrylic works great for Yertle.

[steve]

Wow looks great. Can you take a close up of the inside?