Habitat - Indoor :: New To Turts

[john x jro]

Ok so i have a turtle that is about 1.5 inches long maybe less i have him in a 20 gallon long with some light a pets mart person told me to get to keep his shell hard...and i have a regular fish tank strip light on other side opposite of the floating dock i feed himreptomin baby floating food sticks..i can see hes growing b/c red is now coming out on the side of his head and he can now eat the pellets whole when b4 he'd have to bite them in half first. what i am wondering is how much water should be in the tank ...i have about 4 in. now and what type of filter.... o ya and if any one needs help with fish problems ive been keeping fish of 3 years with at one point 8 tanks up and running with all kinds of fishys

[missibsu]

Welcome! Recommended water amounts is 10 gallons per inch of shell. That is the shell measure only without the curve and the head and tail. 20 gallons is good for now, but you will need to upgrade eventually. What kind of bulb did the pet store people recommend? Just to double check, is it UVB? Sometimes they recommend a fancy reptile bulb and it doesn't really include UVB. It's important to have UVB and a regular old lightbulb for heat.

[marisa]

Hi and welcome. What's the temp of the basking area (and water)? If you're using a UVB light (which is flourescent and will specifically say so on the package if it is) and a regular flourescent strip fish light, there is no heat source for the basking area. Check it with a thermometer (the water temp as well).

[john x jro]

water is 70 degrees and basking area is 90 degrees is that ok?

[john x jro]

o ya and i am planning to upgrade when he gets bigger i already have an empty 55 gallon that use to be my cichlid tank so when hes bigger right now i think he'd get lost :O i transferd my cichlids to a brand new 75 gallon about 5 months ago and this 55 has just been chillinnnn... o ya and my basking bulb is a http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_ ... 30051&Ne=2
this only provides UVA so i am upgrading the light strip bulb to this

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_ ... 30051&Ne=2
b/c i read in another thread they need UVA and UVB...

[turtledudee]

you might want to bump the water temp up to 75°, my turts dont like it any lower and the recommended temp is 75.

and the 55 gallon would be great for a turtle of that size.

[john x jro]

ty for advise and i think im in love with your turtles name im the the juggernaut!

[turtledudee]

no problem.
If you need anymore advice just PM.
yep, juggernaut is a pretty cool name. it cracks me up everytime i say it.

[sonyj]

For hatchlings the water temp should be a constant 78F. After a year old it should be 72-75F.

Make sure that the majority of the UVB bulb is over the basking dock if the strip bulb is to be your main UVB bulb. The water will filter out quite a bit of the UVB rays which is why it should be over the basking area for them to absorb will basking.

[john x jro]

ok so i went to pets mart and i got a basking bulb that is both UVA and UVB does this sound right? i also got a small turtle filter which itss GPH is 55 so that will be ok if i have 10 gallons of watter.... b/c i read in another thread you want 3 times the amount you have in the tank

[john x jro]

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_ ... 30094&Ne=2


thats the bulb i bought

[turtledudee]

dunno about that bulb.
but the filter you said does 55 gph.
if you are upgrading to a 55 you should've thought ahead and got an XP3 or something like that just to save you some time and $$.

[john x jro]

....the filter was like 20 bucks

[turtledudee]

oh. is it the zoomed filter?

[john x jro]

ya ya