Help with my turtle exhibit!!!?

Question

I have a 75-Gallon and I want to make it the best!

I want 75% of it to be water, but have a part of it land. I want it not to be super-hard to clean either, which made my design harder.

Look at this pic of my design [im not an artist! haha]

and tell me what I could use to make it. The thick, black line on the bottom... what can it be made out of? Does somewhere sell something like this?

Also, any advice for first time turtle owners?

Thanks!!!

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa25/Malamute_Mom/turtleex.jpg

Answer 1

My advice... don't do this. There are not many turtles that like this set-up and none good for beginners. This is a hard set-up to keep clean- both the soil and water go bad easily.

Instead, try aiming for a nice balance of easy care and good looks that many pond turtles will appreciate.

If you do not already have the turtle, go for a Painted Turtle- they are a good blend of easy care, hardy, small, and good looking. The more popular Red-ear Slider grows big and is aggressive.

A simple, good-looking tank can go like this:

- Substrate- either nothing, or some large flat pieces of slate. A lot of the 'turtle smell' is from crud getting stuck in the bottom and gassing out as it rots. Eliminate this to make cleaning easier. Use slate if you need to do something to make it look more natural.

- Plants- Put several pots of water plants, big and small, scattered around. Putting a plant in that protrudes from the water also looks nice and can be an 'island' for some of the food insects to try to hide on.

- Basking sites- Natural driftwood and cork bark slabs make good sites, look natural, are easy for the turtle to get on, not rough enough to hurt it (like rock ones are), etc. Use a light biulb or basking lamp to heat the site(s) to about 90F.

- Lighting- an aquarium bulb will make things look nice. Make sure there is a lot of shade for hiding in the plants.

- Open water- make sure that there is still a lot of open space- even between most of the plants.

- Filtration- use most of the money on a BIG external filter. It will make your life a lot easier!

You can learn a lot more at http://www.austinsturtlepage.com or their forum at http://www.turtleforum.com

Answer 2

Your design is not bad, however the only way to achieve this to make it easy to clean is to do it the same way I did.   First you need to put a divider in your tank where you want the water to meet the ground.    Second do not slope it.  Make it go straight up and down.  This give the turtle more swimming room which is what the prefer.  Now here is the trick.  Do not use dirt at all.  Fill the dry side with larger tank rocks right up to the top.  Ones from a pet shop.  Fill both sides up with waters.    Now all you have to do is occasionally empty the water and clean the tank, and then take the rocks and soak them in hot water.  You can even microwave them occasionally to kill any potential bacteria, or parasite growth.