# 3ft turtle tank



## angel_saza (May 2, 2007)

I'm just about to setup a 3ft aquarium for a eastern longneck.. any suggestions to how i should set it up?

I have plenty of gravel, a 2ft reflector light and room for a heat lamp...


----------



## dragon170 (May 3, 2007)

How about a turtle dock for some dry land or someting similar


----------



## Tatelina (May 3, 2007)

Try using the search function in the menu bar for similar threads.


----------



## angel_saza (May 3, 2007)

I plan to build up the gravel on one side to have a dry land/basking area. As to not waste a whole lot of gravel, i think i'll put a old ice-cream container, or similar, underneather the built up area. The container shouldn't leach toxins or break down should it?

I also have a nice driftwood with a plant attached, some lovely rocks, an adequately sized filter and a feeder fish that hasn't been eaten after 4 weeks!!


----------



## Nik (May 3, 2007)

Sounds good, I'm not sure about the icecream container but I've read that people use clean bricks to build up an area. 

If you've got some pics when you're done it would be great to see.

Here's some of my 3 foot turtle tank


----------



## angel_saza (May 3, 2007)

hey, i didn't think of bricks!! They wouldn't be too heavy? The tank isn't sitting on a solid stand. It's just like a 'frame' with 3 support struts running across... make sense?


----------



## Nik (May 3, 2007)

It would come down to the strength of the stand. The pebbles in my tank are fairly heavy but the stand is strong. I don't think I'd want to use a lot of bricks, I just read it somewhere when I was researching turtle tanks before we set ours up.

Good luck


----------



## mimmy (May 3, 2007)

Jye & Peady- your tank looks awesome! I've just finished setting mine up- but it looks dodgy compared to yours hehe- got some good ideas now though! 
Good luck with yours angel_saza


----------



## Nik (May 3, 2007)

Thanks Mimmy,

Our little turtles seem really happy. They love the plants, I've got some plants that come out of the fake rock and go under the bigger dock. The turtles sit between the plants and the dock so their shells are under the dock and just their little heads poke out. It's so cute to see two little faces peeking up from between the leaves.

Angel_saza, maybe you could also use a fake rock to help with your land, they come in heaps of shapes and sizes. They cost more than bricks and icecream containers but they look great. I guess you could either just use a large fake rock as land or use one to section off an area as a retaining wall type thing, and put your gravel behind it. Does that make sense?


----------



## Kitah (May 3, 2007)

Personally, I prefer not to use gravel for my turtle. Heard too many cases where turtles have consumed the gravel and have become compacted. I generally use large rocks or river rocks for that reason. Still gives the turtle substrate to push around but no risk.

Here are some pictures of my turtles current tank. At the moment he's in a 4ft x 18inch x 15 inch tank, which has about 175 actual litres of water in it (as full as it can go without risk of turt getting out. The tank also has a 1500LPH canister filter which does its job perfectly, keeps the ammonia and nitrites down and keeps the tank crystal clear. Turt (thats his name.. don't laugh, name wasn't my fault. blame my father lol) is a murray shortneck, is about 20cm in carapace length and is 1.5 years old. 

Overall view of the tank. before i get comments, im aware the heater is useless for this size tank. i had two in at the time, because this was soon after i had set the tank up, when i bought it. hadnt yet bought a larger heater. 






Above view of right side of tank. shows lilly leaves and piece of free-floating driftwood. turt loves to rest on this as it floats around.





Part of the left side of the tank. you can see the crappy floating zoo med turtle dock. I hate these things. The suction cups arnt great, the bottom metal plate drops off, it has a pasty residue on the bottom when in the water, when you have a larger turtle the things sink.. i just hate them.





Top view of the left side of the tank, showing the crappy dock again and the lilly leaves, with some plants wedged behind the dock.





Some rocks and plants in the tank





I scrapped the dodgy zoomed dock and made my own. used acrylic, siliconed on white rocks/pebbles and siliconed it into teh tank. no suction cup problems, very secure, dosnt sink, dosnt fall apart, and most of all, turt likes it, so im happy. 





And, turt himself. My little (or.. not so little anymore) spoilt boy





Personally I think the more water a turtle has, the better. I mean in the wild they live in massive dams, and love to swim. Turt has actually outgrown his current tank, and I had planned on getting him a new one in my last university lecture recess. However that didnt happen. Now I actually have a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tank (capacity of 453L) sitting at home waiting for me to go home for the june/july holidays (Im in townsville uni studying BVSc, home is in brissie) The diagram below shows my basic plan for the basking area of the tank. 






Im doing an above tank basking area to give turt all the swimming space possible i.e. the water depth will be to the rim of the tank itself. also, nice big basking area which i will be siliconing river rocks onto for grip and a kind of semi natural look (better than carpet or anything in my opinion. dont like that look) to add the acrylic extensions (will get clear stuff) i'll probably use hinges on the front and right side, with clips at the top which can be fastened to keep the walls up. however if its hinged it makes it a lot easier to access the tank, as i can just undo the clips, drop the walls down and clean the tank or whatever. 

Large smooth black river rocks will be used as the substrate, with other large rocks (such as the ones in the picture above, but smooth. those large rocks have been thrown out and There are now large, smooth sandstone rocks in there) and there will be plenty of live plants for turt to eat (he loves his vegetation) Will also have driftwood for him to rest on and explore around. 



Also... arnt longnecks large turtles when theyre adults? a 3ft tank isnt very big for a large turtle to live in...


----------



## mimmy (May 3, 2007)

Cool tank xshadowx! You've put a lot of thought into that! How old is turt? He's very handsome hehe


----------



## Kitah (May 3, 2007)

yeah, lots of effort, time and MONEY into this turtle lol. he is a handome boy, i know lol . to be exact, he's about 1yr 4months old. hatch date was 2-1-06


----------



## angel_saza (May 3, 2007)

Squirt isn't fully grown yet, so there's enough room for him 

I have some long, narrow fairly flat rocks and driftwood that i plan to use as retaining walls for the built up gravel. I might just go for trial and error and see how i go.. photo's to come soon!!


----------



## angel_saza (May 5, 2007)

*Canister Filtration*

I'm looking at getting a canister filter for my tank.. Probably an aqua one aquis 500 or 700. I know the tank holds approx 120L but minus gravel and the lower water level i reckon it's holding about 100L. I know turtle are grotty little buggers so i'm leaning towards the 700, which pumps 700L/hour.

Any opinions/experience about running canister filters on their turtle setups?


----------



## Kitah (May 5, 2007)

I have a 1500LPH canister filter for my 4ft tank. The more filtration, the better. and make sure you have lots of bio media (i personally prefer the ceramic rings) for the friendly bacteria, to keep the ammonia and nitrites down. will still need water changes to keep the nitrates down though.

what sized tanks are those two filters rated to? a rule i like to follow is to get a filter that has a capacity of 3x the amount that its actually going to be used for (for turtles, not fish) cause obviously turtles are a lot messier than fish. so, for example, if you have 100L of water i'd personally get a filter rated for 300L+ sized tanks. Or, at least a filter for a 200L tank. so, if I were you, id get the aqua one aquis 1000 at least. 

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/category6_1.htm

The above link is where I bought my canister filter from, the Aqua nova NCF-1500. 1500LPH, and even though its a cheaper filter, it works perfectly for me. the Aqua nova NCF-1000 would most likely work well on a tank your size and is a lot cheaper than other filters, if you could find it in your area. Personally i find my filter awesome, easy to take apart and put together. 

Is your tank a standard 3ft tank? so 36" x 18" x 15" (91.33cm x 45.72cm x 38.1cm)? if so, a tank that size has a maximum capacity of 132L.


----------

