What should a turtles tank look like

Filters are vital to the health of your tank. Turtles produce more waste than fish, though, and without a filter, you would need to change the water daily. Large canister filters work best. As a result, the tank will stay more sanitary and the turtle will remain healthier. A canister filter also minimizes the amount of cleaning you have to do. Lastly, even though the initial cost of a canister filter is higher than it is with other filter types, the long-term costs associated with water and filter changes will actually be lower.

If you use an internal filter instead of a canister filter, use the largest you can find and opt for two filters instead of one.

Even with a good filter, you will need to change the water at least once every two weeks. Look at tank covers. Select a heat-proof metal screen cover for the top of your tank. While not strictly essential, covers will protect your turtle from potential threats like broken lamp bulbs.

You may also want to clamp the cover onto the top of your tank to prevent larger turtles from climbing out. Do not use glass or plexiglass tank covers since these materials filter out the UVB rays a turtle needs for survival. Moreover, these materials are more likely to shatter or melt.

Get the tools you'll need to monitor conditions. Conditions can change slightly over time when left alone, so you will need to monitor and maintain the right conditions regularly to keep your turtle healthy.

Most turtles prefer water temperatures around 78 degrees Fahrenheit 25 degrees Celsius. Land temperatures should be between 80 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit 27 and 29 degrees Celsius. Method 2. Spread substrate on the bottom of the tank only if needed. Generally, you don't need to cover the bottom of the tank with any substrate. Substrate can actually make the tank more difficult to clean. If you're going to use substrate, the best choices are fine sand, gravel, and fluorite.

Sand is difficult to clean, but some turtles do enjoy digging in it. Fluorite is a porous clay gravel that provides plenty of nutrients for plants. Turtles generally don't eat it, but you should still opt for larger fluorite just to be safe. Create a land area. Aquatic and semi-aquatic turtles both need a land area inside the tank.

Most aquatic turtles should have a land mass that takes up no more than 25 percent of the space in the tank. Turtles use this land area to bask and dry themselves. The diameter of the land mass should also be at least one and a half times as long as the length of the turtle. There are plenty of different options to consider.

You can buy a special turtle dock from a pet supply store, or you could use a rock or log. Floating docks are often preferable since they adjust to the water level and do not take up valuable room inside the tank.

Avoid using rocks and logs from nature since they can pose a health threat to your turtle. If you do use something from nature, boil it in a separate pot of water to kill any algae, germs, or dangerous microorganisms. If you want to use something for a land mass that does not have a weight to anchor it, glue the land in place along the side of the tank with silicone aquarium sealant.

Provide a water-to-land ramp, if necessary. Turtles need a way to climb onto the land area. Ideally, the land area itself should gently slope down into the water. If it doesn't, you will need to install a separate ramp. The ramp itself can be fairly simple. For instance, a curves or sloping log can be attached to the land area from one side, with the other side dipping down gently into the water.

A piece of thick plastic can also be used in a similar way. Choose the right decorations. Turtles do not need many decorations to survive, but adding a few can make the tank nicer to look at and may also help your turtle feel a little more secure.

Add logs, smooth rocks, and terrestrial land plants to provide hiding places on the basking area. You could also use a wooden enclosure. So if your turtle is five inches wide, you must have at least five inches of water depth in the tank -- minimum. Aquatic turtles need a dry basking platform where they can sun themselves although the "sun," in this case, is usually a turtle basking lamp. The basking area can be a commercially-made one like the Turtle Dock shown here, a log, or even just a rock.

But whatever it is, it has to be big enough for the turtle to comfortably fit on, easy for the turtle to climb on to from the water, and high enough that the basking area doesn't stay wet. One of the easiest types of basking areas to use are the floating, shelf-type basking areas like the turtle dock in the picture, which looks like a rock, but is really made of plastic.

Floating docks are easy to use, automatically adjust to the water level and don't waste the swimming space underneath. They're a very good choice for beginners. But a rock or log will work just fine, too. If you use something from nature, make sure to boil it first to kill any algae, germs, or harmful microorganisms. And always avoid anything with sharp edges in a turtle habitat. Your turtle could seriously hurt itself.

Another option is to use an above-tank basking area , which will let you fill your tank closer to the top to give the turtles more room to swim. You can buy them ready-made or build one yourself like I did. I made it from wood, Plexiglas, and a piece of "egg-crate" light diffuser.

You can't see it in most of pictures on the site because they were taken before I built it, but you can see a picture of it here. Most turtle keepers use heat-proof metal tank covers on top of their tank.

These screens are inexpensive and are important mainly because they help protect the turtles from things like broken glass from exploding lamp bulbs. The lamps used for turtle habitats get very hot and tend to explode if they get splashed with water, and sometimes even if they don't. The covers also help keep the turtles from climbing out of the tank, which they do tend to try sometimes.

Tank covers can also be clamped to the tank to help prevent larger turtles from climbing out, which they can sometimes do if the distance between the top of the water or basking area and the rim of the tank is within the turtle's reach.

Don't use glass or Plexiglas as a tank cover. Either one will filter out UVB rays that the turtle needs to survive, and the heat from the lamps may cause glass to shatter or Plexiglas to melt. Because even screen-type tank covers block some light and heat, you should adjust the lighting to be correct with the tank cover on the tank.

When you have to remove the tank cover for example, to feed your turtle or clean the tank , replace it as soon as possible so you don't overheat the habitat.

If you're going to leave it off for more than a few minutes, turn off heat-producing lamps or move them a little farther away to keep the basking temperature from getting too hot.

It blocks much less light. Otherwise consider using a 7. Lighting is so important a subject for turtle keepers that it has its own page, which can be found here. But basically, you are going to need lights to provide visible light artificial daylight , warmth, UVA, and UVB light.

We talk more about these different kinds of light and the lamps needed to make them on the turtle lighting page. The substrate is the stuff that covers the bottom of the tank or habitat, and there are lots of different opinions about what are the best and worst substrates to use.

What follows here is my opinion. Others may disagree. First of all, unless you are going to use live plants, there's really no reason to have a substrate at all for most popular aquatic turtle species like Sliders and Painteds.

A glass bottom is easiest to clean and eliminates the possibility that your turtle will eat the substrate and be injured by it which does sometimes happen. Another easy-to-clean option is to use large, flat rocks. The basking area for your turtle can be provided by stacking smooth rocks and sloping large smooth gravel to one side to make a land area.

You could also use wood or a plastic "turtle dock. When designing a tank, it's a good idea to keep it uncluttered and easy to clean. Remember that turtles can knock things over and push stuff around.

Plants may be a nice aesthetic touch, but turtles are likely to make a snack of them or uproot them. Plastic plants will likely be dug up and just make cleaning more difficult. The best tank accessories for a red-eared slider are larger rocks and stones, and driftwood. If using driftwood, make sure to purchase it from a pet supplies store rather than using driftwood you find on the beach.

The kind sold in the store is parasite-free and will not harm your turtle. The water in a red-eared slider turtle tank should be kept at about degrees Fahrenheit, and up to 80 F for hatchlings.

The daytime ambient air temperature in the tank should be between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with a basking spot between 90 and 95 F over the land area of the tank. The basking spot lighting can be turned off at night and the air temperature can drop down to as low as 60 F. A submersible aquarium water heater can be used to keep the water warm if necessary.

Glass aquarium heaters may become damaged by large turtles and could cause a potentially lethal situation if it heats up the water up too much. You can protect the heater so the turtles can't bump it by placing it behind something a brick is one idea or by fashioning some sort of cover a piece of PVC pipe could be used.

Be sure to install a good aquarium thermometer and monitor the water temperature. For a list of great canister filters for turtle tanks, I would strongly suggest reading this article I wrote best filter for turtles.

I know that these can be pricey, so if that is a concern, I would suggest saving a little bit until you can afford something like the Sun-Sun I have owned 2 different Sun Sun models in the past and they are good quality products that work well and are reliable. The last few things you will need are a UV-light and a water heater for your painted turtle tank setup. Wild turtles bask on stones, rocks, logs, and other things in order to dry off their shell which prevents shell rot and other diseases , heat themselves up and stay healthy.

The only real difference that will make for you is that you will be able to place the watt bulb further away from your basking dock to achieve the same temperature. This is why the temperature of your basking dock is important rather than how many watts your bulb is.

This is also why I suggest getting or setting up your basking dock first before your UV-light. From that, then figure out how many watts you will need. For UV-lights, I would recommend checking out this article on the best turtle light bulb. Additionally, if you are interested in adding plants to your painted turtle tank, you should check out my article on turtle safe plants.

That is because every year a good chunk of the turtle population contracts respiratory infections and other illnesses caused by being out in the cold for too long.

Not every turtle makes it through the winter. And that means providing a water heater to reduce the chances of your turtle getting one of those nasty respiratory illnesses. This is especially true the further north you are.