Natural looking Turtle Basking area

davdev

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2010
613
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33
Somewhere in New England
Hi all

I am looking for suggestions for a natural looking turtle basking area. I cannot find anything I even remotely like. Most everything I have seen are either those cheap basking platforms or hokey wood or plexiglass above tank areas.

Basically I am thinking about just trying to use a large piece of floating driftwood, but I am not sure how that would work out. I don't have the setup yet, but I am planning on getting a 150 gallon (48x24x30) and only filling to about 24 deep. The turtles will be a single male Eastern Painted, and a Stinkpot, the tank will also have native Sunfish and a bullhead.

I like tanks that look as natural as possible, and so far, I haven't seen any turtle setups that look even remotely natural.
 

manlyfish

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2010
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silicon some driftwood to the glass so it doesn't sink...
 

turtlesrock

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2009
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thats the exact same setup i have! two turtles and native fish.
heres what i would do.. i would buy a large piece of cork bark, cut it to the size you want, but make sure it has at least 1 90degree edge. then, in a corner of the tank, find out how high your water will be. put the platform half in and half out of the water and silicone in the piece of cork bark.
 

snakeguy101

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 29, 2009
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Vicious_Fish;4397430; said:
That looks nice and all but gravel is such a PITA to keep clean when you have in with turtles.
Especially that much but you could do something like it. Maybe silicone some cork bark in and fill one side with sand...

kevinfleming21;4397432; said:
seems like the basking light would heat the water too much in this setup don't ya think?
not if it is focused on the land portion and if it does get too warm then maybe just increase the size of the land area.
 

davdev

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2010
613
2
33
Somewhere in New England
snakeguy101;4397402; said:
Oh, I should have another thing I really don't like and it's these fake beaches, the slopped sand/gravel takes up way to much room, especially if you want to go deep. As I said before, I plan on filling the tank 24", to do a fake beach like this, I would have to have way too steep of a slope. The only way I would do a beach setup is if I could figure out a way to build a land area around the perimeter of the tank using eggcrate as a base. I have seen some nice paludariums that have done something like that, but I fear it may be beyond my skill level to pull off

I don't mind the corkbark, but it still doesn't look natural too me. I have been thinking about possibly trying to hide the corkbark by surrounding it with some other driftwood.

Right now, I am leaning towards siliconing some driftwood to the upper parts of the tank, though I would love to find someone who has done so already for some feedback
 
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