Am I kidding myself?

[Moozillion]

Ok. I have this fantasy of a beautifully planted 40 gal breeder size tank for my single mud turtle, along with various fish and maybe some ghost shrimp.
But I notice Jacques is hard on her environment: she digs up her fake plants and shoves them around routinely. I expect she'd do exactly the same thing with live plants, basically shredding and killing them?
So a planted tank may not be realistic?
Anybody have luck with a mud turtle in a planted tank?

 

[cdmay]

Mooz, if you haven't done so already, try and watch some of Muddy Bob, or 'BauriBob's' YouTube videos. He is successful with live plants and mud turtles.
But then again, he has some huge custom built aquariums too.
It is possible that in a smaller environment that a turtle would simply out-muscle the plants.

 

[KevinGG]

I love Bauri Bob's enclosures. I've built a couple of aquascapes for turtles in the past. I think it really depends on the turtle. I built one for a young Hamiltonii that worked perfectly. Very few uprooted plants, no dead fish, great water quality. Then I built one for my Sinensis and they destroyed it. Granted, they are much more active than Hamiltonii or muds. If Jacques is uprooting fake plants, I'd stick with fake plants and silicone them in place. You can create a very beautiful enclosure with natural looking plastic plants. Look up "aquascapes" and you'll get some good ideas. You want to create a "hardscape" (stones, driftwood, substrate) that looks good on its own, and then compliment with the plants.

Here's what I did with my Hamiltonii:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/little-slice-of-nature-hamiltonii.110128/

And what I tried to do with my softshells:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-albino-softshells.149087/

 

[Moozillion]

I love Bauri Bob's enclosures. I've built a couple of aquascapes for turtles in the past. I think it really depends on the turtle. I built one for a young Hamiltonii that worked perfectly. Very few uprooted plants, no dead fish, great water quality. Then I built one for my Sinensis and they destroyed it. Granted, they are much more active than Hamiltonii or muds. If Jacques is uprooting fake plants, I'd stick with fake plants and silicone them in place. You can create a very beautiful enclosure with natural looking plastic plants. Look up "aquascapes" and you'll get some good ideas. You want to create a "hardscape" (stones, driftwood, substrate) that looks good on its own, and then compliment with the plants.

Here's what I did with my Hamiltonii:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/little-slice-of-nature-hamiltonii.110128/

And what I tried to do with my softshells:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-albino-softshells.149087/

Great!!!!
Your Hamiltonii set up is a lot like I imagine my potential set up.
YES!!!! I LOOOVE Bauri Bob!!! But I'm not NEARLY as handy with the DIY stuff as he is, so mine will be made of purchased/found stuff...

 

[Moozillion]

I love Bauri Bob's enclosures. I've built a couple of aquascapes for turtles in the past. I think it really depends on the turtle. I built one for a young Hamiltonii that worked perfectly. Very few uprooted plants, no dead fish, great water quality. Then I built one for my Sinensis and they destroyed it. Granted, they are much more active than Hamiltonii or muds. If Jacques is uprooting fake plants, I'd stick with fake plants and silicone them in place. You can create a very beautiful enclosure with natural looking plastic plants. Look up "aquascapes" and you'll get some good ideas. You want to create a "hardscape" (stones, driftwood, substrate) that looks good on its own, and then compliment with the plants.

Here's what I did with my Hamiltonii:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/little-slice-of-nature-hamiltonii.110128/

And what I tried to do with my softshells:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-albino-softshells.149087/

Kevin, what size tank was that the Hamiltonii were in? And what filtration did you use?

 

[KevinGG]

Kevin, what size tank was that the Hamiltonii were in? And what filtration did you use?

That was a custom built 40 gal. Pretty close to normal dimensions. Just a little wider and shorter. I use an EHEIM filter on that aquarium. Can't remember which model though.