New turtle habitat

MattKeith

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Jun 3, 2015
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South Georgia USA
My 2 yellow belly sliders are growing like crazy so I decided it was time for a new home for them. Something with more water and more than a turtle dock to climb out on.

So I came up with this ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1464652202.362722.jpgImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1464652221.493446.jpgImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1464652239.215696.jpgImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1464652274.145017.jpg

170 gallon water trough with a living table built behind it. The waterfall has different filter media in it. They seem to like it a lot. What y'all think?
 

harris

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Outstanding! I swear by those galvanized troughs.
 

Alex Z

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Looks like a pond, river habitat....great work!
 

MattKeith

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Jun 3, 2015
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Hey thanks I'm glad u posted! I've just updated this tank with a bigger pump and a whole new filter set up. The water fall stream kept flooding my table. Seemed like every time I fixed a spot another would leak. My soil was just mud.

Here's the new filter. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1481668438.816460.jpg

It's a small beer keg I cut the top off of and put a spigot on it. Painted it to look like a wooded barrel the best I could with spray paint. This works way better than the water fall. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1481668623.132686.jpg

Thanks for looking!
- Matt
 

Alex Z

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Standing Ovation... seeing the love and care for torts and turtles is remarkable..
 

KevinGG

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Nice job. Looks great. Like the pothos filter. Hear they work really well.
 

cdmay

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Very inventive! That took some real plumbing, artistic design and engineering knowledge.
 

MattKeith

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Jun 3, 2015
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South Georgia USA
Thanks for all the replies guys!! I'm happy that all you like my habitat. Boom and Shocka love it too. Wish I could watch them swim around all day!

This tank runs really well with the new filter. The water tests good and stays clear. All I do is vacuum the dirt up off the bottom every couple weeks and top off water as needed. I think the pothos plant does a great job at eating up the nitrates too.

The tank has also become a fancy guppy wonderland too. We threw some extra guppies in there and they went crazy. There's been up to maybe a couple hundred at one time.

I got a little painted turtle from the pet mart and he demolished the guppy population in a couple weeks. Sadly I had to take him out a couple weeks ago because one of the sliders bit his tail off. He's in a healing tank now and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about a permanent home for him. He is smaller than the sliders by a little bit and I'm afraid to put him back in the big tank with the girls. He really loves the habitat tho. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1484344536.725038.jpgImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1484344605.938993.jpgImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1484344692.394951.jpg
 

AJK Aquaria

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Sorry to hear about the Painted. How much of the tail was taken? Tough to see from the photos- is it a male or female. Did you see any other aggression or bullying towards the newcomer?
 

MattKeith

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He's a male. About half his tail was taken. When I first put "Blaze" in the tank I watched for about 3 hours and there was no aggression. The girls checked him out, sniffing him under water but no aggression. A month or so went by then I saw blaze on the dock sunning with a drip of blood on the dock. That's when I noticed half his tail missing. He had a long tail before the bite.

Last night I saw blaze blowing bubbles out his mouth so he went to the vet this morning, my girlfriend works at an animal hospital. The doctor says he's got pneumonia, and is going to get some meds. He still eats like crazy and is very alert to people when we go in the room. I hope he gets better soon.
 

AJK Aquaria

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Sounds like a respiratory infection. Most likely from his time in the pet trade. Good luck.
 

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