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120 Turtle Tank Project


Makena95GT

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This shall the the official build thread of me and my brothers new turtle tank. We have two 6" RES and two 2" babies. The big ones are in a 40b and we found a 120 for $150. Used and pretty dirty but holds water and comes with a HOB filter among other things that we may or may not use.

It seems to have one hole drilled in the middle. Which means im going to go ahead and get another hole drilled for the overflow and go with a sump.

The idea is that the sump will be a 55 gallon that will be cabable of housing the smaller turtles and any fish I want to keep from getting eaten. While also having an area for me to grow out plants to feed the big turtles.

We (okay.. just I) would like to build a stand ourselves as finding one to fit our needs will be stupid expensive. Plan to build the stand at my dads place and haul it back over here.

This will be a long slow.process as me and my brother arent the richest people in the world. But the 40b will probably be up for sale when we finally get it going.

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Honestly idk how to plumb a sump. It would be a simple freshwater setup with basically two sections in the sump. One for the baby turtles and fish, one for a dirt planted area. I assume id just need to get an overflow and of course the actual plumbing as well as a return pump. Any links to how to's for sumps would be nice lol

Ill also need a way to keep the turtles from climbing out. Maybe just lower the warer level even though itll be ugly. They have floating basking platforms that suction cup to the sides. In thinking about getting one that will sit in the middle of the tank so they cant use it to crawl out. Will also need to find a way to mount a UVB light and a basking light on both tanks.

And plans for the stand build of course. Must find those.

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  • 2 months later...

Same here. Since my brother hasn't been able to sell his car, which was going to help fund the tank.. I told him the guy stopped holding it for us.

But..

Im buying it for him for Christmas. Biggest tank I've ever actually bought for myself was a 55 and I sold it before I even got a chance to clean it. Other than that.. a ten gallon lmao.

So he better feel special. Im itching to just keep it for myself ;)

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  • 3 months later...

TODAY IS THE DAY.

He changed his mind on the tank and since things changed up hes buying his own tank.

http://austin.craigslist.org/for/4930454689.html

Picking this thing up around noonish. He said hes only going to have four people and i insisted he should probably get another car full of strong people to drive there and help. We'll see what happens.

This tank wont be set up until we move again end of June but we'll start collecting equipment for it now. And this means the 40b will be mine!

Im a little worried as the lady said it hasnt had water in it in two years but it was leak free last time it was filled. But that cant be too hard to reseal.. Especially with how much time we have till we move anyways. Maybe sand and restain or paint the stand.

We also have a 55 gallon that can be used as a sump but this tank isnt drilled and im not sure if we want to lug it somewhere to get it drilled and lug it back when we dont have a truck lol

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So as you can see we got the tank. I just took a visit to look it over and its so huge! Like I knew it was huge but this may just be the biggest freshwater aquarium ive seen in my life outside of a fish store. And its like almost mine! [emoji14]

Thankfully my brother is open to me having my way with it :)

Tons of equipment came with it. Heaters.. Different types of filters.. Ornaments. Heck, he had $400 of ornaments alone lol the stand is nice and solid. The light that came with it is just one 48". It came with glass versa tops. But i just so happened to be able to pick up a brand new set of glass tops for it due to a customer at work buying the big tank and forgetting the tops for a year. So i finally got to claim them. The glass has those foggy water stains on it. Good way to clean that? My brother claimed he already tried vinegar and it didnt work

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  • 2 weeks later...

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How it sits until the move.

Were working on what looks like a skin issue with the big female. She doesnt want to be in the water, keeps scratching herself, and has a read area hear one if her legs so we started giving her dips in TurtleFix baths yesterday.

Also trying to find a good way to filter this tank while the water is so low. I have a canister filter that can handle it but i need to get more hose and attachments to try to rig it up

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I saw the pictures of your small turtles in your other post. We were doing yardwork this weekend and found 2 of these little guys in our wet weather pond which is almost dry. I guess I'm a turtle owner now as well. Have them in our patio pond until they get too large.

This is the larger one which my daughter named Chester. He's missing an eye but seems to be in good spirits.

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  • 1 month later...

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Clear water! Shaun sent me a video of how clear the tank is now. Got some screenshots.

Wish I had more pic of yesterday. We finally got the FX6 filter to his house and got it all set up. The water was a pretty gross brown color before installing the filter. By the time i left his house (2 hours) it was clear!

Apparently one of the turtles got its foot stuck in the powerhead the other day but it came out with no injuries and now that we have the FX6.. No more other pumps.

Ill get more pics tonight. Hes starting to put more and more water in the tank every water change despite me telling him no. I wont be responsible for his mother in laws floor caving in lol

But they are happy. Both of the big ones are confirmed females. The two little turtles are a male and female but still in the smaller tank as Barney (the biggest one) is so curious he will pin the little ones in a corner and nip at their feet.

I brought him 10 of the biggest comets we had at work last week and four are left as of yesterday. Ill have to get some treats for the little turtles as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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World Turtle Day was this past Saturday and my brother and I visited a retirement home to talk turtle! They have a small pond with three turtles.. One being an adult female.

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Theres the female next to a male lol

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We were finally able to add the two small turtles to the 180 without any aggression issues. The "babies" as we call them have formed a sort of bond. During the tank transition the small male was separated from the small female hes been with since he was a couple weeks old.. And he refused to eat till they were together again.

The small (aggressive) female also protects and guards the shy small male lol

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Same here! I haven't figured out if it's because they've been together since they were the size of quarters of if its cause they are male and female, but it's super weird.

Out at Lake Travis therws a pair, male and female. The big female will do her thing and the male is ALWAYS right behind her. Less than half her size. We've successfully caught, examined, and released both of them one night. Female was around 12" shell length and felt like 10 pounds at least. Male was 5" and maybe. A couple pounds

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