New build 210g turtle tank.

jersey · #1 03-27-2011, 10:42 PM

Hello all,

I am working on a 210g paludarium to house my turtles. I got the tank for a steal, and I am about 3/4 of the way through the background construction.

I made the background on light defuser with a basking shelf, which has 2 three inch capped plumbing pipe caves for my convicts to hide.

I do not have pictures yet.. But I zipped wood to the defuse added a couple of rocks, and cut in a large ziplock food container into the basking shelf that will be filled with substrait should the turtles lay eggs in the future. I also have 2 5 inch hydroponic net pots and 6 3 inch pots foamed in as well as the piping for the water feature.

I used t-rex "Jungle Bed" and black silicon to cover the background.

Right now I have to vacuum the excess substrait off, and touch up some bare spots, and then it will be sitting until we move to the new house in about a month which should give it a nice amount of time for the silicon to fully cure up before seeing any water.

I am kind of at a loss for plants and would love if anyone has any ideas as to what I should get.. right now I only have a scottish moss, and irish moss that I saw when I was on the road this week. I do not thing I will be using them in any of the planters though.

I would like 2 creeper style plants... Something that will give me nice wall cover.. I'm sure I am going to get an assortment of air plants as time goes on as well.. I have found a couple of sites that have some really amazing air plants.

I assume that broms are a sure bet for this type of setup.. any other ideas?

Also, I was wondering if anyone knows of any kind of spray clear coat that is fish safe.. I am worried about the areas of the background that will be submerged in water deteriorating.. It's already covered in the mix I mentioned above which looks to be mostly cork bark and coconut fiber. I basically would like to put a clear layer of something on top of it to seal it in.

Thanks for your time, and I will have pictures up as time progresses.

fallenangelfyre · #2 03-28-2011, 07:03 AM

boat varnish or epoxy are going to be your best bet with completely submerged silicon/cocofiber bg. a little expensive & a pain to work with, but anything less & that bg will deteriorate quickly being completely submerged. sounds like an awesome turtle tank, though! can't wait to see some pics-

jersey · #3 03-29-2011, 10:05 PM

thanks for the reply. I'm thinking about going with a layer of clear silicone as the "seal" for the submerged area. I believe that it will only consume a few inches of the background and the rest will be covered with rock / driftwood to hide my pumps and filter stuff.

I ordered 2 FX5 filters from Amazon today. I really can't wait to get the tank set up in the new house.. I wish we could just move in now.. lol

Been browsing some plants and have a fairly good idea of what we will be doing to fill the pots.

Does anyone have experience with "moss painting" on a GS/fiber background? I'd love to get the spores all over the background and then let it figure out where it wants to grow, but don't really want to spend the money / time if it isn't something that usually works out well for my type of set up.

I'm going to snap a shot or two of the current state of the project if you guys don't mind a super messy garage..

We lost our condo in a fire this past winter, and had are staying with my father so we had to put what little we could salvage in the garage while we waited on the new place.

jersey · #4 04-09-2011, 10:30 PM

some pictures from the water feature test. I decided to go with silicone to coat the parts that are under water I just applied it in thin layers.. let one dry add another I think I stopped at 5 and it looks as if it worked.. at least so far.

I drained it today and will let it completely dry out before finishing up some touch ups, adding moss to the top of the background to hide some silicone, and glass that is visible, and some patch ups. The black foam at the bottom should be covered once the substrate goes in, so that will stay as is. I also have some river rocks and driftwood that will fill in some spots as well (like covering the pump) and then it needs to be moved to it's final location and get some turtles swimming around.

I am going to build a new cabinet, and canopy in the future to hide the misting tubes, and lighting. One step at a time I guess

On a one to ten scale I would give this a 7.. I learned a bunch of things for future builds, and I think it is pretty good for a first attempt.

As it gets set up, and starts growing in I will keep this thread updated as much as I can.

I am looking into air plants, and trying to figure out what bromes, and orchids might work in my setup that I can mount to the background or on treefern / cork and attach that to the background.

Any advice on that topic is more then welcome!

jersey · #5 04-29-2011, 11:31 PM

few more pics.. I had to remove the basking area and rebuild it due to worries about mold building up due to no circulation. I also added some air plants, and a couple of orchids that I found at lowes for $2 each

The area where the egg crate is exposed I am thinking may turn into a moss wall with some sort of aquatic moss.. still researching which moss I would like to use for that. I also added the large piece of driftwood as a secondary basking area.

I really can't wait to have this tank up and running.. mostly so I can take the 40 that the turtles are in and start my frog viv project.. haha

jersey · #6 04-29-2011, 11:32 PM

more pictures

Rainfrog · #7 04-30-2011, 01:59 AM

I think your making yourself low with a 7. This is really nice.

What type of turtles will be in there and how many? I really want Pearl River or Black Knob Map Turtles. Cant have them in my apartment though.

jersey · #8 04-30-2011, 02:32 PM

We have a Red eared slider that my friend had in since he was the size of a quarter and decided he was going to release into the wild.. We wheren't going to let that happen so we took him.

I was telling a friend in my Brazilian Jui jitsu class about him, and he told us about this W. painted his g/f brought home from china town, and it was in a tank bearly bigger then she was..

So.. We had those two.. I then went out of my mind and got a mississippi map, and a Red bellied Sideneck, and a 210 gallon tank for them to move into.

I wanted something nicer then just a tank with a tape on background, so I started researching more exciting designs, and that's how I got here.