What to use for a removable ramp on the water side ?

Cerberus · #1 08-22-2011, 05:29 PM

Hey all ,
I'm planning on building a palu' for my turtle, a Central American Ornate Wood Turtle (Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima manni) Tobby(my son named her, don't blame me).

It won't be the typical palu' like what I see being built here because she is semi-aquatic. So I'm going to silicone in a glass divider for an approximate 1/3 water 2/3 land area. I'm going to need to build a ramp out of the water for her, and I don't want to build a concrete based ramp because of concerns of weight with having approximately 10 gallons of water in it too. Plus I want it removable for cleaning (nasty turtles waste). So, I thought maybe using foam and covering it with silicone, then fine gravel would be a viable option. Would that work for an immersed enviroment ?

I'm planning on building it also with GS on the back wall w/ silcone covering and coconut husk on the land side, but I want a seep wall on the water side. I saw on Black Jungle's website, they show construction of a tank with a drip system, and a GS and silicone back wall. I know that would be fine for Dendobrates, but Tobby (my son named her) is a turtle and pretty destructive. I wanted use a cut down Exoterra background for the background on that side because of it being immersed and Ms. Tobias (again my son's nick name) swimming and clawing on it too. Exoterra 's website says their back ground is a "easily cut, polyurethane foam", but isn't that what GS is too ? What would be another good option for a background that would be in an immersed enviroment and be durable to stand up to a turtle ?
I've been racking my brain about this for a while and finally got a tank that is tall enough for a decent water depth, while still having vertical space on the land side for a background and plants, and wide enough for the land area too.

raymondsmindjob · #2 08-25-2011, 04:11 AM

As far as a removable ramp for the turtle, you could try one of those turtle docks from the pet store and attach that to your land divider, or you could try to find a piece of driftwood. You ramp idea should be fine for an emersed environment
Not sure about the seep wall, the exo-terra background is just foam and Tobby will tear that up over time.
Hmmm, you could silicone rocks to the background of the tank on the water side up to a few inches above the water level, then use a fam background or great stuff above the rock line.