My first ever posting here - I can see it will be a great place to come!

My question is, I have ended up with an unintended turtle. He was very very sick but seems good now. He is in his temporary hospital tank but is well ready to move into the new tank I bought him. I had the tank and stand custom made. The tank is 1600 x 600 x 600 and is on a wooden stand. I will post a photo when I work out how. I am just a bit worried that the stand is not strong enough or may need bracing. With the tank nearly full I am guessing the total weight including tank may be close to 7 or 800 kg. So I want to be sure not to mention not wanting any turtle missiles flying across the room. The framing is basically 40 x 40mm pine and the back is braced with ply. I found a link which I followed to calculate the strength of the framing and it looks like I have HEAPS of leeway.

But still...

:fshi:

could just fill tank 1/2 way for a turtle

pic posting viewtopic.php?t=2406

I could do but I am even too nervous to do that!

I am also looking forward to seeing him swim round in all that water. He is quite active and will use the ends of the tank he is in to push off for a speed boost through the water

Oops - missed it first time. Thanks for the photo upload link!

nice build

i would fill it

polystyrene under tank?

Yeah, that'll be fine. As long as everything is all properly glued and screwed together. If there's a quake strong enough to collapse that a bit of flooding probably is the least of your worries.

Ive never had a turtle (so i just have my internet warrior pants on here) but i thought they needed some dry places to chill out?

Cool tank i would love it haha

They do indeed, but you can make the basking area out of anything (wood on top of a PVC pipe frame, perspex siliconed to inside of the tank walls, something resting on top with a long ramp down into the water, etc). Water level shouldn't limit your options.

Above the basking area you'll need a UVB 5.0 bulb (fluorescent is best but spiral can be ok too) with NOTHING (plastic or otherwise) between the turtle and the bulb, and a heat bulb (I personally use 60W incandescent bulbs, the big wide ones generate a lot of heat) to heat the area up to around 32 degC.

Usually the main cause of turtle illness is no UVB or no basking heat by inexperienced owners.