How to Set Up an Aquatic Turtle Tank | Pet Turtles

Setting up an aquatic turtle tank can actually
be a pretty big project. A
lot of aquatic turtles, as they get older, become quite large and outgrow
your standard glass fish tank. So glass fish tanks are appropriate for
these smaller hatchling size aquatic turtles. Basically, your goal with
setting up the depth of the water is to provide the turtle with room and
depth to swim and submerge itself completely, to just be comfortable, to be
able to turn around in the enclosure, and get some exercise. When you’re dealing with an aquatic turtle
setup, we also have to think about the water quality. Aquatic turtles can be very messy eaters. They can
also produce a lot of waste, so it is important to have some sort of system
in place for keeping the water clean. A lot of times if the water looks
clear to you, there still could be bad bacteria or different types of
chemicals building up in the water that could harm your turtle. Most of the
time, people use filter systems. These are the same sort of filtration
systems that you could use with your fish tanks. Again, because turtles are messier, you may
need a more heavy duty type of filter to deal with their waste. Even when you do use a filter, you’re
still going to have to change the water. Partial water changes, at least,
twice a month are recommended. Again, the more water you have in the tank,
the easier it is to keep clean. All aquatic turtles also need an area to come
out on the land. This is
called a basking area. They need to be able to get completely out
of the water, dry out of it, and warm themselves
up under a light source. While
they’re basking and warming up, they should also be exposed to an
ultraviolet light source. The most common ways of providing heat and
light in these aquatic turtle setups would be with
actual bulbs that screw into hoods that either clip on or hang over the
top of the turtle tank. Some people will actually provide a land section
of the tank that contains a substrate, such as bark. This is fine. Just make sure you’re able to keep
things clean. If there’s a lot of moisture building up,
you can actually get some molds and things going on with a
substrate. The other thing is to always look up, when
you’re setting up your aquatic system, the natural environment of the species
that you have. Again, when
we have a turtle as a pet, you need to do your research beforehand and
figure out what that turtle’s natural environment is like and try and
replicate that in your tank. A lot of these turtles need a water heater,
so that the water is maintained between 75 and
80 degrees. The basking
temperature that they prefer is often around 85 to 95 degrees. So, those are some things to think about when
you’re setting up an aquatic turtle tank.

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