Tammi's Turtle Tank - update 4

Drilled the hole...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I didn't actually "drill" this hole, instead I used a dremel w/ a grinding wheel and a steady flow of water to keep it from shattering. It took a while...

Ordered the turtles today! I should have 'em by noon tomorrow. Watch for pics!

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 3 - The Background

I'm trying to make this environment as realistic looking as possible. Great Stuff expanding insulation foam is great for carving out features and shapes. Once you get the desired shape, you can cover it in Silicone and put sand / rocks / coco fiber, or anything else you wish to, on it. I will be using a combination of rocks and coco fiber.
I started with a piece of fluorescent light diffusion. This is available at any Home Depot or Lowes.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Next, I added the Great Stuff

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

After Letting it cure, I test fitted it.



In front of the background there will have to be a land area w/ a beach or bog so that the turtles can get out to bask. For this I'll be using Pine Boards covered in Silicone and Coco Fiber. I got the Pine Boards idea from Nat Tarbox.

Here is what I came up with...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

The perpendicular pieces of wood will ensure that the substrate doesn't get washed away in the bog area.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Here's the background sanded away to fit the land mass.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I should make a quick note: It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep all of this hidden from T. She is really wondering why I am spending so much time in the basement making crazy grinding noises...
Anyway, next post will be the hole in the tank for the bulkhead.

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 2

Stand update:

The stand has been sanded and primed.
After discussing it with the guys over at Senetsen Products, I am probably going to finish the stand with High-Gloss White Spray Paint that has the "Hammered" texture. Hopefully this will hide any imperfections in my rather-poor sanding job.

Equipment Update:
I picked up a "Statuary Pump" at Lowes last weekend, I'll use this for the wet/dry filter return line. The plan all along has been to use the wet/dry to ensure maximum filtration. The Red Eared Sliders that will be in this tank can be VERY messy! I've also ordered a piece of VooDoo Wood from Herp Supplies, and cork bark background for the land area.

Tank:
I had an old 20 gallon tank that I got from my buddy, Matt. He had started to removed the old silicone seals.

After removing the rest of the silicone, I began replacing it w/ GE Silicone I. From what I've read, this is perfectly safe for fish / turtles / other living things. It is a lot cheaper than buying "Aquarium Silicone"


Silicone takes AT LEAST 24 hours to cure. After waiting 36 hours, I began to fill it:

So far so good...


I left this water in there for about 12 hours. No drips at all. I was pretty impressed w/ myself.

To get water from the tank to the wet/dry filter I'm going to use an overflow pipe. Instead of going the safe way and getting (building) a hang on back overflow, I've decided just to drill the tank. There seem to be a few different ways to do this. In my next post, I'll describe how I did it.