For today's blog, I'll be sharing about my tank set up (don't expect too much please! kaya po ganyan title HAHAHA)
When I finally decided that my pet would be a turtle (as for a friend's recommendation and considering why not when I saw how cute they were) I honestly did not know how will I be taking care of these cute little turtieees. Troubled, I asked my friend how to take care of those and he said it is just easy because they are low maintenance (and it's true!). From then on, from time to time I'm always asking my friend all the things that I will buy for my turtieees and if he said it's ok for the turtle then I would go for it. Honestly, being my first time having those kinds of pets, was a trial and error set up. A combination of information from the internet (thank you thesprucepets) and a friend's guidance (Joshua Gutierrez, a reptile hobbyist).
From scratch,I bought an aquarium having 20 gallons of water capacity (from Joshua's friend for only 500pesos) that I thought would be enough for my turtieees and as for Joshua's recommendation was good for temporary use until they grow (for they need bigger space when they got bigger, a pond preferably ugh!). After I bought the aquarium for them, I planned for the tank's filter first. I honestly had difficulty with finding this because unlike the common top-head filter, turtles have specialized filter for their manures (they are bigger and mabilis silang magdumi). Unfortunately, I couldn't find one in all the aquatic shops I knew. I tried to find online but they are expensive. I decided to use the top-head filter and customized my own as I watched from YouTube how to make own filter and I did one (but not using it as of now because the basking isn't ready yet) so I still ended up using my top-head filter.
For the tank's design, I bought small white stones for the first layer but ended up using rocks as their basking temporarily instead, and got rid of the stones because the dirt just accumulates in between the stones and the filter can't filter properly the dirt. So at the end, the tank ended up having rocks for their basking and the water level enough for them to swim not over the rocks. I considered buying live plants to be planted on the tank but lots of article recommended not to have because they will just be eaten by the turtle (because they are omnivores).
Up until now, my tank set up was simply big rocks just for their basking and im not having a hard time with the regular cleaning unlike the small stones from before.
I want to improve my tank for my turtieees to enjoy and for them to have a life in accordance to their habitat despite in captivity. So help me please! It will be much appreciated! Thank You! God bless :)
