Hi folks hope all is well there 🙂
So this is more like a semi vivarium ha, this is the second home of my 2 Musk turtles and their friends 6 Endlers (Firetail), 30+ Blue velvet and 3 Amano shrimps - and also newest friends Endler/Guppies we just added less than 2 weeks ago.
Due to the unique needs for aquatic turtles (the adequate basking+UVB lights setup), and several limitations that come with it (usually it is recommended to have bare bottom tank as the turtles are interior architects who often disagree to whatever you built for them lol) - the whole thing took me quite some time to plan/organize for the final setup (~2.5 months time from start to finish).
The idea is more or less a 'nice' vivarium - an upgrade from the previously bare bottom tank (I could only use pot and free floating plants), an attempt to have more plants/more environmental enrichment for the animals for the next 6-10 months - until my next project of a raised garden pond can be finalized ha.
Summary/specs of the tank are outlined below with some related side stories, and then I have a progression/timeline table with photos; and then a personal remark at the end.
(Photo on 2Feb2023)
Tank Name My Turtle Vivarium (New 98L) started 7/1/2023
L*W*H 80*35*35cm
Filter Oase BioMaster Thermo 250 (at 25C)
Substrates
ADA La Plata Sand
Trixie Yellow Desert Sand
Gravel - Dennerle Baikal 10-30mm
Gravel - Beige 8-16mm
Leca, Clay Pebbles 10-20 mm
Soil
Master Soil Powder 2.5-3mm
Hardscape (Main)
'Tree' wood (reminds me of Pan's Labyrinth)
Thick slate stones (big x5, small x4; small ones are actually kitchen coasters ha)
Wood log 'home' for turtles (would recommend this resin Nobby Driftwood 25*12*12cm)
Plants list
1 Fern (Pot from Woodies)
2 Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' (Pot)
3 Anubias Gracilis
4 Aponogeton boivinianus
5 Aponogeton madagascariensis
6 Bucephalandra 'Kedagang'
7 Hydrocotyle tripartita
8 Hydrocotyle verticillata
9 Marsilea Crenata
10 Marsilea Hirsuta
11 Microsorum Pteropus 'Trident Large'
12 Saururus cernuus (Lizard's tail)
13 Moss ball x4
14 Leptodictyum riparium moss
15 Taxiphyllum 'Spiky' moss
Animals & Added Date
Turtle-Notty x1 30/7/2022
Turtle-Dotty x1 30/7/2022
Endler (Firetail) x6 11/8/2022
Blue Velvet x5 (now ~30+) 30/8/2022
Amano x3 9/9/2022
Endler/Guppy x5 27/01/2023
*This is my 2nd turtle tank - I transferred everyone from the first turtle tank to this (semi) vivarium (hence the dates), also including plants Buce, Aponogetons and moss balls.
The first tank is more or less like a trial tank for me to learn (60L, barebottom), lasted about 5 months. I actually loved it and I thought I made the best out of it ha...
Lightning
SANSI Grow Light Full Spectrum 15W (27 μmol/s)
Exo Terra 13W UVB 150 Desert
Exo Terra Basking Spot Lamp, 75W
(I have solarmeter and IR thermometer to adjust for the right distance for UVI 1-3/Ferguson zones 2-3 and basking temperature)
Progression/Timelines with photos:
Personal remark:
The story actually started when I was very young and I had 2 red ear sliders - they ran away via the river at the back of my grandparent's home when I was doing water change lol. Grandfather was the only person in my families into the aquarist hobby - his influence has always been there I guess ha. And there you go randomly last summer I was half jokingly saying I should get back into the hobby to have turtle pet - here I am now with multi tank syndrome lol.
So much joy Dotty/Notty brought to us that we really treasure the time we spent with them - so much memorable moments ha (thousands of photos lol).
I think the hobby is incredible as I learnt so much from the past months and I enjoy learning so much (my career is in science as well so there ya go ha) - especially when I stumbled across Aquascaping - I was truly amazed (check out my other Journal ha). I wish my grandfather is still here to see what people are doing to their tanks nowadays aha.
So ya the above summarized everything I could of think of about the tank (to date) - any new updates/fun facts/add-on I will make new posts. Of course, any comment/opinion/suggestion for improvement are welcome 😀.
Hope the folks enjoy reading this journal as I really had fun putting all these together (and thanks missus for the photos) 🙂.
So this is more like a semi vivarium ha, this is the second home of my 2 Musk turtles and their friends 6 Endlers (Firetail), 30+ Blue velvet and 3 Amano shrimps - and also newest friends Endler/Guppies we just added less than 2 weeks ago.
Due to the unique needs for aquatic turtles (the adequate basking+UVB lights setup), and several limitations that come with it (usually it is recommended to have bare bottom tank as the turtles are interior architects who often disagree to whatever you built for them lol) - the whole thing took me quite some time to plan/organize for the final setup (~2.5 months time from start to finish).
The idea is more or less a 'nice' vivarium - an upgrade from the previously bare bottom tank (I could only use pot and free floating plants), an attempt to have more plants/more environmental enrichment for the animals for the next 6-10 months - until my next project of a raised garden pond can be finalized ha.
Summary/specs of the tank are outlined below with some related side stories, and then I have a progression/timeline table with photos; and then a personal remark at the end.
(Photo on 2Feb2023)
Tank Name My Turtle Vivarium (New 98L) started 7/1/2023
L*W*H 80*35*35cm
Filter Oase BioMaster Thermo 250 (at 25C)
Substrates
ADA La Plata Sand
Trixie Yellow Desert Sand
Gravel - Dennerle Baikal 10-30mm
Gravel - Beige 8-16mm
Leca, Clay Pebbles 10-20 mm
Soil
Master Soil Powder 2.5-3mm
Hardscape (Main)
'Tree' wood (reminds me of Pan's Labyrinth)
Thick slate stones (big x5, small x4; small ones are actually kitchen coasters ha)
Wood log 'home' for turtles (would recommend this resin Nobby Driftwood 25*12*12cm)
Basically the top right 'Land' base is built on Leca and gravel in 2x filter bags and then top it with aquasoil.
Some beige gravels are scattered around the main scape (i.e. the 'tree' and a couple of thick slate stones) and then topped with Dennerle Baikal (basically small slate stones, I like this product but too much effort to clean them up and each 5kg pack is like 4.5kg after rinsing and I used nearly 2 packs).
Sand base: I first put the cheaper Trixie sand in (~5L) and then topped it with ADA La Plata (~4L). (Yes, I still can't believe I used ADA sand here lol...i think it is worth it)
I love the 'tree' wood very much it was a random good buy (15euro) and I have had it for months before the tank ha.
Some beige gravels are scattered around the main scape (i.e. the 'tree' and a couple of thick slate stones) and then topped with Dennerle Baikal (basically small slate stones, I like this product but too much effort to clean them up and each 5kg pack is like 4.5kg after rinsing and I used nearly 2 packs).
Sand base: I first put the cheaper Trixie sand in (~5L) and then topped it with ADA La Plata (~4L). (Yes, I still can't believe I used ADA sand here lol...i think it is worth it)
I love the 'tree' wood very much it was a random good buy (15euro) and I have had it for months before the tank ha.
Plants list
1 Fern (Pot from Woodies)
2 Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' (Pot)
3 Anubias Gracilis
4 Aponogeton boivinianus
5 Aponogeton madagascariensis
6 Bucephalandra 'Kedagang'
7 Hydrocotyle tripartita
8 Hydrocotyle verticillata
9 Marsilea Crenata
10 Marsilea Hirsuta
11 Microsorum Pteropus 'Trident Large'
12 Saururus cernuus (Lizard's tail)
13 Moss ball x4
14 Leptodictyum riparium moss
15 Taxiphyllum 'Spiky' moss
Half of the plants actually transferred from previous tank.
Top right 'Land' corner: mainly with Fern, Anubias Gracilis , Hydrocotyles, Lizard's tail and some Marsileas.
The 'Bridge': wrapped with some DOOA Terra Tape (mad priced product lol) attached/tied with moss ball, L.riparium moss, spiky moss and Hydrocotyles.
Free floating Aponogetons;
'Moss balls corner': 4x moss balls at left corner;
2x Java fern 'Trident L' and Buce attached on woods (yes, Buce in a turtle tank!)
There is a designated spot for putting a pot plant there - currently it is an AR 'Mini'.
(Usually I choose red stem plants as I did that for the previous tank - going forward I might put a new pot there every 4-6 months, I don't really throw them away, I just stick/propagate the stems somewhere else)
Top right 'Land' corner: mainly with Fern, Anubias Gracilis , Hydrocotyles, Lizard's tail and some Marsileas.
The 'Bridge': wrapped with some DOOA Terra Tape (mad priced product lol) attached/tied with moss ball, L.riparium moss, spiky moss and Hydrocotyles.
Free floating Aponogetons;
'Moss balls corner': 4x moss balls at left corner;
2x Java fern 'Trident L' and Buce attached on woods (yes, Buce in a turtle tank!)
There is a designated spot for putting a pot plant there - currently it is an AR 'Mini'.
(Usually I choose red stem plants as I did that for the previous tank - going forward I might put a new pot there every 4-6 months, I don't really throw them away, I just stick/propagate the stems somewhere else)
Animals & Added Date
Turtle-Notty x1 30/7/2022
Turtle-Dotty x1 30/7/2022
Endler (Firetail) x6 11/8/2022
Blue Velvet x5 (now ~30+) 30/8/2022
Amano x3 9/9/2022
Endler/Guppy x5 27/01/2023
*This is my 2nd turtle tank - I transferred everyone from the first turtle tank to this (semi) vivarium (hence the dates), also including plants Buce, Aponogetons and moss balls.
The first tank is more or less like a trial tank for me to learn (60L, barebottom), lasted about 5 months. I actually loved it and I thought I made the best out of it ha...
Notty and Dotty (both common Musk turtles are just about 7 months old - we got them when they were 2weeks-1 month old last July) -
I purposely chose one which is rather active (was flying around the tank at the shop), his/her name is Notty 🙂, and another one which was quietly basking at the shop and had a 'dot' wound on his/her head hence the name 'Dotty' 😀.
Looking back probably it was not a good idea to pick Dotty as the 'dot' was likely a wound (we could still see it if we tried hard ha) and quietly basking there was not a good sign at all ha - but oh we love both so much - they really have very different personalities and habits/preferences aha. The joy they brought to me and missus is tremendous from interacting with them, feeding them and watching them - they were a little frail 0.5 inch babies and then now grown to around 2 inches (grow up to 3-4 inches in the next 2 years supposedly).
Yes I am fully aware of the risk of co-habituating multiple turtles - we are highly cautious on any aggressive behavior and watching them closely, luckily all is good so far (understandably also aggression can happen anytime no matter how long they are together). Whenever we feed we try to separate them (just lure one to go away from another ha), we literally feed 1 food stick at a time and always make sure they had equal portion - initially we see a bit of aggression when we were feeding (Notty is rather aggressive when it comes to food lol) but nowadays they actually 'learnt' that they will get their turns so there is no need to be aggressive (no more splashing the water or try to bite each other or run to the food). We will keep observing (especially around 1year mark when their sexes developed - 2 males are likely needed to be separated supposedly) and I am ready to separate them if needed. The idea is that I hope that they are male+female and they could potentially breed down the line - for a 30-50 years life span, we understand that it is a long journey to take care of them, I thought that I don't mind to try out as a breeder if given opportunity was right ha.
I want to believe that the environmental enrichment is critical - their first tank was actually rather colourful with green and red plants, hiding spots/break of sight structures etc lots of distraction for the animals ha - if the environment is 'boring' could we blame the turtles to be aggressive to each other or fed up of the place lol. We feed all kind of food sticks, dried food/worms, pellet food from Hikari, Reptomin, JBL, Sera, King British etc: 1 portion per day (around the size of their head) for the first 6 months (split into 2/3 times a day), and now that they are juvenile so we just started to feed them every other day - their shells are beautiful as far as we concern aha.
The Firetail Endlers and shrimps have been living with Notty and Dotty for about 7 months now. Blue velvet shrimps was an experiment - works out quite well and they had their first generation of babies now aha (considered slow vs my other red cherry tank). We chose the Endlers as we thought they are cool and they are fast (it was actually missus's idea), so far we lost none of them and we have never seen Dotty/Notty tried to chase/eat them. As for the latest addition the Endler/Guppy mix (they are slightly bigger than the pure Endler but smaller than the standard guppies we saw at the shop - we are guessing that they are mix breed), beautiful addition but we actually bought 6 - Notty had an expensive salmon steak after I added them into the tank for less than 30minutes 🙁. It was rather interesting (sad of course) that as if Notty knew which one was the weakest link and he quickly took a bite at that one's tail and succeeded - the injured one was probably confused but very well alive at that point - and then it went back to the same spot where Notty at and Notty nommed it down...We had to feed Notty more food the next day to that balance out...
It is actually really interesting to see the Endlers and Endlers/Guppies often swim really close to Dotty/Notty as if they are friends (and the Firetails have been doing it for so long now) - same as the shrimps. I want to believe that they get on well especially since they were young babies and they are used to their 'friends' now. I am aware that as the turtles grow (the apex predators in their environment lol) bigger, the more danger the fishes are exposed to - we will see ha. (And ya likely the fishes won't be moving to the next tank/pond together) We have not seen much of attempts of the turtles on the fishes - especially it looks like Dotty just never sees them as food (Dotty is the one who actually bites the young green/leaves from plants). Again, I would like to think the overall environment/enrichment plays a critical role to the animals behavior/living together aha...
I purposely chose one which is rather active (was flying around the tank at the shop), his/her name is Notty 🙂, and another one which was quietly basking at the shop and had a 'dot' wound on his/her head hence the name 'Dotty' 😀.
Looking back probably it was not a good idea to pick Dotty as the 'dot' was likely a wound (we could still see it if we tried hard ha) and quietly basking there was not a good sign at all ha - but oh we love both so much - they really have very different personalities and habits/preferences aha. The joy they brought to me and missus is tremendous from interacting with them, feeding them and watching them - they were a little frail 0.5 inch babies and then now grown to around 2 inches (grow up to 3-4 inches in the next 2 years supposedly).
Yes I am fully aware of the risk of co-habituating multiple turtles - we are highly cautious on any aggressive behavior and watching them closely, luckily all is good so far (understandably also aggression can happen anytime no matter how long they are together). Whenever we feed we try to separate them (just lure one to go away from another ha), we literally feed 1 food stick at a time and always make sure they had equal portion - initially we see a bit of aggression when we were feeding (Notty is rather aggressive when it comes to food lol) but nowadays they actually 'learnt' that they will get their turns so there is no need to be aggressive (no more splashing the water or try to bite each other or run to the food). We will keep observing (especially around 1year mark when their sexes developed - 2 males are likely needed to be separated supposedly) and I am ready to separate them if needed. The idea is that I hope that they are male+female and they could potentially breed down the line - for a 30-50 years life span, we understand that it is a long journey to take care of them, I thought that I don't mind to try out as a breeder if given opportunity was right ha.
I want to believe that the environmental enrichment is critical - their first tank was actually rather colourful with green and red plants, hiding spots/break of sight structures etc lots of distraction for the animals ha - if the environment is 'boring' could we blame the turtles to be aggressive to each other or fed up of the place lol. We feed all kind of food sticks, dried food/worms, pellet food from Hikari, Reptomin, JBL, Sera, King British etc: 1 portion per day (around the size of their head) for the first 6 months (split into 2/3 times a day), and now that they are juvenile so we just started to feed them every other day - their shells are beautiful as far as we concern aha.
The Firetail Endlers and shrimps have been living with Notty and Dotty for about 7 months now. Blue velvet shrimps was an experiment - works out quite well and they had their first generation of babies now aha (considered slow vs my other red cherry tank). We chose the Endlers as we thought they are cool and they are fast (it was actually missus's idea), so far we lost none of them and we have never seen Dotty/Notty tried to chase/eat them. As for the latest addition the Endler/Guppy mix (they are slightly bigger than the pure Endler but smaller than the standard guppies we saw at the shop - we are guessing that they are mix breed), beautiful addition but we actually bought 6 - Notty had an expensive salmon steak after I added them into the tank for less than 30minutes 🙁. It was rather interesting (sad of course) that as if Notty knew which one was the weakest link and he quickly took a bite at that one's tail and succeeded - the injured one was probably confused but very well alive at that point - and then it went back to the same spot where Notty at and Notty nommed it down...We had to feed Notty more food the next day to that balance out...
It is actually really interesting to see the Endlers and Endlers/Guppies often swim really close to Dotty/Notty as if they are friends (and the Firetails have been doing it for so long now) - same as the shrimps. I want to believe that they get on well especially since they were young babies and they are used to their 'friends' now. I am aware that as the turtles grow (the apex predators in their environment lol) bigger, the more danger the fishes are exposed to - we will see ha. (And ya likely the fishes won't be moving to the next tank/pond together) We have not seen much of attempts of the turtles on the fishes - especially it looks like Dotty just never sees them as food (Dotty is the one who actually bites the young green/leaves from plants). Again, I would like to think the overall environment/enrichment plays a critical role to the animals behavior/living together aha...
Lightning
SANSI Grow Light Full Spectrum 15W (27 μmol/s)
Exo Terra 13W UVB 150 Desert
Exo Terra Basking Spot Lamp, 75W
(I have solarmeter and IR thermometer to adjust for the right distance for UVI 1-3/Ferguson zones 2-3 and basking temperature)
Grow light: 2hours: 10:30am-11:30am, 4pm-5pm
Experimental actual plant light here ha - I reduced to 2 hours in total now as some ferns are not doing well and I suspect maybe too much direct light, and I started to try out splitting photo periods since 2 weeks ago for my other tanks (10am-2pm, 4pm-8pm) so let's see how it goes. Understandably siesta lightning shouldn't make much difference but indeed it is nice to be able to look at my tanks after 5pm ha.
Turtle basking and UVB: 10hours during winter time: 10am-8pm
More of less an experimental setup as the basking+UVB are on 10 hours (12hours during summer time) so far the plants on the left side of the tank are doing alright (no algae also), and then prob just nice for the plants on the right side/'land'.
Experimental actual plant light here ha - I reduced to 2 hours in total now as some ferns are not doing well and I suspect maybe too much direct light, and I started to try out splitting photo periods since 2 weeks ago for my other tanks (10am-2pm, 4pm-8pm) so let's see how it goes. Understandably siesta lightning shouldn't make much difference but indeed it is nice to be able to look at my tanks after 5pm ha.
Turtle basking and UVB: 10hours during winter time: 10am-8pm
More of less an experimental setup as the basking+UVB are on 10 hours (12hours during summer time) so far the plants on the left side of the tank are doing alright (no algae also), and then prob just nice for the plants on the right side/'land'.
Progression/Timelines with photos:
| Nov/Dec2022: I started the planning before Nov but I guess the project officially started when I got the new tank mid Nov ha. So the Oase Biomaster 350 has been running near the end of Nov in previous tank (I used 2 trays of bio media (one tray with the original K1 media, another tray with Seachem Matrix, fill the gaps with these Fluval Biomax from my previous tank filter Fluval U2). Many scape materials come from Black Friday sales ha. The challenge was that how to safely move the animals to the new tank with minimal risk - even with the 'pre-cycled' filter (from the bare bottom first tank), I worried that the new tank may not be safe for adding animals for awhile (especially I worried the BB has not been established not enough to deal with the ammonia released by aquasoil in the new tank). I basically started the draft scape 27-28Dec2022 with just the hard scape - while waiting for the filter to get up to speed.   |
| 7Jan2023: The scape is now complete! Well, additional Dennerle Baikal gravels, ADA sand and some plants are on the way.... Just to be safe, I moved only the filter to the new tank and let it run for about 12 days. (I had to take the original media back out in order to run the Fluval U2 in the first tank in the meantime - it was a pain and even more painful when again I needed to put the media back into the Oase filter when I moved the animals over...)     11Jan2023: Small updates here and there...   |
| 19/20Jan2023: Officially the animals are in their new home!    <3 Special shout out to missus who built the 'bridge' with mosses and hydrocolytes (they are from my experimental DOOA shallow tank that didn't work out well ha). |
| Buce time! (They have been with us since mid/late Oct2022)  Some gallery:     Bonus 'Another big yawn' by Dotty  |
| A 12seconds video (How Notty walks) (Dotty is actually in the video too 😛 |
Some Notty and Dotty moments in their old home:       |
Personal remark:
The story actually started when I was very young and I had 2 red ear sliders - they ran away via the river at the back of my grandparent's home when I was doing water change lol. Grandfather was the only person in my families into the aquarist hobby - his influence has always been there I guess ha. And there you go randomly last summer I was half jokingly saying I should get back into the hobby to have turtle pet - here I am now with multi tank syndrome lol.
So much joy Dotty/Notty brought to us that we really treasure the time we spent with them - so much memorable moments ha (thousands of photos lol).
I think the hobby is incredible as I learnt so much from the past months and I enjoy learning so much (my career is in science as well so there ya go ha) - especially when I stumbled across Aquascaping - I was truly amazed (check out my other Journal ha). I wish my grandfather is still here to see what people are doing to their tanks nowadays aha.
So ya the above summarized everything I could of think of about the tank (to date) - any new updates/fun facts/add-on I will make new posts. Of course, any comment/opinion/suggestion for improvement are welcome 😀.
Hope the folks enjoy reading this journal as I really had fun putting all these together (and thanks missus for the photos) 🙂.
). Plants simply....don't like be moved around/touched/stumped constantly by the turtles lol. I have since moved most of Buce to my other tank (seeing that they really don't grow well here). Hydrocotyle tripartita and verticillata actually struggle to grow (I was hoping them to grow around the submerged part of the bridge but damn it has been months still no good result). The rest are doing ok (Java fern etc).
