When I was young, all the pet stores sold baby red eared slider turtles, about the size of a quarter. So we got one.

Let me interject one thing before I go on–turtles are the WORST pet in the world to get a child. Do NOT buy your kid a turtle.

The reason I say this, from experience, is for one reason only: turtles live to be about 50 years old.

We got Turtley when I was in first grade, as you can tell by the name my brother and I gave him. Well now I’m grown, married, and live in another state. My brother has kids older than we were at the time. And guess what? My mom still has Turtley.

He’s now about seven inches long. Aside from his longevity, he’s a great pet.

People don’t believe me when I tell them he follows my mom around like a puppy, so I finally captured it:

I cringe to think of the habitat he had. Back then (before the days of the internet and forums), people kept their turtles on el cheapo plastic bowls with an island in the middle, complete with a fake palm tree.

Later we moved him to a 20 gallon tank, which is where he lived most of his life.

At some point, we were smart enough to get him a basking lamp and submersible filter, which didn’t work all that well. My mom would carry the tank into the bathroom to dump the water and clean it.

But it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I started poking around on a turtle forum and realized he really should have a 70 gallon tank (10 gallons for every inch of shell length).

***By the way, the online forums are a GREAT source of info. My favorite is the Red Ear Slider.com forum.

Going from 20 gallons to 70 was too big a jump for my mom. But I finally talked her into a 40 gallon tank as a Christmas present. I did my research and set her up with a complete system.

Here’s what I got her:

Tank
I got a used 40-gallon tank from Craigslist.

Water Siphon
Since my mom can’t carry a 40-gallon tank into another room for cleaning, I got her one of the expensive water siphon systems. I went back and forth between the two brands: Python and Aqueon. Finally the deciding point was that I needed a 50-foot tube to reach from the kitchen into the bedroom where the tank will be. Amazon only had 25-foot products, so I bought an Aqueon at the local pet store. My mom loves it and it works really well.

Filter
For a filter, I wanted something that would really work to keep the water clean, but would be easy to maintain. I also knew that the waterfall sound would get old after a while, so I wanted something fully submersible.

I ended up getting the Fluval U4 Filter from Amazon.

It works great as long as you follow the advice of one of the reviewers and use your own bag of carbon (the foot piece of a nylon stocking and loose carbon) instead of their carbon filter, which is a joke.

Heater
The tank came with a heater and I bought one of those magnetic thermometers.

Lighting
I did a lot of research and found that just a basking lamp (heat source) is not enough. Turtles should also have UVB light which simulates natural sunlight. I found that one constantly recommended is the Reptisun 5.0 (the tube bulb, not the compact bulb which had a defect in the past causing harm to the turtles).

I got a standard terrarium hood to put it in.

For the basking lamp, I got a basking bulb (sorry, can’t remember the wattage) and Lunkers lamp from the local pet store.

I also got an infrared thermometer so I could check the temperature of the basking area (should be about 90 degrees) and use it to position the light closer or further away.

Basking Area
This was the best part of the whole setup, and the most fun to make. I built my mom an ATBA (above-tank basking area) out of plexiglass. If you’ve read my posts about building my plexiglass shelf liners for my rats, I used the same method to build something that fit right on the top of the tank with walls and a ramp:

The floor is one of those pet carpets. It just sits freely but is held down by the sides of the ATBA. The wallpaper is from PetSmart. They have lots of shrink wrap wallpaper that requires no adhesive at all. Here’s a tip: some are in the fish supplies area but more are where you’d find supplies for reptiles.

Sleeping Area
One more thing was needed. Turtles should be able to sleep with their heads just below the surface of the water. That way they can reach up and breathe during the night. So I built him a sleeping platform with some leftover plexiglass (shown here before I removed the blue protective film):

It’s been about a year since he moved into his new habitat, and he loves it. He uses his basking area all the time. If you want more info on the ATBA, you can view the post I did on the forum: ATBA post.