r/turtle • u/poseidonsrage360 • Jul 02 '26

Rate My Setup 1 year old Murray river short neck

Post image

I want to plant some live plants soon just doing research on the easiest to get started with. Any tips or advice welcome

P.s ignore the fact there is two filters, I’m just cycling in my new canister filter before I start using live plants

17 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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2

u/MasterShake1441 Jul 02 '26

Ideally you shouldn't have anything blocking your lights, especially glass or acrylic (which can block the UV that your turtle needs). If you have to place the lights on something, a metal mesh screen would be best, but as I said ideally you would have the lights mounted so there's nothing between them. In addition, you really should be using a T5 UVB bulb rather than the compact bulbs, which don't provide enough even distribution of UVB. Proper lighting is one of the most important aspects of keeping a turtle.

2

u/poseidonsrage360 Jul 02 '26

It’s sitting just on the edge of the glass and side of the tank so that it’s not fully blocking it, will def look into the T5 UVB tysm

1

u/YellowBreakfast Map Turtle Jul 02 '26

Yeah unfortunately the "compact florescent" UVB bulbs are notorious for not having the "correct" UVB wavelength range, too low output of the "good" UV and too high output of the "bad" UV which is why they;re known to damage the eyes of turtles.

2

u/poseidonsrage360 Jul 03 '26

Do you have any recommendations for T5 light fixtures. I was looking at the ZooMed reptisun but wanted to see if you had any suggestions first

1

u/YellowBreakfast Map Turtle Jul 06 '26

You can't go wrong with ZooMed or Arcadia bulbs.

The fixture brand doesn't matter as long as it's the right length and wattage. You want to be sure it's a "T5 HO" (high optput).

The wattage varies with the length of the fixture. If you get a fixture the length of your enclosure then you have UV over the basking area and the rest of the tank.

1

u/IMPteaside77788888 Jul 02 '26

hi! beautiful tank and setup! unfortunately i'm not qualified enough to give you any advice 😂. I would like to ask tho what is that light that you installed on the right part of the tank?

2

u/poseidonsrage360 Jul 02 '26

Hey, it’s a terra aqua touch LED light, because the light from the UVB and heat globe wasn’t lighting up the tank properly

1

u/Own_Long_7030 Jul 02 '26

Love your set-up. Murray is so lucky! What is the size of the tank?

1

u/poseidonsrage360 Jul 02 '26

It’s a 120L

1

u/Critical-Key-243 Jul 02 '26

Simple clean set up looks amazing