10 Essential Tips for Creating the Perfect Turtle Habitat at Home
fact checked & review by
Dr. Partho Kumar Shaha
Veterinarian (DVM)
The information is current and up-to-date in accordance with the latest veterinarian research.
As a turtle lover, my worst nightmare is seeing my pet turtle “unhappy” in the tank. It’s very hard to shake off the guilt that I failed to create a safe home for the turtle.
And I know for a fact that I am not the only one.
Most turtle keepers are fascinated by an active and energetic turtle in a pet store. However, due to a lack of knowledge, we often fail to create the same habitat for pet turtles at home.
More than anything, pet turtles require a spacious habitat. It should be a minimum 20-gallon if the turtle is still a baby. Apart from the space, a turtle habitat is incomplete without a basking area, access to sunlight or UV-B light, and clean water.
Even though each turtle has a distinctive behavioral pattern, they have similar requirements regarding “home.”
In this article, I have given 10 tips to recreate a safe space for your pets at home.
Trust me, you don’t need anyone’s help. Just read the complete article. It contains every detail to ensure the tank is as comfy as its natural habitat.
Key Takeaways
- You need to add 10 gallons to the tank for every inch of shell length.
- Turtle tanks need decorations like gravel, sand, plants, rocks, etc.
- Turtles are more curious and messier than fish.
- To create a safe habitat, you need to condition the water after every change.
10 Essential Tips for Creating the Perfect Turtle Habitat at Home
1. Get Your Turtle A Spacious Tank
Turtlesneed a more spacious habitat than fish. Just because you have kept a fish in the 2-gallon tank doesn’t mean that will work for a turtle, too. The general rule of thumb says you have added at least 10 gallons of space for every inch of the turtle’s shell length.
If the turtle is 1 inch, you must put it in a 10-gallon tank. Nothing less than that would be acceptable or appropriate.
The bigger your turtle gets, the larger the tank should be.
That means by the time your turtle reaches 12 inches in length, the tank size should be 120 gallons.
Keep in mind that it’s the minimum space you can provide. It’s better to get a 5-10 gallon bigger tank that can accommodate decorations easily. Getting the right tank (in size) is the first thing an ideal turtle habitat needs. Everything else can be compromised.
However, a spacious habitat doesn’t always have to be a glass tank. You can use an old bathtub as well.
For some people, a 100-gallon glass aquarium becomes a problem, especially if the house doesn’t have a place where you can keep it.
The best habitat for turtles is a real-life pond. It helps if you love turtles and plan to adopt many of them. It’s also more cost-effective compared to getting multiple aquariums.
Each of the tanks can cost you $220 (large size). So, why not get a pond? A pond also helps create an ecosystem closer to the turtle’s natural habitat. Overall, it’s the best place to keep turtles and other aquatic pets (if you have any).
2. Design A Basking Area
Aquatic turtles spend most of their time swimming. But they are still not fish. So, even if they like being underwater, you will find them looking for a place to dry out. It’s called a basking platform.
It’s a dry platform (rock, wood) attached to the water tank. So, whenever the turtles need to adjust their body temperature, they can just jump on it.
Sun basking is an important part of a turtle’s life. That’s how they soak the sunlight and get the very essential vitamin D3.
This particular nutrient helps the turtle’s shell to grow stronger. It can even heal any bone-related disease the turtle might be suffering from. You see, turtles don’t actually enjoy being held. If you ever had a pet turtle, you would know that.
It just makes the identification of diseases or their early signs difficult. That’s why most turtle keepers only take their pets to vet clinics when the health issue is acute.
There are various options on both Amazon and your local pet store. You can even choose the platform’s size and pay accordingly. If you want to make one yourself, that’s fine too. Get a waterproof material, size it up, and let it float on the tank.
You can put soil and grass on the material to make it comfier for the turtle. Do you know some turtles can even eat grass?
Adding small rocks on a basking platform is always a good choice.
3. Provide UV-B Lights
Any aquarium would need lighting. It doesn’t matter whether you are keeping turtles or fish. But if you plan to reuse the same old LED lights for a turtle tank, please stop there. You see, fish only need lighting to see better underwater.
So, the type of light you are providing hardly matters. But turtles depend on the lighting system way more than just to see clearly. They need lights that will produce enough heat as well. Apart from the heating requirement, the light must be able to generate UV rays.
That’s why vets recommend putting turtles under sunlight for a decent amount of time. Besides vitamin D3, sunlight also contains UV rays.
Such radiation penetrates the turtle’s skin better. So they can easily absorb Vitamin D3. This particular nutrient is the key player in absorbing calcium from food.
It doesn’t matter how much calcium supplement you add. If the turtle is deprived of UV light, it will have a weak shell. There’s no way to avoid it.
Ultraviolet rays also keep the turtle’s mood and mating process in check. In short, you can’t avoid a UV-B light.
Most of the UV lights designed for fish tanks only produce UV-A rays (wavelength 320 to 400 nm). Even though UV-A is helpful, turtles in captivity need more than that.
A regular dose of UV-B ray (wavelength 280-320 nm) would be highly beneficial.
For that, you must ask the seller whether the light has UV-A and UV-B settings. Once you get the lights, hang them on the basking area. A normal aquarium light would be fine to light up the rest of the tank.
While being submerged in water, the turtle only needs light to see. It can only use the UV rays after stepping on the basking ramp. So, focus on that particular area only.
4. Attach A Powerful Filter And A Heater
A perfect turtle habitat must be clean. For that, you need a filter attached to the tank’s water. You don’t have to go too fancy on the filters. Regular aquarium filters would work. Just make sure to check the rating.
Suppose you have a 50-gallon tank. Logically, a filter rated for a 50-gallon tank should be sufficient. But it is alright for fish tanks.
Fish are way less messy. But a turtle tank needs more frequent and deeper cleanings.
So, always look for a 2 to 3 times more powerful filter than the actual tank size. For example, if your tank is 50 gallons, I would suggest getting a filter rated for at least 75 to 100 gallons.
If your tank is 75 gallons, look for a filter that can handle a 120-gallon tank easily. The more powerful your filter, the easier your job will be. At the end of the day, you have to manually change water every week or so.
If the filter can keep the water safe for your turtles, delaying your cleaning rituals by a week should be alright. That gives you more time for yourself. Your money won’t go to waste.
A heater is not essential. But I believe it’s good to have. Especially if you are a new turtle owner, you don’t want to let your live turtles in a cold home.
Having a heater saves you the trouble of worrying whether the turtle is actually comfy or not. You see, turtles are quite sensitive about the temperature of their habitat.
It can frustrate them when the water temperature is not within 75 degrees to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. In case the weather in your area is mostly cold, a heater is a good investment.
5. Pay Attention To The Décor
You have arranged a safe nest for your turtle by now. But is it entertaining enough? Yes, turtles can get bored in a glass tank pretty fast.
Expert turtle keepers always adorn their tanks with wood, rocks, sand, non-toxic underwater plants, etc.
This ensures the turtle has something to hide behind, move around, and investigate. It’s their sheer nature. And, I think when you adopt any reptile, you must respect their individualities and behavioral patterns.
The decoration doesn’t have to be expensive. You can handpick the pebbles used in the tank. If you come across a useless log of wood, you can just cut it short and use it as a decoration.
The key is to not bring anything harmful or sharp. Because the turtles are definitely curious creatures. You don’t want them to get hurt.
6. Use A Timer To Control The Lighting & Heating Equipment
The problem with lights and heaters is that they need to be controlled. Some turtles are nocturnal, while some are diurnal. Depending on the species you own, you have to control the tank’s lighting.
Otherwise, it can hamper the turtle’s sleeping cycle and make them grumpy. The same goes for heaters.
What you can do is attach a timer to the turtle’s habitat. It is going to monitor the tank for you. Say, for example, the light has been on for 12 hours.
You don’t have to come out of bed to turn it off. The timer will automatically turn off the light.
Or, if the weather gets chilled after a certain hour (causing the water to be cold), the timer will automatically turn on the heater. You can set it manually however you see fit. The timer will save you from traveling all the way to the tank.
The best part is, even if you are away from the house for long, you don’t have to worry. The turtle will get sufficient light and heat as usual.
7. Feed The Turtle Separately
Turtles are not difficult pets. Whoever tells you otherwise doesn’t have the right care guide. It’s known that turtles create a mess every time they eat. It can be a huge pain to clean up the tank every day.
However, you don’t have to go through this pain. You can just use a separate feeding tub.
Yes, a plastic tub or bucket is sufficient. The new tub doesn’t have to have exquisite decorations, either. It’s only a temporary shelter for your turtles. Fill it up with water and place your turtle in it.
Once it finishes eating, transfer it to its original tank. How clever is that? The tank is just as it was before.
8. Change The Water Regularly
Any habitat for pets, be it a cage or aquarium, has to be cleaned regularly. A clean home is safe and free of germs. You can fight the majority of turtle health issues by providing a basking area and cleaning the water regularly. Turtle skin is quite sensitive to the bacteria carried by dirty water.
Change 30% to 50% water every week. And, once every 3 weeks, change the whole water.
That’s a good rule of thumb to follow. Turtles have a tendency to eat very carelessly. If you have clipped some veggies on top of the tank to keep the turtle entertained, be prepared to find vegetable pieces everywhere.
The problem is not the mess. These raw foods can convert into harmful nitrates once they are rotten. It will quickly pollute the whole tank.
Considering turtles spend so much time underwater, they can get severely sick. To avoid that, you have to keep the water safe and free from rotten food particles.
I highly recommend getting those siphon pipes. It makes picking up chunks of food waste very easy. It sounds painful to see dirt in the water if you have just cleaned it up.
But you can’t just let your turtle swim in such water till the next cleaning session. Siphon pipes come in really handy in such cases.
9. Condition The Water After Every Clean-up
Everyone says to change the tank water frequently. But do you know turtles feel uncomfortable in tap water? Yet most turtle keepers limit the water-change session to filling the tank with tap water.
That’s why pet turtles suffer from skin rashes so often. The correct way is to condition the water every time you change the water.
These conditioners get rid of the chlorine, nitrate, and ammonia from the tap water. It starts to resemble the freshwater your turtles remember as their natural habitat.
There’s no specific brand. Just get one from a turtle store. If you have a sea turtle, they will be more comfortable in salt water.
You should place rock salt inside the tank to keep the water a bit salty. You see, there’s so much to do to create the perfect habitat for turtles. But it is all going to be worth it.
10. Attach An Automatic Feeder For Emergencies
The automatic feeder does what the timer did for lights and heaters. It is a dispensable food jar.
Except, you can set a time in this machine. When the hour hits, the feeder will drop a certain portion of food into the tank.
For that, you have to attach it to the tank’s edge securely. I believe it’s an excellent way to avoid keeping your turtle hungry for a long time.
Even if you are away, you can maintain your pet’s feeding schedule without any hassle. There’s no need to call in a babysitter.
Many people assume that it’s okay to leave your turtles hungry for a few days. After all, they survive without food in nature, right? But that’s wrong on so many levels.
Turtles that are born in the wild can adapt to a lack of food easily. Their bodies feel the change in weather. It automatically slows down their metabolism.
But that doesn’t happen with a pet turtle living in a perfectly heated tank. Their bodies expect food like every day. So, it’s heartless to keep them starving.
Before You Go!
All you have to do is get the perfect turtle. And you are good to go! But choosing the wrong turtle can make all your efforts go in vain.
At least I don’t want you to get stuck with a turtle that’s too dangerous, too unsocial, or too difficult to handle.
Please take some time and read this article on top 7 turtles for beginners.
About Author
Muntaseer Rahman started keeping pet turtles back in 2013. He also owns the largest Turtle & Tortoise Facebook community in Bangladesh. These days he is mostly active on Facebook.