HELLO FRIENDS!
I have quite the manejerie of animals on my hands but I wanted to introduce you all to my turtle who I have had the pleasure of caring for for the past seven years. He is a Pelomedusa Subrufa, or an African Helmeted Turtle (part of the sideneck family).
I love him to pieces and he's of course spoiled rotten (as are all my pets) but he got a serious upgrade from a bunch of rocks to a naturalistic castle!
This was the skeleton, made out of egg crate light diffuser and zip ties. Its easy enough to cut with small floral wire cutters, which i had laying around. Light diffuser is stable and rigid enough to hold up about 25lbs if your zipties are also strong.
This was the foaming stage. Before foaming, I cut out a hole big enough to hold his pre-made cave as p. subrufa are burrowing/digging turtles and love hiding places. I secured everything with zip ties and placed it where I wanted it. I bought waterfall sealant foam made for koi ponds (and thus do not seep harmful chemicals or mold, also does not retain heat) and foamed it up while it was in the tank so the foam would fit right up against the glass for a perfect fit. After I removed it from the tank with a putty knife I attached it to plexiglass with gel gorilla glue (fish safe after it dries) and zip ties so the weight of the rocks and sand would keep it from floating.
This is the finished product! I ripped up the smooth surface with my fingers until it looked rockish, got river and lava rock for accents, a piece of slate for his basking area up top, fake plants i already had, african mopani wood, and seashells! All attached with gel gorilla glue. The right side offshoot was built to house real plants in the future for better filtration. I have dwarf waterlettuce acclimating and soaking up some nutrients as we speak to float on the top of his tank! It was a really fun project!
Here is the monster in a bin while I do a 70% water change (new tank so the system is still foggy)
I have quite the manejerie of animals on my hands but I wanted to introduce you all to my turtle who I have had the pleasure of caring for for the past seven years. He is a Pelomedusa Subrufa, or an African Helmeted Turtle (part of the sideneck family).
I love him to pieces and he's of course spoiled rotten (as are all my pets) but he got a serious upgrade from a bunch of rocks to a naturalistic castle!
This was the skeleton, made out of egg crate light diffuser and zip ties. Its easy enough to cut with small floral wire cutters, which i had laying around. Light diffuser is stable and rigid enough to hold up about 25lbs if your zipties are also strong.
This was the foaming stage. Before foaming, I cut out a hole big enough to hold his pre-made cave as p. subrufa are burrowing/digging turtles and love hiding places. I secured everything with zip ties and placed it where I wanted it. I bought waterfall sealant foam made for koi ponds (and thus do not seep harmful chemicals or mold, also does not retain heat) and foamed it up while it was in the tank so the foam would fit right up against the glass for a perfect fit. After I removed it from the tank with a putty knife I attached it to plexiglass with gel gorilla glue (fish safe after it dries) and zip ties so the weight of the rocks and sand would keep it from floating.
This is the finished product! I ripped up the smooth surface with my fingers until it looked rockish, got river and lava rock for accents, a piece of slate for his basking area up top, fake plants i already had, african mopani wood, and seashells! All attached with gel gorilla glue. The right side offshoot was built to house real plants in the future for better filtration. I have dwarf waterlettuce acclimating and soaking up some nutrients as we speak to float on the top of his tank! It was a really fun project!
Here is the monster in a bin while I do a 70% water change (new tank so the system is still foggy)
