Planted turtle / community aquarium

[Ckline]

Hello everyone

Heres a quick introduction to my 75 gallon turtle x community aquarium.  
The tank has been up and running for almost 4 years now, its on a custom stand i built myself so it would be extra strong and sturdy, then painted black to match the trim.  Its being filtered by one fluval fx4 canister filter and a wave maker for extra current.  I purchased the basking area for my turtle on amazon and ended up painting it black as well to match.  The background is a 3d textured ‘universal rock’.   Gravel is a mix of carib sea eco complete and medium black sand, and for the lighting, its just one 24” fluval 3.0 planted light.  

I have a lot of fish, so i will brief up the stocking: theres my x1 northern map turtle, he should be 5 this year.  x1 striped peacock eel, x2 pictus catfish, around x8 or x10 yoyo loaches, x7 hillstream loaches, x8 black khuli loaches, x1 moonlight gourami, x3 pearl gourami, x1 dwarf blood gourami, about x10 candy cane tetra, x6 lemon tetra, and x4 remaining bloodfin tetra, x1 albino BN pleco, x1 blue eye lemon BN pleco, x1 rubbernose pleco, x2 whiptail catfish, x1 female betta, and probably x35+ large mix of bronze and paleatus corydora i have bred and raised up, also mystery and maylasian trumpet snails. 
 

The aquascape of plants has changed a few times, it used to be jungle full of vallisneria but now it’s mainly crypts.  I unfortunately recently forgot a water change causing a lot of the background crypts to melt back and look less dense than it was.  But for background crypts theres usteriana, aponogetifolia and some lutea, mid and foreground is a mix wendtiis, pontederiifolia, undulata, mioya and some affinis red.  And one large pothos plant hanging out the top.  
 

The aquarium might be considered overstocked, but there is absolutely no aggression and is worry free.  Its planted dense enough that majority of the fish can hide and make the tank look pretty empty at times.  Everyone told me the turtle would eventually become a problem and that I’d have to separate him but 5 years on and he’s still in the community, probably thinks he’s a fish lol.   
Let me know what yall think, i would love to talk fish and answer some questions

[Sora]

wow thats really cool! welcome to the forum

Where is the turtle?

Edited February 8, 2023 by Sora

[Schuyler]

Welcome! I had to zoom in on that last picture to make sure there was water lol

[John Henry]

Great looking crypts!!!  Glad to have you onboard.

[Ckline]

On 2/8/2023 at 1:17 PM, Sora said:

wow thats really cool! welcome to the forum

Where is the turtle?

Thank you!  Whenever I’m trying to get good tank pics he’s always photo bombing my shots, so i took those when he was napping lol.  😂 heres a few, he’s  bad at staying still

On 2/9/2023 at 11:49 AM, John Henry said:

Great looking crypts!!!  Glad to have you onboard.

Thank you!  Crypts are definitely my favorite 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ckline

[Ninjoma]

I love this community tank. I was considering trying something similar, but decided against it due to fears of the turtle killing fish. I'm glad to see if can work well long term. 

[Theplatymaster]

@Cklinethis is such a cool tank!

how big is the turtle?

[CJhilljack]

Welcome! What a cute turtle. 

[Ckline]

On 2/12/2023 at 6:53 PM, Theplatymaster said:

@Cklinethis is such a cool tank!

how big is the turtle?

Thank you!  His shell length is probably about 4 inches.  Male map turtles are some of the smaller turtles like musk.  But its a gamble, if he turned out to be a she, I probably wouldn’t be able to keep smaller fish because she’d get huge lol.  

[Ckline]

On 2/12/2023 at 6:37 PM, Ninjoma said:

I love this community tank. I was considering trying something similar, but decided against it due to fears of the turtle killing fish. I'm glad to see if can work well long term. 

Definitely a lot of factors and a gamble on the turtle lol.  I had the turtle since it was a small hatchling and immediately kept him with fish to help get them comfortable.  But if he turned out to be a female map turtle then I probably wouldn’t be able to keep smaller fish because she’d get huge lol.  

[JJenna]

Sweet turtle. We have a 6" RES in our 125 tank along with danios, barbs, and shrimp. Squirt is an opportunistic feeder and the fish have learned how to avoid him. We can't have any plants in the tank, because Squirt imagines himself as an interior decorator. Our scape looks more like Tatooine complete with at-ats and death stars which he frequently topples. We think of it as how they would look after being bombed. Welcome to our group!