So here it is up an running, Oskar's new home:














I think it took a little time for Oskar to figure out the basking area but I think he got the hang of it:

And if you haven't noticed, Oskar has five new friends that he didn't eat a few months back:

Finally, after about 6 weeks of buying and planning, it was time to put this thing together. My plan was to start early in  the morning and have it done buy before kickoff of the Super Bowl. In hindsight that was just wishful thinking.

First I had to fill the used 75 gallon tank check the old tank in the foreground and see the size difference:

So I stopped filling the tank so that I could install the filters:

Filters installed and water filled up:

Now to add the turtle topper and lights:

So now I had the tank and the filters set up, now I had to come up with a basking area for Oskar to lay out in to catch some rays. I really didn't want to use the current basking setup because Oskar had effectively broke it and I wanted to try something new. After a little research, I decided to come up with a turtle topper design. A turtle topper is a basking area set up on top of the aquarium with a ramp going down into the tank so that Oskar could just climb out on his own. I saw a lot of designs but nothing that really stood out to me.







 


But craigslist came to the rescue! I found a Glasscages.com turtle tank topper/condo for $125 screen included. It was designed for a 55 gallon but I think it is going to look great on my 75 gallon tank.

Now that I had a new tank I had to come up with some more cash to by another filter. The Tetra was not going to work with what I had planned for Oskar's new home. So I decided to keep the Fluval 206 and then buy a new Fluval 406 canister filter. Every turtle care guide I read said that the filters you have should be rated double the aquarium size. With a Fluval 206 and 406, the combined filters are rated for 140 gallons. Also, I had to do a little maintenance and clean up on the old Fluval 206 which was a little easier said than done.

New Tank

In December, I replied to a craigslist ad for 75 gallon aquarium with stand. Not only did I get the aquarium and stand but I also got a Fluval 206 cannister filter, a Tetra EX30 filter, a Marineland 300w  water heater, an 18" and 24" light fixture and lot of aquarium supplies. What a deal! You can see from this picture that this is way bigger than the 40 gallon breeder that is was previously in.