Having trouble regulating temperature in turtle tank

[xoparis]

My musk is spending ALL his time on the basking platform, and I'm assuming its due to the water not being warm enough, but it just WONT get up into the 80's! My thermometer says that its around 76 and its been sitting at 76 since last night even AFTER I added a second heater.

Whats a good heater recommendation as far as wattage goes for a 20g long? Will he start being more active once he's more comfortable in the habitat? Also, is my filter adequate enough for the time being? Its a Tetra brand filter meant for 15-30 gallons.

note, that I do not have a hood on the tank.

Here's a crappy cellphone non-full tank shot of the current(and pretty barren) set up. The water looks foggy but its jut my phone.:

http://i49.tinypic.com/lwl86.jpg

[Vicious_Fish]

Baby musks are more likely to bask then adults. But they will also do this more frequently if the water isn't warm enough. I use Visi-Therm Steath Pro Heaters in all my tanks including my turtle stock tank. I think it would be fine to go with a 50 or 75 watt heater.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/8162/product.web

Your filter is fine for now. When it gets bigger you might want to go with an external canister filter.

[xoparis]

Oh, okay. I was worried that perhaps the amount of time he spends basking was a bad thing. His basking DOES come in handy when I'm feeding him though. So far, he's only taking pellets by hand, about one or two a day.

And I finally got the water temperature to about 80 degrees.