Zoo Med TL-48 Turtle Dock, Mini

It came without the suction cones!!!!Such a cheap move Zoo Med!It is basically a fraud!Luckily I had some spare ones but THIS SHOULD BE WARNING to other customers.I would return it immediately if it wasn't a good piece of a basking platform that my turtle seems to really like.

The first time I bought a Zoo Med turtle dock, it came with all the parts it claims it does. Which shouldn't be too hard, since it comes with a dock, bracket to mount the dock to the tank, and four suction cups. Six things. Three, really, since the suction cups came together in a bag. Then we got two more turtles and I decided to buy a second dock....and that's when the defendent snapped, your honor.It came without any suction cups. No harm, I thought, I was driving by the same store again the next day and would simply swap it out for one with all the parts. And I did. Even looked inside the box to make sure that there were four suction cups. Thought I was all set. Got it home, opened the box, only to find that the suction cups were so warped that they could not suction. Which is pretty much their only job. Went back to the same store and opened up their remaining two boxes looking for suction cups, found none, so I returned the entire unit and bought one that (for reasons unbeknownst to me but probably involving Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time) contained four functioning suction cups. Yippee.Turns out that one of our turtles finds the dock absolutely delicious. The little jerk has chewed a path almost through the entire width of the dock. Seeing that my reptilian children were about to be without an intact place to sun themselves, I ordered another new dock. It just got here today. Know what was in it? A dock, a bracket, a copious amount of shipping material, and that was it. Somebody at Zoo Med needs to be deprived of their suction cup counting responsibilities. And all other responsibilities. Preferably, I would like to see them jobless, homeless, friendless, and for good measure, hairless.I know what you're thinking, why didn't I just use the suction cups that came with the old dock. Not a bad question. Thing is that those suction cups never were all that great at suctioning either. Remember, just one job. I'd hoped that I just might be able to replace the cups I already had with a fully functioning set.But I can't.Because I don't have them.Because Zoo Med is terrible.

We added this rather large deck (for a small size it is large) to our 18x18 terrarium tank for our hatchling painted turtle. It was instant love for the turtle and for us. Though he is small, (about the size of a half dollar), he immediately climbed on the floating log looking island and began to happily bask. It is nice that the isnland didn't sink from the weight and bobbed nicely in the plastic floating wires that allow for water to fill or evaporate without the dock lifting out of the water. Even though our turtle is small, he is able to swinm under it and bob it about. It is realistic looking and has a styrofoam feel, yet it is solid enough that it will sitchstand chewing and the dangers associate with it. The suction cups stick to the glass pretty well. If this review helped you, please click "YES" below. This is a full price paid review.

I tried this & other brands of floats which rise & fall with water level, & I found this brand has advantages over others:* This uses 4 suction cups (4 attachment points) instead of just 2 suction cups. All suction cups in water eventually become stiff, therefore because of the more attachment points you have the longer it is likely to stay attached on it's own.* This is solid hard foam, instead of hollow plastic. That means this can be trimmed, which I did to this to make it attach to a curved wall of a round tank. Vs hollow platforms of competitors get water in any hole or crack & then they sink, & you cant trim any of those hollow ones.

My Red Eared Slider is also eating the ramp portion of this. My friend needed her turtle rehomed a couple years ago so I took him in since I have experience caring for turtles. I got his tank, basking platform etc. I noticed the platform given to me had about 1/3 of the ramp missing so I figured it was worn and so I replaced it. A little while later I caught my turtle in the act... I watched as he tore a small chunk out of it and eat it... He hasn't stopped doing this and now I know why a large chunk was missing from the original... I don't understand why turtles are so inclined to eat this material as I see this has happened to others as well. I am still looking for a suitable basking platform that can adequately replace this one. As a side note, the suction cups are indeed a waste of effort as they worked for a brief period before never sticking again. I have suction cups for the filters, heater etc and these are the only suction cups that never worked past the first few weeks. I took the whole wire thing out and let the platform float on its own and put the lamp right where it stops moving.

This dock is for a ten gallon tank ( 11' by 5 ') and is made up of foam and plastic with suction cups that stick great to a wet tank surface. As you can see my medium sized male red eared slider chilling out nicely on his dock and basking. This is more a size for smaller turtles but looks great in a larger tank. It's a good enough price that if it breaks later on it won't cost a lot to replace. The prior dock I had was also from zoomed and was great, it's just the larger ones have this clay like surface to the bottom and it erodes leaving the water dirty, not to mention; it can not be good for turtles eyes. So here you have it people a happy turtle and a happy vet tech.