enhanzed,
The water level is okay provided you can move the tank to some place where the glass on the left side, which the basking platform is attached to, is right up beside a wall so the turtle can't climb out. The problem with lowering water level is that your filter will be making quite a splash and can get quite noisy unless you can find a way to attach something to the outflow, like say a pipe, to shorten the distance and reduce splash.
Change the bulb or increase the distance from the bulb to the platform. New bulbs is most intense in the first 3 weeks than will gradually lower in intensity. You can adjust the distance as time pass but right now 50w can cook your turtle if he can't escape. The main thing for lighting is to make sure your turtle gets UVA and UVB rays. Especially UVB, since they need it to synthesize Vitamin D3 which in turns helps to absorb calcium better. For Singapore's relatively warm weather, the basking light is optional but the UVB lights is a must if you are keeping your turtle indoors and it can't get any sunlight. The result of not getting enough UVB would be shell deformities like pyramiding or uneven shell growth. Pyramiding is one of the saddest thing to happen to a turtle and irreversible.
I recommend that you get another lamp and install a UVB bulb like Zoomed or a fluorescent UVB bulb from Arcadia. Alternatively, you can place your turtle out in the sun for a couple of hours daily but make sure you provide shade and cover so no birds can snatch it away.
You should get another turtle as soon as possible if you wish to have more since it is less likely for them to attack each other at the juvenile stage than at adult stage. Once it reach adulthood in a year or 2 (captive turtles mature faster due to high protein diet), it may not tolerate another turtle. Female RES is typically bigger than males so you can consider getting 2 males instead of 2 females. No point in breeding them since it takes a lot of resources to incubate the eggs and also I think it is pretty rare to have captive turtles breed.
Have you tried poking at the ulcer? It could be skin that it is trying shed off but got stuck. Try gently peeling it with a tweezer to see if it comes off. One way to get your turtle to extend its neck is to flip it over and wrap it in towel to prevent movement. Somehow the towel comforts them and they struggle less. If it can't be removed than maybe you have to go see a vet.
Okay long post... your setup is good and one of the better that I have seen. Most people just put it in a tank with an inch of water which they change only once a week. Sad sight to see. Wonder why they kept thinking the turtle will drown if the water level is too high....as if birds will faint if you let it fly off from the cage into the sky.
Oh yah, one last thing. The diet is mainly carnivorous in the first 2 years and gradually switches to omnivorous and finally herbivorous as it fully matures. Don't just feed pellets all the time. Try other stuff like frozen brine shrimp and blood worms as treats. Once it gets bigger, you can feed gammarus which is dried shrimp as calcium supplements.
Yours Truly, Avan
I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
~ Henry David Thoreau
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