Turtles sun bathing

Question
I'm sorry to bother you again, but I have another question. My turtles wouldn't "sun bath" by themselves. We received one from my husband's boss and she never "sun bathed" by herself. His boss would take him out of the water and put her in a safe place with a heating lamp etc... to ensure she didn't "rot". We have tried that and it seems to be working for both of them, but we're wondering why they wouldn't come out of the water. (We have had them for a couple of months now so we are assuming they are use to the environment but we could be wrong.) Could it be the water level?? (We have a 45 gallon tank.) Any thoughts or ideas would be wonderful... all in all, I'm hoping to have a "happy" and healthy turtle and we've tried many things and it's not working... (we have a floating rock, and a real rock for them to go on, but they choose not to unless we put their pellets on it then they will, but not for a long amount of time.)
Thank you in advance for your time, I greatly appreciate it.

Answer
Hi Jewell, it could be that they feel insecure being out in the open air.

Turtle's have very poor eye sight while out of the water. And without anything to hide them they can get scared very easily.

Try some fake plants or some fish tank background to wrap around the tank.

Something to make them feel as if they are no all vulnerable out in the open.

What are your air temperatures? Maybe its too hot or too cold to bask?

Good luck
Yexalen