Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:12 pm Re: water
Kimmi and grandson... welcome. About how big is the turtle? (length of shell)
Do you have a filter on your tank?
A few things could be making your water cloudy.
1. direct sunlight - if the tank is getting natural sunlight it will promote algae growth and will cloud the water.
2. If the turtle is too big for the tank (the rule of thumb is about 1 inch of shell per 10 gallons of water) then the waste the turtle produces cannot be dissipated by the volume of water and it will remain cloudy.
3. If your setup is all new... new aquarium new filter... then the cloudiness is normal. There's a natural cycle called the nitrogen cycle that occurs (you can read all about it on this site). In a nutshell, bacteria form after a period of time and their job is to break down the turtle waste into less toxic elements. As the bacteria are blooming, they will cloud the water. Once the cycle is complete (can take anywhere from a few weeks to a month), the water will return to being clear.
4. Under-filtering or no filter. You need a filter that's rated for 3x the size of your tank. If a filter is rated for a 20 gallon aquarium... that's a rating based on an average bioload produced by fish. Turtles are MUCH more messy than fish. You would need a filter rated for at least a 60 gallon tank to comfortably handle a turtle in a 20 gallon tank.
5. Filling the tank with warm water. Water from your home's water heater will be cloudy. There's lime and calcium in most water heating systems. This cloudiness SHOULD go away but it's best to fill your tank with cold water and heat it with an aquarium heater
If you have a filter on your tank (which you should), you can add a little activated carbon to the filter. That will help clear the water up. Activated carbon is available at any pet store or even the pet section of your local walmart / target etc.
