Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: New turtle mom here

[Mistic811]

Hello,

I just got 2 yellow belly sliders from a store in myrtle beach.  The poor things where in a 10 gal tank with like 40 ( maybe more) other little turtles. They are very small about an inch to 1 1/2 in. One of them is missing part of his tail...we call him Stubby. The other little guy is Webber. ( have no clue if they are male or female ... From what I've read wont be able to till they are bigger, right?)  I want to know if I am doing things right.  I got them a 40 gal turtle tank ( has the side cut out) it has about 15-20 gal of water in it.  Reptofilter from terra fauna 90 gal per hour, also have cascade 400 110 gph.  Repti glo 26w 5.0 UVB lamp, turtle dock medium, swamp basking spot 100 w diurnal heat lamp, reptile heater 78 degree setting (not using this because my water is staying between 75-80 with out heater) I'm feeding zoomed hatchling formula about 10 little pellets each once a day.....although I'm pretty sure they would gladly eat the whole jar of I would put it in there. I got some dried shrimp treat for them...I've only gave them this twice since I got them home on July 21.  I have floated romaine lettuce in tank a few times and the do eat it some too.
I know I've made a big mistake right from the start...I put fish tank gravel in the tank. it was in from sat. Evening to tues morning. That morning I saw stubby eat a peice of gravel. I can only hope that they will be ok. I have no idea how much they ate, maybe it was just that peice, I don't know if both did it or just one. I took all the gravel out immediately.  I put a light layer of river rocks down now they are much bigger, just slightly smaller then the turtles bodies. I will post pics. As soon as  can.

Well I think that's all....sorry for the long post but I would love feed back. Do I need to do anything different?

Happy to be here with other turtle people!

Brandy

[steve]

Hi Brandy, welcome to the site. You're right, you will need for them to get bigger before you can sex them. Be wary of most turtle-marketed equipment and medications. The reptifliter, reptiheater and turtle tank are not good values. If possible, return what you can.

You might need to put the UVB light through a burn-in period. Pick up two thermometers - one for the water (this could be a sticky lcd type) and one for the basking area. Make sure the water is about 78F and the basking area is about 10-15F warmer.

Sounds like you're on the right track with everything else, though you will need to look into filter media and diet requirements once they are settled.

[Mistic811]

too late to return them i think....its all set up and going now. Tank will be set up for 2wks on sat. I do have the thermometers. The one for the water is the lcd type it stays 75-80 (the instruction said that if two temps are show then the temp is in the middle) It was getting steady 80 with the heater and i thought that was too high. They don't bask much if at all....but we are not home from 8am -5pm so maybe then they are doing it. The basking temp is 90-92. I am now checking in to diet. I gave them a bit of strawberry today they tore it up lol so cute! I will only do that once a month or so. I am going to get some carrots today and I have been looking for duckweed and some other plants.

Thanks so much for the feed back. I want to do everything i can to make them happy health little turtles.

[herpgirl1408]

Welcome! When you need to upgrade the tank I highly recommend Petco's a-dollar-a gallon aquarium sale (up to 55 gallons, before your turtles get too big, the sale usually is held in the summer)(you could also check craigslist for big, used aquariums)(but you probably knew all of this).

[michaelg]

Hi Brandy, it sounds like you are starting out on the right track.

Hatchling and juvenile aquatic turtles need more protien than veggies. It's good to get them eating veggies, but don't make it a mainstay of their diet right now. They need the protien to grow and grow quickly. Yellow Bellied Sliders usually grow to about 3- 4 inches during their first year. They'll continue rapid growth for another year or so. Once they are about 5 - 6 inches, their diet will change to more veggies as they don't need to grow as quickly any more.

While they are still small, you will probably be okay with the filters you have, but you will need to do water changes often. Once they get a little bigger, like 2 - 3 inches, you will need a better filter that has bio media to break down the turtle waste and keep the water clean and clear. For turtles in an aquarium, Canister filters that can hold a lot of bio media are best.

Our turtles are kept in a pond outside, but the last two hatchlings we had were in an aquarium inside until they got big enough for the pond. We had the same ReptoFilter you have and found that it worked pretty well pulling the waste out of the water. What it does not do is eliminate bacteria such as amonia and nitrates. That's what the bio media does. I had a few mini bio-balls left over from our pond filter and put them behind the filter cartridge of the ReptoFilter. That actually made a pretty decent improvement in water quality. I could go about a month before needing a water change where before I was changing water every 7 to 10 days. With a canister filter, you can go 6 months or more between water changes. These are the bio balls I used: clicky. I got about 6 or 7 to fit between the filter cartridge and the back of the back of the filter.

The river rocks are safer for the turtles, but they do trap waste. Your water will get dirtier quicker with the river rocks. I don't like a bare bottom tank, so I use sand. The turtles like to dig in the sand and the waste just sits on top of it and can be scooped out. Good canister filters with the water intake positioned properly should be able to suck out the waste even in a big tank.

We have an almost 6 inch, 2 year old Yellow Bellied Slider. She is not as social as the 2 Red Eared Sliders we have, but she is a beauty.

-Michaek

[Mistic811]

I will definitely check in to the balls ASAP. Thank you so much for the input. I will keep an eye out on a large tank, I know from what I have read that I will need to upgrade at some point. I'm hoping this tank will be ok for at least a year.
The canister filters are intimidating to me I imagine I will get one at some point but they seem more complicated than what I'm used too. I'm thinking at my next water change I may pull about half of the rocks out to help with trapped waste. Sand is very interesting to me! There again a little intimidated by it because I've never used it in any tank. And from what I read getting it just right with the filter intake can be tricky.
Ultimately I love a challenge and I am sure I will learn at lot in the next year.


Thank you so much again. I want all the advice I can get. I spend hours just looking over the forums and reading websites.

[PridgNYC]

[...]
Our turtles are kept in a pond outside, but the last two hatchlings we had were in an aquarium inside until they got big enough for the pond. We had the same ReptoFilter you have and found that it worked pretty well pulling the waste out of the water. What it does not do is eliminate bacteria such as amonia and nitrates. That's what the bio media does. I had a few mini bio-balls left over from our pond filter and put them behind the filter cartridge of the ReptoFilter. That actually made a pretty decent improvement in water quality. I could go about a month before needing a water change where before I was changing water every 7 to 10 days. With a canister filter, you can go 6 months or more between water changes. These are the bio balls I used: clicky. I got about 6 or 7 to fit between the filter cartridge and the back of the back of the filter.

The river rocks are safer for the turtles, but they do trap waste. Your water will get dirtier quicker with the river rocks. I don't like a bare bottom tank, so I use sand. The turtles like to dig in the sand and the waste just sits on top of it and can be scooped out. Good canister filters with the water intake positioned properly should be able to suck out the waste even in a big tank.

We have an almost 6 inch, 2 year old Yellow Bellied Slider. She is not as social as the 2 Red Eared Sliders we have, but she is a beauty.

-Michaek

Just a slight correction, Ammonia and Nitrates are not bacteria. Ammonia is the first of the dangerous waste products that are produced due to decomposition of waste and defecation by the turtle. Bacteria (the beneficial type) break this down into Nitrites (notice I said Nitrites and not Nitrates). Nitrites are also dangerous and are broken down by another strain of beneficial bacteria into Nitrates. Nitrates are not dangerous per se, and cannot be broken down by most of the strains of beneficial bacteria you can successfully colonize a basic freshwater tank with. Bacteria colonize all surfaces within the tank, preferably you want most of them in the filter. Bio-balls are not the best media to provide colony sites for these bacteria as the surface area is too low for the amount of waste that a turtle generates. Ceramic rings work much better.

An additional note on Nitrates (with an 'a'). As I said before they are not necessarily dangerous to the turtle, but they provide a primary source of food for plants and algae, so unless you manage to successfully grow plants in your turtle tank, eventually algae will take advantage of this food source. Most people control Nitrates with periodic partial water changes.

[Mistic811]

I got a bunch of bio balls, guess we will see how that goes for a bit. I do not have a water tester right now. I had strips but used them up recently. I know the strips are not as accurate, any suggestions on what water test kit I should get? (preferably one that's not crazy expensive)

[michaelg]

The API Freshwater Master Test kit is a good kit. Not sure if you consider $20 crazy expensive, however it is a much better value than the strips and is more accurate (assuming you aren't color blind). The strips are actually far more expensive since you only get a few for like $10. The API kit uses drops and will allow you to test many samples before running out of the drops (aka reagents).

-Michael

[Mistic811]

The API Freshwater Master Test kit is a good kit. Not sure if you consider $20 crazy expensive, however it is a much better value than the strips and is more accurate (assuming you aren't color blind). The strips are actually far more expensive since you only get a few for like $10. The API kit uses drops and will allow you to test many samples before running out of the drops (aka reagents).

-Michael

That's great I will check it out.

[Hammerstix]

I have river rock substrate in my aquarium/turtle tank along w/an underwater gravel system. I am also a new owner of a canister filter & was extremely intimidated by them but now regret not getting it sooner. There is so much less maintenance & lets face it...turtles are dirty.

I do not own a test kit but have been a turtle owner for 4 years. Turtles have been around since the dinasaurs...they are resiliant creatures. Mine has been habitating w/cichlids since he was a quarter in size. Everyone gets along w/each other.