Urgent Care :: Please, Please, is he OK??

[Brianthedog18]

OK, I just got back from vacation. I was gone for a week and I left plenty of veggies and fish for him. I just got back today, and I heard there was a power outage while I was gone, and my filter stopped. When it came back on, my filter tried to restart. It went a whole week trying to restart itself, so I came back, the water was green, and it smelt HORRIBLE.

So I immediately took out the turtle, the snail, and the fish (all were alive, thank god) emptied the tank, and cleaned everything. I just refilled it with clean water and fed the turtle. Everything seems ok, but I'm afraid that he could be sick.

What should I do?? Help!

Also, I need a new filter now because mine is broken

I need to get a new one (more money down the drain) I have a 20 gallon tank and a 5 inch turtle (I know, way too small, but I really don't have room in my dorm or my house back home for anything larger). What kind of filter should I get?

[daredevilgirl013]

A Tetra Whisper Power Filter is what I have for my 20 gallon. So far when the power has gone out it has come back just fine. PLus it provides an automatic bubble wall so you save some money there. The only thing, it has two waterfalls, so you gotta deal with the noise..but I like that noise. But that's what I have and I got it at Walmart for I think 30 dollars. And you can get the filters in a three pack for five and they are already put together (you can put them together yourself and save a few bucks but I figure why waste my time and get mad if it doesn't work right)

[Brianthedog18]

Ok, I could try that kind, plus I might be able to do something about the noise, because I sleep right next to the tank. I'll also look into some type of submersible for the noise issue, we'll see.

What power should I get (I know it's usually like 50 gal power for a 20 gal tank, but should I go higher because my turtle is bigger?)

[steve]

Do you have any idea how long the power outage was? My main concern would be the water temps... 20 gallons is not a lot and could have cooled down over a couple of hours. You haven't mentioned any symptoms which is good, so I would keep the water at a constant 80 and basking at 90-95. Symptoms don't always show up early, so you may want a vet to look him over (maybe an antibiotic or any test you can afford).

I'd also get a good filter, one with bio-media and add some carbon for best possible water quality.

[RESCHIU]

I have a Micro whisper filter and if the water falling bothers you, you can just grab on it and slide down so it's closer to the water level and there will be no noise(if it's on suction cup), when I wake up in the morning, I slide it up again so it makes bubbles in the water. I actually love this kind of filter that has suction cup in the back so you can adjust level inside your tank

[Brianthedog18]

The power was out for about 4 hours, but when it came back on, the heater worked again, so the temp was ok for the most part.

That sounds pretty god reschiu, I'l try to find that kind of filter and give it a try. Do you guys think a submersible filter would be a bad idea?

And no, so far there are no symptoms so for now I'm watching the temps andhoping he'll be ok

[RESCHIU]

hum, I have a submersible one too, which works quite well with filtering out big chunk of substance in the tank, but it couldn't get water clean as much as the falling kind(which has carbon in it), the submersive one usually just have one foam pad(no carbon in it unless you buy it seperately or buy a better kind that have all two together), anyway, wouldn't hurt to have extra filter. By the way, you don't have to buy "Micro whisper", that's the smallest filter from Whisper and I think you probably need a bigger one than that, and I think any other Whisper besides that one would be good(AquaClear is also pretty good from what I heard from other people), make sure you get one that usually works twice as powerful as your current water amount(for example, if you have 10 gallon of water in your tank, get the one that says can filter out 20 gal. per hour) hope that help.

[daredevilgirl013]

My whisper is for a 30-60 gallon tank. That's what it says on the box and it's the biggest wal-mart had.

[marisa]

Brianthedog--my turtles were affected by that power outage as well (a power station in Mansfield broke down). The length of time people were affected depended on the area, and ranged from something like 5 hours to less than an hour. In my case power was off for a little over an hour, and I did experience the downside of the Aquaclears. I was at work, and heard the power went off and came right back on a few minutes later in Coventry. Thinking that Mansfield and Coventry were the only areas affected, I didn't think much about it--until I got home and heard that the power had been off for over an hour. When I went to check on the turtles, the xp3 and the Aquaclear 110 and Aquaclear 70 were functioning. But the Aquaclear 50 had lost it's prime, and the motor was grinding away. I calculated it had been like that for almost 5 hours, if it lost its prime shortly after the outage. I filled it with water and fiddled with it, and it's still working, although perhaps a bit more noisily (my imagination?).

I don't think your turtle will be affected by the temp drop.

The Micro Whisper filter is a power filter or a submersible filter? A submersible filter will not keep the water quality up as well as some other filters, and since Leo is 5(?) inches now and in a 20 gallon tank, a submersible filter is going to take away more swimming space as well.