General Care Discussion :: Water Hardness for Red Eared Slider

[evangemeren]

Hi All ... newbie question ...

I have two, 1-year old RES turtles that I keep in a 75 Gal aquarium. In case it is relevant, each turtle is about 2.5" SCL. My local city tap water is extremely hard and full of minerals, so I am making my own water using an RO/DI unit and then re-mineralizing and buffering it using SeaChem's Equillibrium and a combination of Alkaline Buffer and Acid Buffer to target a given pH. In this manner, I can easily set the water condition (both GH, KH, and pH) to waterer is best for my little buddies. Now I just need to figure out what that is!

I have seen a few articles that suggest that RES's like "moderately hard" water with "slightly high" pH. Being particular about how I care for my little ones, I would ideally like to know what exactly that means.

So, what is the recommended GH for optimal well-being of an RES?

Given that they typically cohabit lakes/ponds with fish, and most freshwater fish and plants prefer water with a GH around 3 meq/l (or 150 mg/l CaCO3, or 9 dH), I am assuming this is approximately the right range for an RES. However, it would be great if anyone could give me a more precise target.

What about KH?

Based on my previous fish-keeping experience, I am assuming that I would want to target a KH of approximately the same as GH (again, around 3 meq/l). However, if there is a better practice I would certainly appreciate the advice..

Finally, I have seen several sites that recommend a pH of between 6 and 8, while other resources suggest a pH in the alkaline range in order to reduce prevalence of bacteria-borne deceases. Can anyone suggest a more specific target?

Again, I am assuming a range of 7 to 7.5 would be sufficient.

Sorry for the ton of questions, but any guidance here would be immensely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[steve]

Welcome to the forum!

They can be in variable water conditions, so I'm not sure what the target measurements should be. From looking over this page, I'd say 9 or 10dH would be fine. If you're going to be close to a pH of 7.5, I'd make sure you have a good bio filter running.

Probably best to wait for VeipaCray to reply to this post

[VeipaCray]

I need to get some kind of doorbell or Dear VC column so I don't have to keep trolling for these posts.

You're on the correct track and I think you've answered all of your own questions. We're trying to replicate nature for our RES to the best of our ability. That being said, RES are very hardy and live in a variety of water compositions. They are much less sensitive than fish and have the ability to climb out of water. Most of us on this forum are using plain ol' tap water filtered through carbon to remove chlorine and chloramine so the GH/KH will vary depending on the the local water municipality for each forum user. The turtles do just fine within a reasonable GH/KH range of what's delivered to a house.

Your KH needs to be just high enough to not have wild PH swings or unstable PH.

Aim for a neutral PH (6-8 range is good) although it will elevate slightly from turtle waste and food in the water. Turtles in nature are going to live where there are tree logs and plants in the water. Aquatic plants will cause the PH to swing ... it will drop a point or so during the day when the sun is out and C02 from the water is being consumed for photosynthesis. Your exact PH doesn't matter for your turtle as long as you keep it in that neutral-ish range and not swinging wildly from acid to base.

7-11dH is a good range for your GH. Again, turtles aren't nearly as sensitive as fish.

[evangemeren]

Thanks very much! This is very helpful!

[VeipaCray]

Yeppers. Welcome to the forum. Please let us know how your water turns out.

Personally I hope you stick around the forum because I could use some help answering water chemistry questions.