General Care Discussion :: How much of the water do you replace when cleaning?

[MVB]

I know I've asked this before, but I can't remember if I'm doing it right and I wanted to know the consensus.

Every week I clean out my 55 gal. tank. I replace about 20 gallons of water and leave the rest. Should I be replacing more or less than that?

Best,

-MVB

[steve]

No way to really know unless you're doing water tests. The size and diet of the turtle as well as they type of filter matters. Most likely it's fine and you can probably stretch it to every other week.

[Kansasslider]

I do 50% once a week. Carbon filtered water. My tanks are crystal clean. But like Steve said it depends on your water tests. Do you have a test kit?I feed in tank and have fish so I just do 50% just to be sure to keep everything in check. Turtles can actually live in a poison filled lake trust me, I fish one. So as long as you do changes I would guess 25%-50% you should be fine. The truth is there is no right answer! Fish need a more balanced tank than turtles. Fish die easy if everything isn't just perfect. Turtles are more tolerant.
Nitrate should be at 40 ppm or less on a test kit. Hope that helps. Write it down or as I did put it in my phone note pad.