General Care Discussion :: New to the forum and looking for some general info...

[tbirdman]

So I got my wife one of those "beginner" turtle tank setups they sell at Petco for Christmas. We had to get a smaller than legal baby red eared slider (he, or she, was only about 2" long when we got him) from a local pet store as the Petco had sold out of them. We've had him in the 20 gallon tank now for the last 8 months and he seems to be doing very well. He's grown to almost 5 inches long. We clean out the tank about once every 2 weeks and change the filter inserts. About once a week I change out about 20% - 30% of the water and I treat the new water before it goes in. We have a heater which keeps the water at about 78 degrees. We initially had gravel in the bottom of the tank, but took that out as it was a pain to keep clean and he seemed to want to eat the smaller gravel. So now it's just the filter unit (which is the one that looks like a decorative rock), his turtle dock and the heater.

It looks as though we will have to get him a larger sized tank, as he has pretty much outgrown the 20 gallon tank. I'm thinking of going with a 40 gallon tank and an external canister filter. I would like to get him a 55 gallon tank, which I know one day he will need, but space considerations at this time dictate a 40 gallon tank. I've done some research on canister filters. At first I was looking at the ZooMed 511 filter, since that is the one that is included with another one of those turtle tank kits they sell. But after reading quite a few reviews, I think I have settled on the Fluval 406 canister filter. When we are able to upgrade to a 55 gallon tank, we should be able to continue to use the Fluval. I also looked at the Rena XP3 filter, but saw some reviews which said that filter is prone to leaking, which we can't have. Any recommendations on possibly a different filter, or any help in setting up the larger tank?

I'm sure there are things we are doing wrong taking care of the little guy, so I'm glad that we found this forum to hep out with any questions we have.

Thanks!

[steve]

At 5", he's grown a little too fast so reevaluate his diet/protein/pellets. At that size, you will know his actual gender... if female, you will be needing a final tank about 90-120 gallons, male about 55-90 gallons. So I'd just jump to 55 gallon right away and avoid an intermediate upgrade. There are a few choices for filters... The 406 is good. I'd avoid the newer XP3s as well but any aquarium/filter might leak. You will need to take precautions when dealing with it. Eheim makes great filters as well and AquaTraders sell generic but good filters.

[tbirdman]

We fed him the hatchling food that came with the kit at first. We pretty much followed the "no more then they can eat in 5 minutes" rule once a day. We also gave him some shrimp snacks that came with the kit. These we gave him 3-4 times a week. When we were out of the hatchling food, we moved up to the Tetra floating food sticks (the smaller ones). Again following the no more than he can eat in 5 minutes rule. We've since moved up to the larger floating food sticks, about 1/2 teaspoon once a day. We also purchased some of the "Reptile Munchies" shrimp snacks. I asked my wife how much she has been giving him the snacks. She said once a day. I told her to back off that a little, about 3 times a week.

I had contacted a website that I found that advertised they would do custom sized tanks, glasscages.com. I was looking for a tank about 40" W X 20" D X 20" H. The answered back that they could do that and also gave me some alternative stock tank sizes that were close. The tanks ranged from about 50 - 70 gallons. Then I started reading some negative reviews about the quality of their tanks, so we're back to looking for a stock size that we can use. We're going to a local place today that advertises aquariums.

I went out and got the Fluval 406. It seems to be a pretty decent filter with good connections that should last quite a while, pretty much up to 100 gallons. We'll get that hooked up when we get the new tank.

[steve]

The "5 minutes" thing is less of a rule and more just bad instructions. The tank size you described is 70 gallons, and a custom tank of any size will be expensive. Pet Supplies Plus has a sale right now (55 gallon for $55) so that might be something you can do sooner than later. Glasscages has mixed reviews but is more or less considered OK and legit.

[tbirdman]

My wife and I went out today to look at aquariums. We were looking to see if there was something larger than 40 gallon that would still be able to fit in an existing stand that we have, which is 42" W X 21" D. It's not really made for aquariums but is much beefier than any aquarium stand I've seen and my wife likes it and doesn't want to get rid of it just yet. The biggest that we found was the standard 40 gallon breeder tank. We did see, however, that Aqueon makes a 50 gallon tank that will fit within the dimensions of the stand we have. It isn't a size that anyone stocks, but I found a local pet store that said they would order it and sell it for $185.

I was looking at the Pet Supplies Plus flyer that you mentioned. That does look like a good deal. The only problem would be that getting a 55 gallon tank would necessitate a new stand also, which would probably negate the savings on the aquarium. Not sure if the extra 5 gallons is worth it. I do know that at some point in the next year or so we will probably go ahead and do the permanent set up, but the 50 gallon tank and the existing stand set up should hold us for a while and give us some experience with taking care of a larger setup. We might still drive up there tomorrow (it's about 35 minutes from our house) to take a look.

I've also been doing some research on what setup we will need for the Fluval. I saw a filter media thread on the site here that was pretty good. There are also other suggestions on other sites for the same filter for turtles.

[steve]

If thats the case, I'd get a 40 gallon breeder (also at PSP) and continue to use the current stand. What's it made of? Please make sure that it can handle the weight, I've seen a lot of people put their aquariums on cheap flat pack furniture. A 40 gallon tank filled to the top will weigh over 350 pounds.

[tbirdman]

So we went out and got the 40 gallon breeder tank from Pet Supplies Plus (again, thanks for the heads up). We're going to set it up tonight. I'm going to follow the setup in the filter media thread on the site here for the filter. We'll go with half carbon on the bottom tray, followed by the bio media in the rest of the bottom tray and the three remaining trays. I will post an update in a day or two to let you know how it's going.

The "stand" we are using is actually a rolling island cart. It's not one of those ready to assemble jobbies that you get at Ikea. It actually came put together when we got it. It has four stout legs at each corner with a caster at the bottom of each leg. The table part is 3/4" solid wood. We're going to take the casters off to give the stand more stability. I don't think it will have any problem supporting 350 pounds.