General Care Discussion

Hello, I'm new here. I've been studying articles and various forum posts for 3 months. I probably should've figured out what to do, but what I've found is either way over my head or too general to be useful. I should've joined this forum a long time ago, but I thought I was doing ok by myself. Turns out I need advice.

A little backgroung: These four RESs don't belong to me, they are residents of a hallway in local college. The tank is 25 gallons on a good day with a little rock island. Bad lighting and cool air temperature. They are not looked after (except by me and my wife), and I've been given some latitude on doing this and that. After much research, design, and expense I managed to construct a DIY canister filter.

I'm fighting a low pH 6.2. I realize the environment might be the most critical deficit here, but I am unable to control the environment.

Please have a look at the chemistry and what I've added to my canister to try and clean the water. If you have a bent toward chemistry, please comment. If you have experience with overpopulated turtle tanks, please comment. I'm searching for chemistry advice relating to Alkalinity and Hardness, with an eye on organics and inorganics. Please note I am not a chemist.

The list of thing supplements are as follows:
Seachem Neutral Regulator
Seachem Prime
Seachem Matrix Carbon
Seachem Matrix Biological media (pumice stones)
Seachem Purigen
Dr Tim's Waste Away

The filter system uses a Mag Drive pump to get the water up to the top of the canister, gravity takes it from there. I'm using filter floss and then 3-4 inches of mechanical media pads. Then the Carbon and Pumice stone, then the Purigen. I discard the filter floss when I change the water.

There are two air stones in the display tank, one being fed by a large Tetra air pump, the other by a small air pump.

The current chemistry is as follows:
pH 6.2
KH 20
GH 150
CL 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20mg/l
Ammonia <0.01

I started using Seachem Neutral Regulator to fight the pH, since installing the system the pH has been gradually going down. The first time I checked it, it was pH 6.8, now it is 6.2.

I've been keeping track of the chemistry since late August, and have notice the pH dropping as the Alkalinity has dropped. This is when I added the Seachem Neutral Regulator. The product states that it will keep the pH at 7.0, and it might for a short time, but it doesn't seem to last more than 2 days. The bottle says it should last months. The Neutral Regulator has softened the water a little, and has dropped my GH from 200/250 to currently 150.

I've been doing a 90% water change once a week since late August. There is not a sump, so it's difficult to get all the water out.

I appreciate you taking a look at my long post, and your reply will be studied with great interest.

Thank you,
BPinWV

I don't know water chemistry very well, but it's almost not worth fighting in subpar conditions. A 25 gallon tank is too small under any criteria, and if they can't get a larger tank, then I would look into having someone rehome them. Sorry if that is not the reply you were looking for but kudos for taking an interest in their care.

If you can't get a new tank, you'd really have to be changing the water very often if you want to keep it clean. However, as Steve's said... 4 turtles in 25 gallons, is way over crowed, unless they are like tiny little young turtles... and even then, they will grow. As near as I know, turtles aren't to particular about the chemistry , as long as the water's relatively clean... You can typically look at the water and/or smell it , if it looks dirty, smells dirty, it's dirty and should be changed, preferably before it gets dirty enough to easily see or smell that it's dirty.

I keep 2 turtles in about 80 Gallons of water and by many people's recommendations, I should have a bigger tank. 10 Gallons per inch of shell is the guideline most give.

Thank you both for your comments. I'm trying to get them relocated, but I'm dealing with Biology professors and they know everything. And they think the tank is just fine, so you see what I'm up against. Of course they thought it was fine, when the water hadn't been changed in months. When I first saw these poor turtles the water was so bad, and they were so miserable.

I'm the only one doing water changes, and I'm afraid that when my schedule changes there will be no one to take my place.

It's really very discouraging and sad.

Thanks for commenting though.

Do they use them as teaching materials? Surviving does not equal thriving, it's a shame if bio professors don't see that.

I know this is the illegal thing to do, But steal them and give them to someone who is not ignorant about turtles or invest in the equipment to keep them yourself.

Steve: Someone told me once, 'there's a lot of stupid people in college'. I agree with you, and I never thought of people who consider themselves scientists could be so dumb about a topic so close to thier life's vocation.

Paul: Yes, something like that might be in order.

Good luck fighting the good fight.

The ph problems are probably due to turtle waste, most likely turtle pee. The most cost effective way to fight that would be more water changes. Is there anyway you can rig up an automated water change system?

Hi Devilduck, thank you for the idea. Regrettably the tank is in the hallway and not near a drain or spigot. I'm having to do it the hard way with buckets and a mop.

If there is a garden hose,you could siphon the water

In nature, turtles will live in a variety of conditions which include a variety of PH in the water. We try to replicate their natural environment as best we can and the middle bullseye for freshwater is 7.0. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a pond in nature that was measuring exactly 7.0. Not having wild PH swings is a very good thing and I wouldn't stress about the 6.2 as long as it holds somewhere in that neighborhood. Anywhere 6 -8 PH for freshwater is OK as long as it's stable. Turtles are very tolerant unlike very small tropical fish. Most PH up, down, stabilizer products only work for a day or two until you dump more in. Better to let the PH stabilize naturally.

PH is also related to the alkalinity of the water (KH). A higher number will yield allow for a more stable PH. You said KH = 20. Is that dKH = 20 or KH PPM =20?

What I would do though is stop with the chemicals like the waste away and the prime in favor of more frequent water changes.

Get a 5 gallon bucket and a bucket head shop vac attachment (any major hardware store) for like $20. It's a wet dry vac head that fits a 5G bucket. That will make short work of water removal and put the dirty water right into a bucket. Dump the bucket and fill it with clean cold water to take back to the tank. Not a perfect system but an easy one. A tad bit of prime in the new water bucket will help with chloramine but I wouldn't count on Prime as a main chemical to fix water chemistry in a tank.

Generally speaking the fewer chemicals you use the better and easier maintaining sanity will be. Your turtles will appreciate the chemical free environment too.

Oh Paul. Steel them really. People no matter how educated can be ignorant. Its time to do some teaching about turtle care!! I really hate story's like this. Poor Turts!

VeipaCray, thank you for the information. The KH is 20ppm, sorry about that. I should note that since I've started using the Neutral Regulator (x4 what the labels says), the ammonia problem has dissappeard. My tap water has more ammonia than this turtle tank. Also the Nitrites have all but dissappeared.

I agree with you regarding the water changes, but the problem is that I don't live close enough to do it more than once a week. I wish the situation had better plumbing options, no draing, no sump. I'd like to have a top off system.

I'm going to check out your 'bucket head shop vac attachment' idea, this sounds like it could take a big chunk of work out of the process.

General Care Discussion :: Overpopulated RES tank, need advice on chemistry

Who is online