Habitat - Indoor :: zoo med turtle filter - really for turtles?

[scriabin]

So my rescued RES have been with me for about a week and I'm realizing I need a second/better filter.

I've read you need a filter twice ot three times as powerful as you would for a fish habitat - i.e. 20 gallons of turtle water should have a filter for 40-60 gallons of fish water.

So what about this zoo-med "turtle filter" - it's rated for thirty gallons and it's especially for turtles - does that mean it's really good up to thirty gallons? or is it only good for 10-20 gallons? Anybody have ay good or bad experiences with this filter.

It's in my price range - I rescued these turtles from really bad conditions and they are breaking my bank!!

[Chrisbarnett]

honestly, those filters are crap. they're not worth the money, the flow is too weak, and people seem to have a lot of problems with them.

[drtweak]

which zoo med filter are you talking about??

I first bought the submersable filter. then realized it wasnt enough. So i went and bout the zoomeds 501 filter. for a 10 gallon tank its alright. It does get dirty really fast. I had to clean it out once a week when i had my two turtles.

but i have a 30 gallon now. and i've had it since the 26th of last month to like 2 weeks. ive used the zoomed 501 since then and i havent had to clean it out. its started to show signs that it needs to be cleaned but its a pain. right now i'm not going to worry about it becuase once i get paid on the 15th i'll have money to finish my DIY filter.

[untsmurf]

In general, anything marketed towards turtle keepers isn't powerful enough, filters especially.

[Raphulk]

and in my opinion also overpriced.

just because the label says "turtle _______" its more expensive, in some cases ive seen.

some examples are cuttle bone. "turtle" bone costs 2 dollars more than regular cuttlebone sometimes

and the filter pad i use for the reptofilter (i know it sucks) is only 1.99 for 2 when its for fish but 4.99 for "turtle" pads. its just marketing, because it says turtles it HAS to be more. its sucky but works sometimes

[scriabin]

Well, I've taken this forum's advice on everything else but I think I'm going to try this out - I found it marked down to $26 online and I need more filtration ASAP - the crappy "aquatic turtle kit" filter I'm using now is probably more appropriate for a 10 gallon fishtank. I'm planning to run both filters simultaneously and hope that will be enough for the next 6-12 months. I know one of those fancy $100 filters is what I should be buying but it's not going to benefit my turtles if I can't make rent ...

[MEL]

I've been thru alot of filters and have a 55-gallon tank, but a really large Eheim Prof. II canister filter that's for up to a 158-gallon tank. We had a smaller Eheim canister filter and it quit working after a few months. What I think happened is that my big turtle kicked the intake valve and knocked it out of the water and instead of sucking in water, it sucked in air and burned the motor. The Prof. II has a longer intake valve and it seems a little tougher and my turtle doesn't seem to be able to kick it out of place, thank goodness!! Before we bought the Prof. II, we were going to get a 2nd filter to go with the one that broke. Even though I have a 55-gallon tank, it's only half-full of water and I still needed that big filter. Turtles are dirty little creatures.

Another tip - even though our canister filters takes all these pads & substrate, we use a carbon filter and also take loose activated carbon and put it in some cheesecloth, twist-tie the ends and put that on top of the carbon filter. It adds extra cleaning power and keeps the water from stinking and it also keeps the water crystal clear.

[PcBuilder14]

Yeah, I almost bought one of those turtle setup kits. I'm glad I didn't get it, because only like 2 things in it would have been worth anything.

[Listen97]

i had one of the zoomed filters and imo, it seems even though smaller does a better job than a comparable canister filter. i would suggest it to anyone that needs a small filter for a 30-50g tank.

[imderanged]

I had the Zoomed 501 on a 20 long. It was not easy to use...It's hard to take apart and put back together, and I had to keep pouring water into it over and over to get it to prime. Sometimes it would stop working and I would have to restart it, going through the whole process again.

But that being said, for $26 it *might* be worth for you. If it's a temporary thing, it is better than nothing. when it's working, it does an ok job, and it will run in a half full tank, which is why I bought it. I don't think it would be much use on anything larger than 20 gallons though.

[scriabin]

I have to say ... it's been two weeks with the zoomed in the temporary habitat (two 4" res in a container currently holding about 22 gallons of water) - and because it's such a crowded situation, I've been doing a 25% water change every Sunday (and rinsing the filter media with conditioned water) - and I can't believe it, but my ammonia is almost down to 0 ppm!

...Of course that's in a large part due to 4 weeks of cycling, but even so, the filter is doing it's job

For a short term solution at $26, it was not a bad buy. If fortune smiles upon us and I can get them into the larger tank next week (I'm hoping to put about 40 gallons of water in with them) and hook up my second filter, I might even be ready to add a fish or two...