Habitat - Indoor :: help with a few things.... please help

[Kemul]

Cloudy water is the reason you change the water? Are you changing all the water
in the tank? It could be your tank is cycling, hence the cloudy water. If you keep
changing all the water, it'll keep cycling and keep getting cloudy. Try changing
maximum of 25% daily and see if the cloudiness disappear after a few days.

Getting rid of the gravel is a very good start. If you use sand, you can scoop out
debris. I think the sand, once settled, will settle quickly if disturbed. The sand
doesn't make your water cloudy.

[seanwb]

If you want an easy life, get rid of the gravel. It will trap dirt which then decomposes and can be stirred up by the turtles, making the water cloudy.

Try a completely barebotton tank for a couple of weeks. You may see some debris before the filter gets it, but otherwise all the dirt is in the filter and water remains clear.

[ESG4Life]

a good filter will keep the water clean....... have you read the water quality section of this website?

[pickerbp22]

ok so i have mostly barebottom now with a few big rocks i bought from the pet store. i cleaned the tank out completely and set it up and it looks great! i also read that if i feed the turtles in another tank there will be alot less waste. so i started doing that as well! thank you everyone for all your help hopefully this will work out better!

[tobyandmandi]

I have medium sized river rocks in the bottom of mine and the tank stays clean. As long as you have more then one layer on the bottom, it'll trap the debris until you go to clean it again. I clean mine about every 3 weeks or so. Mines a 55 gallon with a hang on back filter rated for double the size.

[Raphulk]

ok so i have mostly barebottom now with a few big rocks i bought from the pet store. i cleaned the tank out completely and set it up and it looks great! i also read that if i feed the turtles in another tank there will be alot less waste. so i started doing that as well! thank you everyone for all your help hopefully this will work out better!

sounds like you have found a solution to the problem! nice, most of us have the same type of living habitat.

I've gone through the most popular substrates for the bottom of the tank. From gravel (inexperienced haha) to river rocks all over (still trapped loads of poop), to fewer river rocks (looks alright), to sand (I didn't take care of the tank and the sand had algae and it looked ugly after a while) to completely bare bottom (which works fine).

so it all comes down to what you want as the owner, and what you want as the decoration.

[rockyntrixi]

I have read that any filter setup that you decide upon specifically for turtles have to be 3x more efficient than what is rated for fish. So, if you have 30 gallons of water your total filter coverage should be 90 gallons. You can have more than one filter to break up the 'load' on one filter. For example, if you have 2 cascade filters, it would work because both of them together would filter a 100 gallon tank. I suggest that you invest in a good canister filter since they are made for bigger tanks and work better when you don't have alot of water. Big Al's online has some great deals on filters and offer a year warranty where they will replace your filter when you directly send it to them (if it breaks down) instead of having to deal with the filter company.

At some point you will have to make some sort of platform because you will never find one that will work in the long run. I am going to be building one that will go on the top of the tank instead of floating on top of the water. I will build it so that the front will be made of plexiglass and now that my female RES wants to nest I am having to incorporate something for them to 'dig' in. Good Luck!!

[pickerbp22]

yea im getting a 100 gallon tank on thursday. and i just got a magnum 350 canister filter for like free and do u think that with cascada would work well? and yes i plan to build an above tank basking area once i get the new tank. i posted another thread about this but mayb someone will see this here?

[rockyntrixi]

I personally do not like internal filters, they drive me nuts and they take up tank space. I have a huge Eheim canister filter ($400) and two whisper filters ($50 each). If the water gets low, I have trouble getting the whispers to work since it is so crucial to have enough water in the tank with those.

About the basking area, I think that I am going to use one of my old turtle basking platforms (zoomed) to create a ramp. I saw someone take one and somehow attach it to a homemade platform and when the water evaporates the ramp will actually sink some to adjust to the change in water depth. Also, if you think about it, it has a built in "ramp" that will make it easier for the turtle to get up than using something that is solid.

I see that alot of people using that honeycomb type "light diffusers" as their base, but I don't think it would be strong enough. I had a piece of plexiglass that I used for the base of my first homemade platform and it broke. I went to Home Depot and the "plexiglass expert" told me that my best bet (for strength) is to use Lexan. It is in Home Depot/Lowes where the plexiglass is, but it is supposed to be 250 times stronger than glass. I am planning to get 1/4 inch lexan than the 3/32 inch thick plexiglass that I got before. The guy said that plexiglass will break if you drill holes in it. I guess it is just not meant to work like that.

I have seen people suggest to use a door hinge to connect the ramp to the platform. You can flip the hinge over so that it will only go so far back. You can get them so that they won't rust, so it will last a whole lot longer.

I am making the platform larger than the top of the tank to make sure they have enough room, but I don't think you'll have to do that since you'll have a 100 gallon tank.

Good luck!

[pickerbp22]

do u think the combination of those 2 filters would keep it clean tho for the most part?

[rockyntrixi]

Yeah, just try it and if that doesn't seem to do the job, then change it up. It took me awhile to get things to where it was easy to take care of, but you'll get it.

I personally love the big Eheim that I have and I've seen some people who have made their own canister filter (if you are that adventurous).

When you switch to the 100 gallon tank, you are probably going to run into trouble after awhile, so I would plan 'financially' for it, as well as, coming up with ideas to makes things run smoother as time goes on.

Another great addition I have made to my tank setup is goldfish. My turtle will eat some and then keep a few for pets for a bit and they clean up debris better than alot of other methods.

I don't know if you already have one, but I would not be able to live without my python tank cleaner. It is a life saver even though it takes longer to drain due to decreased water pressure compared to a hand cleaner.

Good Luck!

[pickerbp22]

ive heard of it. but i dont have a way of filling up the tank with it cuz i live in the basement

[pickerbp22]

i just use a shop vac dump it ouut a few times. haha

[marisa]

You don't need to have a lot of river rocks, just some to make it more interesting and give your turtle something to push around (and possibly flutter at).

[pickerbp22]

dont have that many just a few so it doesnt look so plain