Habitat - Indoor

haha I forgot about cleaning coffee pots. I got one of those Keurig machines a few years ago and completely forgot that I used to have to clean the coffee pot.

I need one of those! Yeah, I buy vinegar in the gallons..I use it to clean everything. I have so many pets and I worry about them around chemicals .. besides... vinegar is pretty hard core stuff! I got the tank on the stand last night. Feeling a little worried about making a basking area above it since its already 5 feet tall (and I am 5'2!!!). I think we are putting in the braces under the house tonight

That's what I was thinking.

The blue thing (last pic) is an airstone. Hook it up with some airline tubing and an air pump if you want some bubbles in your tank.

Will do! Still haven't got the braces under the floor yet but I promise pictures! I have decided no to do the basking area on top..mostly because I am short and it is going to be a huge hassle to feed them if I do it.

Last night I had a nightmare that they swam into the glass and shattered the tank! hahaha

VeipaCray wrote:When you fill your tank.

1. Use cold water. Heated water will have much more of the white crap you're trying to clean as it's built up inside the tank of your water heater. The exception to this is if you have one of those tankless water heaters.

2. Do not add any chemicals to the water. No water conditioner. No de-chlorinator... nothing.

Set your filters up with the bio media and carbon or purigen like you would normally. Let them circulate the water. The chlorine will evaporate out of the water in about 24 hours. If you have an air pump w/ air stone... this will help. Make sure the output of your filter is causing surface movement of the water for now. The carbon or purigen in the filters will remove any chloramine in the water supply.

3. Add your heater to the mix and let it gradually bring the water up to temperature. This will take a while for a 155G tank. If you have a spare heater....add it to the mix until the water temp comes up.

Psst, I'm just wondering why you say to not de-chlorinate the water? Have I been doing something wrong?

Water conditioners contain chemicals that can be harmful to organisms and have adverse long term effects in the aquatic environment. Here's a MSDS for example: http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/msds/ ... 122309.pdf

If it's simple chlorine, you can let it evaporate over a day. With chloramines you can use Purigen or carbon filter media. VeipaCray has been introducing a lot more advance care issues and thoughts regarding turtle keeping. Some of this info will be added to the main site soon.

Hmm, is this concern specific to reptiles? I use Prime in my fish tank and it only seems to help. I just started using it with Scooter's water. So I should stop?

Chlorine isn't a concern. It will evaporate out of potable water by itself. Most water municipals don't even use chlorine anymore for that very reason. Putting your top off water in a bucket and letting it sit 24 hours would allow any chlorine to evaporate. You could throw an airstone or old powerhead in the bucket if you have either and the aeration of the water would speed up the process.

Chloramine is what most water municipals use today. Chloramine is chlorine bonded to ammonia. It does not evaporate. The absolute best way to remove it is via carbon filtration. If you have a tap water filter in your house (attached to faucet, under sink, in the fridge, whole house, etc) use that water. Those type of filters generally have a charcoal or carbon stage that will remove the chloramine. If you do not, the use of activated carbon in your filter media will remove the chloramine.

Purigen will not remove chloramine. I apologize for any old posts you might see where I misspoke about Purigen removing Chloramine. I'll repeat.. Purigen does not remove Chloramine. Activated Carbon DOES remove chloramine

Water conditioners as Steve linked can be dangerous. My philosophy is why add any chemicals to the water if we do not need to. None of these chemicals are tested on Turtles (nor should they be) so let's not use them. Your turtle lives in its water, drinks this water... let's not feed them chemicals that aren't found in their natural habitat. We can filter out chloramine external to the tank with carbon.

Water conditioners generally break the chloramine apart and have chemicals that bond to the chlorine making it non-toxic. You're left with free ammonia... which is toxic (but your filter's bio filtration should handle this). You're also left with hazardous chemicals in your water and that bonded chlorine... remember we didn't actually remove it. We just chemically changed it. Some water conditioners include a chemical to deal with the ammonia... well sort of. The chemical will bond to ammonia (NH3) making it ammonium (NH4) which is much less toxic to aquatic life. The problem is that your bio filter will not break down the ammonium very quickly. In the end, you're left with detoxified chlorine, ammonium, and some hazardous chemicals all still in the water. Great. Pushing the water through activated carbon is much easier as we just remove the chlorine / chloramine in the first place.

From the Seachem Prime website:

"Prime® will remove both chlorine and chloramines from municipal water supplies. Prime® also contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic. It is very important to understand how those two functions work together. All dechlorinators operate through a chemical process known as reduction. In this process, toxic dissolved chlorine gas (Cl2) is converted into non-toxic chloride ions (Cl-). The reduction process also breaks the bonds between chlorine and nitrogen atoms in the chloramine molecule (NH2Cl), freeing the chlorine atoms and replacing them with hydrogen (H) to create ammonia (NH3).
Typically, dechlorinators stop there, leaving an aquarium full of toxic ammonia! Seachem takes the necessary next step by including an ammonia binder to detoxify the ammonia produced in the reduction process."

That's all great. There's also some trickery in the wording. What they're saying is their chemical binder will leave the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic. What they aren't saying is anything about removal. Ammonia in a normal tank is broken down into nitrites then nitrates by the bio filter. It's a natural process. If we chemically alter the ammonia / nitrites / nitrates they aren't toxic... but they're still in the water.

Amazing what a couple of dollars worth of activated carbon can do for you

VeipaCray are you like..some kind of mad scientist? How do you know all this?! Its so over my head lol! I feel like I am in biology when I read your water posts! I dont use chemicals and I have activated carbon in my filter so since my turtles are still alive at 10 years..Im gonna assume thats right haha

sflemin2 wrote:VeipaCray are you like..some kind of mad scientist? How do you know all this?! Its so over my head lol! I feel like I am in biology when I read your water posts! I dont use chemicals and I have activated carbon in my filter so since my turtles are still alive at 10 years..Im gonna assume thats right haha

It comes from years of reef keeping. If you have a successful reef tank, you either
1. pay someone to maintain it for you
2. read more than you ever expected about things like chemicals, msds sheets, nitrobacter bacteria, lifecycles of various organisms etc.

Did you know pincushion sea urchins pick up things and carry them around as camouflage? Or that all clownfish are born as males but the largest most dominant adult in the group will undergo a sex change and become female? See... it's not all turtle filter stuff stuck in my brain. :shock:

I can't take credit for that last post. It was a mere copy paste from the Seachem website.

If you're using carbon you're doing just fine. Just remember it needs to be changed often.

I'm gonna have to start a separate thread just to figure all this filter stuff out. I've never even used carbon in my fish tanks, just a bio filter (rings & sponge), that's it! :/

LOL Viepa I went ahead and read that and imagined you in mad scientist gear. Never even heard of pincushion sea urchins! I am not a fish person. I am the dog expert .. so boring. I know. 4 years in a grooming salon will do that! I am much too poor for reef tanks any and I couldnt even keep sea monkeys alive so....

tbirdie, carbon is pretty cheap. I got a big thing of it and use old stockings for the bag. seems to work just fine!

You can get carbon locally at pretty much ANY store that has a "fish" section.

Here are two places to get carbon online for cheap:
http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-Prem ... /46012.htm
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/pro ... ulk-carbon

I usually buy the lignite carbon from Bulk Reef Supply.

Habitat - Indoor :: Got my 155 gal! Help! What is this stuff?!

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