Habitat - Indoor :: Filter... not filtering?

[Cim*Forever]

Hey guys, I put a cute little tower stepping/resting spot in my turtles tank today so I could successfully raise the water level without worry about his resting spot (I have a viney leaf circling it) and it works great and looks cute.

But when I was removing the rock I had there previously, I noticed a lot of gunk, and then the water got disturbed quite a bit (with moving everything around) and there was a lot of chunky floating thing in the water.

My filter is an Elite for up to 15 gallons, in a 10 gallon tank, which is about half way full. The fact that its not working in a half way full tank makes me weary to fill it up more. I have a bout 30 large sized pebbles scattered along the floor of the tank (but not covering, there are large bare spots,) just enough to let him push some around and have fun.

Any suggestions? I want to start feeding him outside the tank, but I only got him like 2 weeks ago and I don't want to disrupt him toooo much and I am curious about making the water temp in the feeding area the right temp.

Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome Thanks guys!

[emma]

Filters usually only filter the water and pick up some gunk that is floating in the air. Lots of gunk like poop and food will always get trapped under rocks and other things. There is really no way your filter can get rid of the gunk. Try getting something that can suck up the gunk. I have a mr.cleaner and it is battery operated and it works great on getting the gunk out. I usually do a 100% water change every week because there is so much gunk at the bottom of the tank, maybe you could try that?

[N4784N R4613]

So, the water has only been sitting for two weeks and it is already that dirty? Wow. With that small amount of water, there is really nothing you can do to keep it clean. This may sound strange, but the more water you have, the longer it takes the turtle to "fowl it up." As long as you have just a 10 gallon, it looks like you will have to clean it once a week. If you fill it as high as you can, you could get an Aquaclear power filter, that might help your existing filter, but your will still need to clean at least every two weeks. One last thing, anything on the bottom of the tank will trap "gunk." So try to keep it to a minimum.

Good luck!!

[Cim*Forever]

Ah alrighty, thank you for the replies. I was also thinking about purchasing a gravel vaccume, that might help a bit perhaps.

My whole family has fallen in love with the turtle! We are buying him a bigger tank for Christmas , This I think is also perfect because then I can buy a better filter (because I will be needing a bigger one for the bigger tank) .

Thanks again guys, I don't know what I would do without this site!

[N4784N R4613]

YAY!!! I love upgrades!!!!!

[untsmurf]

The gravel traps a lot of the gunk so the filter is incapable of picking it up. If you take the rocks out, you'd have an easier time keeping it clean. Plus, you'd give the little guy more swimming room.

[Cim*Forever]

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me! Thanks

[tennisnut]

Yeah, I have the same problem with the gunk trapped in river rocks.

I have a gravel vaccum, and it works perfectly fine in my small 10 gallon (it has rocks covering about 1 inch at the bottom). However, it doesn't work so well in my larger tank that has fewer rocks (a few river rocks). Any suggestions?