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So I brought Mr. Happy home yesterday from work. His new home is way brighter. I can see things I hadn't noticed on him before.

I don't know if he was shedding already before he came home but I noticed immediately lots of loose skin coming off of him.

BTW, we've changed his name to "Tuck" or "Mr. Tuck".

But what is worrying me is that his eyes seem to be irritated. He rubs them. yesterday he was closing them for several seconds repeatedly. Today he rarely opens them.

What should I do?

Did you use a dechlorinator in the tank? If not, the chlorine in tap water can irritate their eyes.
On the flip side, if you did use a conditioner, it may be that you used too much. I've heard that some conditioners can bother a turt's eyes. If you used a conditioner, try doing a partial water change (maybe 25%?).

Another thing that can cause eye irritation is the lighting. If it's too hot it could be drying out his eyes, or if the UVB lamp is too close it can cause irritation and swelling. A while back there was a problem with reptisun 10.0 Cfs, they caused a lot of eye problems. Also, as bulldog said, too much water conditioner (or possibly no water conditioner if you have heavily treated water) can cause irritation. The third possibility is that it's an indicator of a more serious problem, such as vit.A deficiency, RI etc. Tell us more...what's the setup like, is he showing any other symptoms? In the meantime, zoomed makes reptile eye drops with vit. A, they probably won't cure the problem whatever it is but they might make things more comfortable for him/

Try posting pictures of the new tank setup and say again what lighting/etc you used. Also, you might be able to get a picture of his eyes. Is it both eyes or just one eye, all the time or just periodically?

I'll try to get a picture on here in a couple hours.

no, i didn't use any water conditioners. I just filled the tank up with tap water and let it run for a couple days. that should have been enough to rid the water of chlorine naturally.

Could the sand be causing irritation in the water? it's just playsand.

both eyes..all the time.

The chlorine won't be taken out with the filter very well. In fact, it can kill your bacteria that you want to be growing in your filter that deal with other chemicals in the water. You need to dechlorinate any tap water that goes in! At this point, I'd recommend a 50% water change with dechlorinated water. And you need to get the sand out! He'll eat it and get impacted and need to see a vet. No sand or gravel!

Actually, sand isn't bad. There's a few members here that have sand. If they do eat it, it just passes through them.
But did you rinse the sand thoroughly? I know one member had to rinse the playsand 3x + and still junk was coming out.

Letting the water sit for a couple days would take care of the chlorine, because it evaporates. So we can rule the chlorine irritation out...

if u want to have sand u can use the calcium sand u can get at petsmart. i was thinkin of gettin that but i think it would make cleaning the tank a pain

Would most of the junk from the sand come out in the first couple days too? I don't know if the filter can handle that. You can have the tank water tested, maybe one of your levels is off. And it could just be adjustment to the "brighter" lifestyle you've given him. What lights are you using again?

the lights are two 55 watt compact fluorescent bulbs with reflectors behind them.

The sand is 2 50lb bags of "play sand" from home depot & lowes (didn't know which to get so i got both). the sand IS very dusty. But the dust does well settling to the bottom and the filter gets the rest. I probably should replace all the cannister "fuzz" again actually. I thought of getting Estes sand but that's just as dusty (I used it in a planted tank few years back)

I could get play sand from Toys R Us which has ZERO dust in it (never seen such clean sand) if I have to but rather not have to dump a whole 100lbs of sand if I don't really have to. If Mr. Tuck's eyes keep irritating him, tho. I may have to to buy some afterall.

It's a newly put together tank, so there wasn't any bacteria in there anyway so I didn't care about the chlorine. I know that I can't just dump chlorinated water in there if I want the bacteria to grow tho.

Will silicates in the sand cause any problems? I hadn't thought of the dust. but yes, it is very dusty (when disturbed)

Un-happy, You can get sand blasting sand of different sizes if you wish. Look under sand blasing of sand blasting supplies. If you wish you can Diatom the water and get out just about any kind of grandules that is in the water. When I do my 50% change that is what I use. When I get the water level where I want it I turn on the Diatom and stir up the tank and let it work. It is a little extra but my water is cleaned.

mikee, i did a quick search on diatom. not sure what i'm looking for but I don't think i'm getting the right google search results.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/20 ... erm=209090
I think this might be what mikee is referring to.

You have two 55 watt compact fluorescent bulbs with reflectors? This would be very bright and may be causing eye irritation.

Can you describe the light bulbs in detail -

1. what brand and wattage?

2. Are they UVB bulbs or just regular fluorescent bulbs?

3. If UVB, what percentage UVB?

4. Do you also have a heat bulb - if so, what kind and wattage?