Habitat - Indoor :: Low water temp after water change.

[imderanged]

Anyone who's on right now, I'd appreciate some help. I changed a decent amount of water in my 75 gallon. The temp is coming up very slowly. It's only at around 68F now. So I don't want to put Pickle back in yet. I know her water should ideally be 75-78F but at what point can I put her back? Do I have to wait until 75F?

[Daniel3507]

you can put her back in at around 73 or 72 i would think.

[megcornell]

It might be too late to answer now, but I'd wait.
Worst case you can add some hot water without the turtle in the tank to speed things up.

[imderanged]

Thanks for your replies, but it was getting REALLY late. Once it got over 70F I figured it was a little low, but figured I have definitely seen wild turtles swimming in lakes colder than 70F. (I had thought of your answer megcornell, adding hot water, but I remembered reading that the hot water was dirty because of coming from the water heater, and on top of that I had used up the last of my water conditioner with the water I had just added to the tank.) Pickle is her normal active self this afternoon. I could hear her splashing around from the other room and she ate up all her lunch, so I know I didn't make her lethargic. So it worked out.

[laurapa]

I hope this doesn't make me a bad turtle owner, but I usually go ahead and put Oliver in after a partial water change, even if the water is a bit below 70. He really doesn't seem to care. I figured if he wanted to warm up he would go bask, but he just swims around and explores.

So from my experience, it's not a big deal. I think what you did is just fine.

[Daniel3507]

i dont even take cujo out when i do a partial change. the water rarely even drops to 70 though

[Chrisbarnett]

i dont even take cujo out when i do a partial change. the water rarely even drops to 70 though

Lol. I agree. I just leave squirt in for everything except a major tank teardown(in which case I left him in there until the water was non existant and he was just walking on bare sand bottom )

I just add in hot water from the tap as it fills via Python so it never really has a temp change.