Habitat - Indoor :: Yes or no?

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

To help my biological bacteria cycle I was thinking of buying some of that stuff that helps you speed up the process. Heres a few products:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=3433706
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=3433708
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752352

So is putting one of these a good idea? Which one is the best?

[VeipaCray]

NO definitely NO.

1. Unless you get the refrigerated live bacteria supplement, these product's don't do much other than relieve your wallet of a few dollars. Who knows how long the bottle has been sitting on the shelf or in a warehouse or in what conditions it was transported.

2. Do you have another fish tank in your house? Do any of your neighbors or friends? You want a bacteria kick start... grab some used filter media from an established tank and throw it in your filter. POOF!

3. A scoop of sand from an established tank will do the same as above

4. The process cannot be "sped up". Nitrifing bacteria will reproduce at a rate to match their food source... ammonia. As the ammonia levels build from turtle waste, so will your bacteria colony ... providing that there is adequate surface area for the bacteria to colonize. Sand as a substrate helps a lot. Having a lot of the spun glass / ceramic bio media in your filter is really good. The reproduction rate of the bacteria will far outpace the level of ammonia production IF there's adequate surface area for them... hence the reason why the bio filer works.

Buying a bottle of "bacteria" and dumping it in your tank will do no good if the food source isn't there. Buying a bottle of dead bacteria will do even less.

A small bottle of bacteria supplement is $5 to $7. Take that money and buy a few cheap golf balls and a large PVC fitting for your turtle to play with.

OR $8 buys you a 100Ml bag of Purigen online. You want crystal clear water? This is an EXCELLENT way to spend $8.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Thanks! I always saw these products and wondered if they would help me. My water is getting clear now. How does that purigen work? Do i just replace the carbon I have in my filter with that? BTW I have Ammino neutralizing media along with carbon in my filter would that help the cycle? I don't know anyone with a already established tank, I wish I would of known about that since I visited my uncle a few weeks back and he has a really nice fish aquarium that I could of asked him for some media or water.

[VeipaCray]

Your turtle isn't nearly as sensitive to an uncycled tank as fish are. Remeber your turtle can crawl out of the water when it wants to. I definitely understand the desire for the cycle to complete when you are waiting to add fish.

You definitely want carbon in a filter in a new tank to pull the chloramine out of the water. Once your tank has been cycling through the carbon for a day or so, you can replace the carbon with Purigen OR run them both at the same time.

Carbon and Purigen can co-exist together. Carbon and Purigen have much overlap as to what they will pull out of the water. Carbon is great in a new tank for pulling out chloramine. Carbon however does exhaust itself in a few days to a few weeks depending on how much crud is in your water. Once carbon has been exhausted it doesn't absorb any more.

Purigen is synthetic resin beads that has a huge affinity for nitrogen based organics. You can clean and reuse Purigen quite a few times before it needs to be replaced. Purigen claims to grab 2x the amount of gunk out of the water when compared to carbon. I belive this claim is a bit low. I've talked a few others on this forum into trying Purigen and they have reported back saying they noticed a drastic difference.

Here's what I would reccomend for anyone with a new tank:
First 24 hours:
Run your filter with some carbon and as much filter floss as you can reasonably stuff in there. The filter floss will grab any free floating particles from the sand (assuming you used sand) and polish the water. The carbon will grab the chloramine out of the water. Any chlorine will just evaporate.

After 24 hours:
Ditch the filter floss and the carbon. Put your sponges back in. Put in a bag of purigen. Fill the rest of the filter with bio media. Happy turtling.

Your bacteria colony will establish itself on all surfaces in the system. The point of the bio media is just to provide as much surface area as possible for the bacteria to colonize.

Getting used water isn't really beneficial. It's just, used water. There's a very small amount of free floating bacteria and stuff... but the bulk of the bacteria is in the filter media and sand.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Thanks! I still have all the same media I had when I first added the sand, Do I really need to change out the carbon?? Also should I clean the sponge?

[VeipaCray]

Carbon only lasts anywhere from a few days to a month. Definitely clean the sponge. If nothing else it will improve (restore) the flow rate of your filter.

[Love of Animals]

When you clean your sponge clean it in tank water already siphoned, not tap water. Some bacteria will live in the sponge as well. Not as much as the bio media though. Might as well keep the whole bacteria colony going.

VeipaCray: Where do you buy the Purigen online? I want to switch to Purigen but I cant find it in stores at a decent price. $8.00 already bagged I can afford. And does it come in bags that are reusable after you clean it?

[VeipaCray]

I honestly wouldn't worry about the bacteria on the sponge. The sponge traps a lot of detritus and other garbage that turns into a nitrate factory as it decays. It's important to get the sponges really clean if you don't replace them. I rinse mine thoroughly under hot water and keep squeezing them out until they run clear.

Big Als (online pet store) has it for $8.09 USD. The 100mL bag will do -According to Seachem- up to a 100G tank.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Filter-Media_Chemical-Filter-Media_Purigen_8048129_82.html?tc=default

Yes you can reuse that bag, that's the idea. It's permanently sealed. You'll love Purigen, it keeps the water very very clear.

When it comes time to regenerate it, you'll need 2 things: household bleach and Seachem's Prime.

Big Al's has the small bottle of Prime (plenty) for $3. I'd order both when you place your order unless you already have some Prime.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Additives_Water-Conditioners_Prime_8059393_82.html?tc=default

[Love of Animals]

Thanks for the info. I do get my sponges really clean in the tank water. I don't have high nitrates but that may be because of the 20% water change weekly. I can't wait to try the Purigen!

[VeipaCray]

The directions for regenerating Purigen are on the Seachem website. You'll want to follow those very carefully.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

I'm looking into that Purigen too hopefully it can keep my water crystal clear.