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Hi, First time for me.

I bought the Zoomed 511 filter for my 12 yr long slider. It seems to be pumping well but I don't think it is filtering anything. Water in the tank, about 20 gallons, is cloudy after 2 days. I am using the carbon bag that came with the filter that I read in some places isn't the greatest. Is there a trick to getting this filter to work any better? I was hoping this filter would allow me to go a month instead of a week without having to change the water. Thanks for the help.

A few comments:

Those internal "turtle" filters are lousy. Unless you are dealing with a hatchling, they can't keep up with the amount of waste a turtle produces. You need an external canister filter or something similar that can really turn over the water volume of the tank multiple times per hour. There's a great thread on filter media that also talks about sizing:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30145

The cloudiness may not be a factor of poor filtration as much as a bacterial bloom as your tank cycles. Google aquarium cycle for lots of detail, but basically a fresh aquarium is establishing various types of bacteria colonies which help to deal with the nitrogen waste in the tank. A common step in that process is a cloudy bacterial bloom that lasts a few days.

Most importantly, though, your tank is too small. You either meant 12 years old or 12 inches long. I'm assuming it is 12 years because you probably could not fit a 12 inch turtle in a twenty gallon tank. How big is your turtle, measuring just the shell with a ruler, not curved along the shell? The general guide is at least 10 gallons of water for every inch of shell.

A RES needs space to dive down and explore. It doesn't have to be a tank, it can be a large Rubbermaid container. You'll also find that a larger volume of water to dilute turtle waste, actually makes it easier to deal with cleaning and water changes. I know water changes, and water parameters, are much easier to deal with and less infrequent in the 55 gallon tank I have than they were when I had a 20 gallon. And, Tobi was less than a third the size when she was in the twenty gallon, but I was having to do more frequent water changes.

If you can return the zoo med they are terrible choice for turtles especially an adult turtle. I believe that Zoo Med has now re-labeled all these filters as nano-fish tank filters. I use a zoo med 501 for a 7.5 gallon fish tank, and it only does an okay job.

Get yourself a full size canister filter meant for at least 3x the size of your tank.

You should still do weekly water changes especially in that small of a tank. Look into a sunsun canister filter. You can find them here I would buy it here because they address the weak intake and outlet tubing.And they come with media.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com ... ilter.html