Habitat - Indoor :: new owner needs experienced help asap

[yellowbellyturtle]

Right basicaly i have two yellow belly turtles, one male one female, rather small, they are very little, bout the size of my palm, butter maybe a size smaller...anyway

i have a very nice tank, its the interpet aq3, it hold 75 ltres of water, its fiiled more than half the way up with water.

i use a deltatherm heater which is placed correctly,

for my filter i use a interpet pf internal aquarium filter, the jet on it is placed just below the water surface,

i have a floatng log which they love and a turtle dock that there not too into,

i use king bishop turtle feed, they love the shrmps, not mad about the pellets.

any way my first problem is that ive noticed that they get blown around by the force of the fiter and ive heard of new tank syndrome but ive checked the ph, its perfect, im applying nitrite every second say as i was told to do, but my tank looks awful and i cant see my turtles! its cloudy and murky! are my pets ok!


please help me asap!

[Vtolds]

Check it for ammonia, that is more than liley your problem. I would do 50% water changes daily for a few days until it clears up but do no more than 50% or it could do more harm than good. You can also take your turtles out to feed them in a separate container so there food doesnt get pushed around so much. A lot of people do it just because it saves the tank from the mess eating sometimes can make. I would try to get them to eat more pellets and less shrimp because a lot of shrimp or fish like tuna can be bad for them.

[yellowbellyturtle]

thanks for the advice, now im very new to this so what would a water chenge involve, would i have to use more tap water, and treat it all over again?

[Bumby's Mom]

If they are getting blown around try placing the output facing the side of the tank or if you can turn it down so the blow isn't so hard.

[pinkcadillac]

thanks for the advice, now im very new to this so what would a water chenge involve, would i have to use more tap water, and treat it all over again?

To do a water change remove about 50% of the water from the tank, replace that water with new tap water, and then apply your declorinator (enough to treat the whole tank, too much wont hurt the turtles).

Its probably best to remove your turtles while you do this and dont put them back into the water until the tempeture is correct.

I personally use a device like this: http://www.aquariumguys.com/gravelvac.html

I have a few other large tanks as well but it can definitley save you some time and labor.

[Vtolds]

I have ultimate gravel vac and it works alright I don't get the greatest amount of suction but it does remove water very well and make refilling a snap. I had to replace the plastic fitting for the faucet with one I found at the home depot made for dishwasher and it works way better than the plastic piece.

[megcornell]

Another issue with your water quality is that the tank is too small for your turtles which means there's no way the filter can keep up with all the waste being added to the water.

[mikee]

Yel Bel Turt -- Even if you have small hands your tank is too small. You will need 1US gallon per every US inch for your turtles to do well. When you increase your tank size you will have to increase your filter size also. I suggest that you have a filter/pump large enough to exchange the water 5 times per hour (gph=US gallons per hour). Sizing a tank using fish measurements is not adequate.

[emma]

Yel Bel Turt -- Even if you have small hands your tank is too small. You will need 1US gallon per every US inch for your turtles to do well. When you increase your tank size you will have to increase your filter size also. I suggest that you have a filter/pump large enough to exchange the water 5 times per hour (gph=US gallons per hour). Sizing a tank using fish measurements is not adequate.

1 gallon? Do you mean 10?