Habitat - Indoor :: noob questions (already searched) and brief intro

[grumpy4869]

Hello all,

first I would just like to thank you all for this site. I have learned more by reading this site for the past two days than I have from almost a year of religious weekly cleaning and basically interrogating Petco employees. This site is now number one on my favorites list. I only wish I would have found it BEFORE I let my wife convince me to have our turtles haha.

So basically, I have two RES. Fergie is an 8" Female and Frankie is a 6" Male. Both started out about the size of a pond rock and thanks to overfeeding (a situation which as of discovering this site has very recently been put to rest) have exploded in growth. Fergie has gotten huge very quickly and Frankie has been slower to grow but has gotten fat. New diets for them have already been put in place.

They are currently housed in a 36 gallon tank with a pleco, an underwater log, two submersible filters, a water heater, zoomed dock, UVB bulb and 75 watt heat lamp. I know that they need a better environment and that is where I need your help.

Next month I plan to upgrade thier tank. I am looking at a tank that is 72x24x24. Would this be adequate? The sales rep told me that it was a 180 gallon tank. Based on these measurements, is that correct? The tank comes with a stand with cabinets and a hood (which I know that I won't use but they won't sell me the stand without the hood). I plan to build them some form of ATBA in order to maximize swimming space.

Also, I am leaning toward the Fluval FX5 for filtration. But I am a little confused as to how to set this up. What goes on the tank end of the inlet tube? Surely there cannot be an open hose sucking in water at 907gph!

I was thinking about attaching the hose to a UGF. I have heard both positive and negative reviews about the use of gravel and I figure that it cant be any worse than the religious weekly scrubbing thier current tank gets. I will be sure to use gravel that is too large for them to eat.

Thank you again for this site and thank you in advance for putting up with noobies like me

[rsour24]

that is 180 gallons, i checked it on an online converter, and i cant help u with ur filter i dont have one but a lot of ppl on here do i think, and hopefully ur turtles do not have pyramiding with that over feeding

[BullDog]

Welcome to the site!

That is a 180 gallon tank. A quick way to figure out gallons in take the measurements in inches, and do (length x width x height) / 231, and that gives you estimated volume in US gallons.

A 180 gallon tank should be a good "forever" home for both of them. Be aware though that one may become aggressive to the other, and you may have to separate them. In a 6 foot tank, it's possible just to put a divider down the middle of the tank, so you can keep them in the same tank, just in different halves of the tank.

I love the FX5, I've got two of them. My only thought is that 1 FX5 in a 180 might not be quite enough, especially with two adult RES. You could always try one to start, and if you find the water gets dirty quickly, add a secondary filter, be it a HOB, or another canister (even another FX5). There's no such thing as too much filtration!
The intake has a big strainer on it, so even if you put your hand right on it there's not enough suction to stick your hand there. It does suck up junk though. Food can get stuck to it, but that just makes it easier for the RES to pick it up at their convenience
I couldn't find a very good pic of it, but here's my 90 gallon. The intake is on the right, with the sweet potato stuck to it That's my female RES Frankie (Nice choice in names by the way ), and she's 8.5" for scale. You can see the dual output in the middle.


I recommend 2 things on the intake though. First, the strainer has two suction cups on the back, supposedly to stick it to the back wall of the aquarium. Just take those suction cups right off. The space they leave between the intake tube and the aquarium wall seems like just the right space for a turtle head to get stuck in. Frankie took mine off for me within half and hour anyhow The suction cups are really strong, so she managed to rip them out of the strainer, and left them stuck to the back wall
Second, before you put the intake in the tank, silicone the strainer onto the tube (and give it time to cure, of course). It just gives you peace of mind knowing that there's no way for your RES to pull the strainer off, and get stuck to the intake tube (it has happened a couple times on this forum, and at least one of the RES died).

Setting it up is easy. It even comes with an instructional DVD. I watched about 5 minutes of the DVD when I set up my second FX5, but most of it is pretty intuitive.

Under gravel filters don't really work for RES because you can't have gravel in the tank. RES (and other turtles) can and will eat anything smaller than their head, including rocks. It can get lodged in their digestive system, and they can become impacted and die. Bare bottom tanks are the easiest to clean, or tanks with just a few river rocks for your turts to push around.

That was a long post
Good luck

[robind]

If you have a 180 gallon tank with a stand, you might as well put a sump in there instead of a canister filter.

[seanwb]

Do not bother with UGF. If the gravel pieces are small enough to be an effective biological bed, then they will be a hazard for the turtles. If you increase the size of gravel to rocks to be safe for yor turtles, then it will not be an effective filter.

[grumpy4869]

seanwb

thank you for explaining that in simple terms. I will skip on the gravel. Would it be okay to line the mottom with largish pond rocks? I just don't like the bare bottom look.

[seanwb]

Providing you are prepared to clean out underneath then and they are way to big to be eaten, that is fine.

I stick with the bare bottom approach for ease of cleaning (i.e. I never need to clean). Others use sand which looks good.