Urgent Care :: PLEASE HELP!

[SammyCarmel]

I have had my red eared slider for two years. A few days ago his water got cloudy. We thought it was high ammonia, so we did a FULL tank clean. It worked for a day, but when I got home from school today, his water was cloudy and dark brown. My boyfriend said it smelled sweet. We went to pet smart for a water test, but they had no idea what was wrong. Any ideas?

[dumbork14]

Did you look for the API Freshwater Master Text Kit?

[SammyCarmel]

I'm not sure what that is .. How do I do that?

[SammyCarmel]

At petsmart they measured the Alkalinity and the PH

[vear]

It's probably a bacterial bloom. Your tank is cycling, cleaning out the entire tank just messes up the cycle again. Read about it here: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm. I was trying to find the appropriate thread on this but couldn't. The link will give you a basic idea though. The pH of the tank won't tell you much, they need to test your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

Very quickly: at first your ammonia will be high, then it will drop as it gets converted to nitrites... those then get converted to nitrates (your nitrite levels will drop). Eventually you'll have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and your nitrates will start to go up. You'll want to do PARTIAL water changes to get your nitrate levels down. The cloudiness you're seeing is most likely from the beneficial bacteria that is needed for all these "transformations" to take place. It's OK. Read about tank cycling and get the petstore to test the correct parameters. Then ask them for actual numbers... they might tell you your water is "fine" that doesn't mean much. You'll need numbers.

[steve]

What kind of filter do you have? Has there been any recent changes?

[SammyCarmel]

Thank you all for your help. We have had the same filter, but are using a new brand of cartridges. I came home from school, and its cloudy and smelly. This has become an every day thing. We are worried that we may have to take him somewhere.

[steve]

Most likely there is some cycling as vear has mentioned. Certain things, like excess food and very messy waste can quickly cloud up the water. Does the tank normally get cloudy? How often do you do water changes? Are they always complete changes or partial change? How many gallons are in there?

[Kansasslider]

Looks like your filter is not doing its job. I would also get rid of all the river rock. It traps a lot of debris.

[vear]

Thank you all for your help. We have had the same filter, but are using a new brand of cartridges. I came home from school, and its cloudy and smelly. This has become an every day thing. We are worried that we may have to take him somewhere.

Did you read about cycling?

[SammyCarmel]

I agree about the cycling, but we have done full changes every day this week. Also we can't imagine what would make his water that dark brown && have a sweet perfume smell to it. We are going to keep trying, and maybe replace the filter all together.

[Kansasslider]

Where are you getting your water from?

[vear]

I agree about the cycling, but we have done full changes every day this week. Also we can't imagine what would make his water that dark brown && have a sweet perfume smell to it. We are going to keep trying, and maybe replace the filter all together.

You shouldn't be doing full water changes everyday, that's why I asked if you read about cycling. You should be making partial water changes. You also shouldn't be doing a full filter cleaning. We need to try one thing at a time and cycling takes a little while. Once your tank is cycled, if your water is still brown then we can look into other possibilities.

What filter do you have and how big is your tank and your turtle? Have you added anything new to the tank.. rocks, driftwood, sand etc? Did you go back to the petstore to test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? If you can give us those numbers we will know for sure if your tank is cycled or not. Also, the more info you provide on your setup the better we'll be able to help. Try to answer all the questions and we'll have your water clear in no time!

[steve]

I'd probably change all the water first and go from there. If it's an internal filter, it probably doesn't support any bio media.