Habitat - Indoor :: Why would the guy from Petco....

[ladygodiva]

He said he's been a turtle rescue for 20 years. He also helped out by recommending products required for Toots' tank. He told me he would set me up like his tank. So he brought all the stuff and placed it in my cart. Fast foward to right now and the filter he chose is horrible! This apartment has bad outlets to begin with and I'm always messing with the filter plug. Well, it turns out the filter only works 3 days then stops. I just cleaned Toots' tank a few hours ago and the darn filter won't work at all. Its life span was about 2 months. I did reseach on the filter and it so happens its for a tank no bigger than 3 gallons. I thought this guy knew what he was doing! Can someone please recommend a quality filter? Right now, Toots is temporarily in a ten gallon. Gotta save a few more checks to get Toots' dream tank!

Here is that nasty filter
http://www.petco.com/product/13796/Hagen-Elite-Mini-Underwater-Filter.aspx

[Tenodera]

Oh yea I know those filters..I have one, too

If it stopped working it's probably the gunk in the sponge has clogged up. Take out the sponge, wash out all the gunk, and put it back in. It should work ok now...I use this filter for my newt tank and it has always worked well for me...

BUT for turtles you should get a better filter ASAP. Most people use canister filters, but those are VERY expensive. Some other people may be able to recommend you better filters.

[ladygodiva]

I already unclogged it. Now its making this weird noise so I just unplugged it.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Yeah that's a crappy filter. Get a whisper 40i for her 10 gallon, I'd guarantee it will work alright in it, or you can alway's go with fluval filter's. But I have used whisper filter's for a while and I like them.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... rnalfilter


http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... aterfilter

[DavidY]

What a shame! That guy probably took in an unwanted turtle from a friend or relative 20 years ago, so now that makes him an expert who's been "a turtle rescue for 20 years". LOL!! Anyway, Petco employees are probably the worst people to go to for advice.

Eventually you will need a much bigger tank. The filters X recommended are good ones and more affordable too. Right now I'm running a 15 year old Hagen Aquaclear filter that hangs on the back of the tank (along with a small cannister filter) and it works great. I need to clean it out 2 or 3 times a week, but it's only temporary until I get my indoor pond finished (man I've been saying that for a long time now ).

The Whisper 40 is on sale right now for $18 here ... http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3643&N=2004+22769. You could even be good with the next size down since you only have one turtle in a 10gallon. But you will soon need to upgrade to a much bigger tank and a much bigger filter before the end of the year, so just get something cheap for now unless you want to upgrade your tank right away.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

The whisper 40i is more powerful (up to 40 gallon's) while the fluval is still good, it goes up to (24 gallon's) and I think a fluval 3 will take too much space in your tank. So I would go with the 40i since it wont take much space away and still do a good job. It wont be the best filter, and you will probably need to change the water every week or every two week's, but it's better than that piece of crap that guy sold you.

Why oh why do pet store employees like to ruin our live's and milk us for every penny we have, and on top of that give us bogus info

[ladygodiva]

I am definetely going to get a bigger tank! But the funny thing is I was going to buy a new tank this week but now I need to use the money for the vet! I'm sure Toots would rather get that lump off her face first.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Yeah I'm sure a new tank can wait. Health come's first

[marisa]

Priorities:

1. Toots to vet.

2. Do some research on what kind of filter you want for the tank you're going to get. (Try to get a filter rated for 3X the size of the tank.)

3. Get the tank and filter.

[Twoster]

sorry to hear about the bad customer service!..and with aquarium supplies, you usually get what you pay for.

[BLiNK]

Yeah I remember my first filter, the guys said just put a tube on the shaft of the filter and put panty hoes over that then everything would be fine, well none of that worked, did get enough suction with the filter and had to rig it up like crazy to no ends, believe the net before you get in the store lol prob best advice for everyone

[HERSHEY]

when I had my turtles in a small 20 gallon tank I use the whisper filter for a 20 to 40 gallon tank. Never had a problem with it never clogged once. They were in there for a year only had to change the filter about every 2 weeks I also did a full water change every month (something I started doing from the get go before I new that was bad for them, but they were fine in the smaller tank doing that). I also do not feed in my tank that helps quite a bit. The whispers are not very expensive and you can adapt them very easily for your turtes with long intake tubes.

[MamaLou]

Yes it is true there are many many people out there in pet stores that claim to know everything about turtles but really dont. I myself just started working at Petsmart a few months ago. I have two RES of my own. One is now 8yrs old and the other is now around 3yrs. Moved to their new home last summer in a 1,400 gallon pond. NOw that I am there, I can give people the right info on their turtles. I research different breeds online so I know how to answer their questions. Shame that there are so many pet store employees that are only there for a paycheck.

[SpotsMama]

MamaLou, I sure wish there were more like you in pet stores. I heard on here just the other day that a PetCo is selling small gravel like you put fish tanks marked for turtle tanks! They don't know about the harm this will do and apparently aren't making much effort to find out.