Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:49 am First time red ear slider owner from NY
Hi everyone I recently purchased two 5" RES's at the request of my 9 year old twin boys. Not a big deal as it's already like Noah's ark around here. I had no real knowledge of aquatic turtles other than from my experience with other reptiles I knew that they would need good UVA/UVB lighting, a good basking lamp, a diet rich with vitamins, some calcium and of corse as aquatic implies some water (heated of coarse). I relied on the Petco employees to give me the right information.... mistake number 1 I see now. First they told me not to put more than 6" or so of water in the habitat, second they were going to send me home with what I'm estimating to be about a 20 gallon long aquarium I knew in my heart more room happier creatures so i grabbed the biggest enclosure I could afford in the store it's a 75 gallon "breeder tank" 36 long x 24 deep x 20 high. I was told that the Marineland Penguin 200 filter would be a good choice for filtration (insert laugh here) the thing couldn't even prime at the level of drawn needed to get the water up and into the filter. I have now what is probably still under rated for what these guys need I'm using a Cascade 700 canister and as I've read that the RES are guys who love to swim I have set the water level as high as possible in the tank still allowing them to have room to thermoregulate in the basking area which is a floating unit. now that the water level is higher i have also added a HOT filter back in the mix it's an Emperor 400 from Marine land I got this in hopes of promoting the growth of some beneficial bacteria. the lighting is 2 2 24" 5.0 uVB full spectrum fluorescents and a tight beam 100 watt spot basking lamp for heat. I have a 30 watt heater set at 78 degrees in the tank. So I've had the turtles for about a week and he final for now setup going for 4 days been changing out 5 gallons of the swamp water a day to try and keep the ammonia levels down and to keep my fiancee from tossing me and the turtles into the garage. the smell factor has gotten somewhat better over the last couple of days but water is still a cloudy light green mess. I am going to be running to a shop to pick up a good air pump and some air stones to try and get a little more oxygen flow into the tank, any other recommendations on how to get the tank cycled and the water healthy will gladly be taken.
