X.) Tap Water Quality
This isn’t likely to matter much with the turtles I recommend. It may with specialty species like some South American exotics. Consider testing your tap water (pet stores sell aquarium water test kits for pH, hardness, ammonia, nitrite & nitrate). Many U.S. cities offer moderately to very hard alkaline tap water. It can be hard to create soft, acidic water without resorting to chemical additives like the Proper pH line, that alter the pH & artificially buffer the water in that range. Such maneuvers as adding distilled or reverse-osmosis (RO) water to reduce hardness & alkalinity are labor-intensive & costly over time. Eventually you’ll resort to using straight tap water, commercial additives or give up the turtle. Research the turtle you are considering. If it needs soft, acidic water & you’ve got hard, alkaline tap water, move on.
"pretty.rock.machine"I was talking with some other people under the indoor habitat board about PH, and they brought up the nitrite, ammonia, and nitrate levels. I didn't know how to check 'em, so I went to Wal-Mart (closest thing) and bought some testing strips. They were Jungle brand (something like that) and one was a 5 in 1 and the other was ammonia. They checked everything you guys disscussed. So I got home read the directions and did it (I hope I did it wrong). They levels were so crazy! If they are as bad as the say, I don't know why he isn't acting worse. Except maybe it hasn't "kicked in" yet. He eats, poops, and basks. I'll admit that I had nothing to fish his two turds out with, so I bought a net tonight to fish them out, and they were gone (maybe he ate 'em). I use reverse osmosis water, I bought some decholorinator so when I go to skool I have something to use.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests