Habitat - Indoor :: Moe's new 75G home - build thread.

[happycamper]

So can turtles eat basically any aquatic plants? Like, for instance the ones in my tank that you said you recognized?

[steve]

So can turtles eat basically any aquatic plants? Like, for instance the ones in my tank that you said you recognized?

As far as I know, most freshwater plants are edible. The closest thing I've heard to a guideline is that fish-safe plants are safe for turtles.

[happycamper]

Alright. That makes sense, thanks Steve

[steve]

No problem though I've never tried a variety of plants. To be even safer, plants that are in a slider's native range would be even better (and probably more practical).

[cbr900boy]

A few months ago, I decided to take the high tech way to deal with the oil slick and floating cat hair in the tank. I purchased one of the surface skimmer attachments for filters. I has a little plastic piece that floats and allows you to intake water from the surface. $9 USD from BigAls online.



My plan was to hook it up to a little aquaclear HOB filter that i had laying around the house. Ok sweet... $9 for the surface skimmer, $0 to reuse a filter I already had laying around, have some carbon and filter floss on hand. Perfect. $9.

The diameter of the tubing for the aquaclear filter and the surface skimmer attachment were the same size. No go. I grabbed a large piece of hose and two compression clamps.... perfect. Then I realized, I'd have to cut a sizable hole in my hood to accommodate the HOB filter full time or use this contraption on occasion to mop up the surface oil slick with the hood off. I was wanting a full-time solution.

After some thought, I decided on an inexpensive canister filter. I don't need much filtration... my FX5 is the workhorse keeping the water parameters in check. The sole job of this thing is to remove the oil slick from the surface. The flow rate doesn't matter and the filter just needs to hold a tiny bit of carbon and a tiny bit of filter floss to remove floating cat hair (our cat likes to lay on top of the hood next to the warm basking light) and absorb the proteins causing the oil slick.

My first thought was to get one of those tom aquatics (same brand as the surface skimmer) or zoo med mini canister filters. This would allow me to not have to cut the hood, and I could use the canister full time to clean the surface of the water. These two filters are designed as HOB canisters. They have permanently attached hoses that are short and the canister needs to hang on the rear end of the aquarium. Shoot. Not enough room + I wanted all of the filtration equipment contained neatly in the base of the stand for easy maintenance,

Ok, no problem... next idea. Get a generic canister filter off ebay. $40 and problem solved. So I'm shopping / researching what generic canister filter to get and my wife comes over with the "whatcha doin?" So I tell her and surprisingly she says "what kind of warranty do those filters come with?" My reply is ... "well uh, they're $40 cheap knock offs from ebay probably none". She then gives me the evil look and kindof points to the wood floor. I knew what that meant. Off to the local store to buy a name brand trusted filter. I know these could leak also, but it made her feel better.

So I head over to one of the big box pet stores thinking hey I just need the smallest cheapest canister filter. Maybe a fluval 105, a small eheim ecco, something like that. Small+quiet+canister. I go to our local Petsmart and see a clearance sale in the fish filter aisle. They have some marineland filters including the magnum 350 (biggest POS on the planet) and with the semi-recent heater recall causing marineland to lie to all of us while they sorted it out... No more marineland stuff for me. They also had some fluval filter and Rena XP filters. The smallest most practical would have been a fluval 105 which they had on the shelf. The problem was, Petsmart had the XP3 on clearance for the same price as the 105. I didn't really need the filtration of the XP3, but for the price it's hard to beat. So I bend down to grab the XP3 and what do I see? The XP4 sitting ever so patiently on the shelf next to the XP3. Curiosity can be an evil thing... ok where's the price tag for this guy? No price tag. Fantastic. My brain is telling me just take the XP3 and go home you moron but my heart is saying hey ask the girl to do a price check. Ok so the heart wins. I ask the petsmart associate how much the XP4 was. The price she told me was $20 more than the XP3. Well shoot. Dilemma. After some thought and considering the price point of the filter I grab the XP4. I really really really don't need the filtration of the XP4 to hook up to a $9 surface skimmer to remove the occasional piece of cat hair. But I realize that I have other fish tanks in the house and having an extra filter of this size is always good as a backup. And for the price.... it's really only $20 more than the smallest fluval 105. Next thing I know, the XP4 is in my trunk.

Awesome setup VeipaCray. We almost have the same setup because I have a 75 gallon tank with a FX5 and Magnum 350 that is hooked up to my Fluval Surface Skimmer (same and the Tom's). I was lucky because Magnum intake hose fit the skimmer perfectly. My turtles keep aggravating the floating head of the skimmer, causing air bubbles to enter my filter. So I drilled 4 holes to let out the trapped air under the head. Then I used a zip tie on the shaft so it stays stationary. I know the reason for the trapped air is to keep the head afloat and is part of the design to adjust to water levels but I found my modifications work well as long as my water levels were consistent.

[Feguis]

Awesome tank looks great your turtle will be in heaven lol.

[VeipaCray]

Thanks guys. Yeah, my turtle is fairly spoiled. He's got super filtration, his own private garden for lettuce and vegetables, and a planted tank full of stuff that can be trimmed and fed.

@cbr900boy: great minds think alike.

[VeipaCray]

Yesterday I added some wisteria and some dwarf baby tears for ground cover to the planted tank. No pics today... maybe tomorrow I'll post another if anyone on this forum cares about the planted tank. I know it's not very turtley.

[happycamper]

Yep pictures please. Dwarf baby tears looks awesome when it fills in!

[slider_keeper]

yeah I agree I love planted tanks please post pic;)

[VeipaCray]

I was going to take a pic today and post it, but both of my camera batteries were dead. Apparently you're supposed to charge those things once in a while. Who knew?

[slider_keeper]

lol, this reminds me of our conversation about guys and instructions haha!

[VeipaCray]

So I started this tank with a partial cylinder of CO2. It ran out and I didn't notice right away. Combine that with travel for work and I didn't have CO2 on this tank for about 2 weeks. Some of the plants thinned out and I got a little hair algae. The CO2 has been refilled and the algae is going away. I've also since started dosing Seachem Iron as a few of the plants were yellowing. Things are looking better. I cannot wait for the baby tears to start spreading. Moe my has been enjoying the clippings from some of the plants so far.

[devilduck]

Filling in nicely there VeipaCray!

[VeipaCray]

Thanks! I never knew a planted tank would be as enjoyable as I'm finding it. Coming from years of reefing, this is a much more relaxed and less expensive hobby. So nice not to have to do manual salt water changes.

I need more fish... thinking about some rummynose, some cardinal neons, and a dwarf puffer. I'm also looking at an auto fish feeder (probably the double eheim) and a dosing pump to auto dose the ferts.