Habitat - Indoor :: Water quality

[turtlesrmom]

Alright then....thank you very much, I just fished the purigen out of the trash and bagged it!

[VeipaCray]

Oh yeah good save. The Seachem Purigen site says they can last up to 6 months and be regenerated 6 times. I've been using this product for years and believe you need to recharge them monthly and they'll last about a year (recharge 12x).

Now that you have two you can swap them. This is what I do. While one purigen bag is in use, I recharge the other and have it ready. When it's time for monthly filter maintenance, I just take the dirty purigen out and put the ready to go one in. I swap them back and forth... so each bag is only being used every other month. I replace both bags every two years.

[turtlesrmom]

Great! Gonna check the Purigen site. Oh and the tank water isn't clearing up so well yet. One problem was that I had put one of the filter pieces together so that it was slightly off-position so the water wasn't flowing well. Once I found that out and fixed it, it ran quicker. Just waiting now to see if that helps.

[VeipaCray]

Are you still using the small fluval filter or is this a new canister that isn't clearing up the water?

[turtlesrmom]

I'm using the small one. I want to use up my media before I get a bigger one. I am just changing some of the tank water and cleaning/changing the media more often.

[turtlesrmom]

Oh YAY........ The water looks clean and clear after a thorough cleaning and replacing of much of the media. I just need to do this more often. House cleaning on hold. Turtle tank cleaning top priority! I got ChlorGuard for the Purigen. I'm happy I have clean water so I can observe the little guy moving furniture around at all hours of the day and night.

[VeipaCray]

Glad your water cleared up

[turtlesrmom]

I need a bigger filter system...hopefully after the new year. I clean everything up, replace most of the media and the water is still cloudy.

[turtlesrmom]

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a great Christmas! I did and while we were discussing turtles at one point, an ex-owner of a turtle told me I might be able to get a sucker fish to help keep the tank water cleaner. I haven't see anyone talk about that here so I thought I would ask about it. I just figured that Krush would most likely catch it and eat it at some point like he does with the minnows I give to him. Is it possible to have a sucker fish and a turtle live together in harmony in a tank?

[VeipaCray]

There are many species of plecostomus often referred to as plecos or pleccos. There are more than a few threads on this forum with info on these fish. These fish are algae eaters and will help keep the glass clean if you have algae. They will also scavenge and eat uneaten food from the bottom of the tank (should your turtle not consume everything). Very large plecostomus have a better chance of surviving, but nothing is really safe from your turtle. If your turtle so desires, the plecostomus will become sushi lunch.

Plecostomus will not help with your water being cloudy. They will add additional bio load and magnify the small filter problem you already have. They however are great fish and much fun to watch, but you may need to feed them algae wafers if your tank isn't full of algae. My advice is if you get one.. don't spend a lot.

[turtlesrmom]

Thanks ....probably not going to bother with the fish then. I find that there's a lot of advice out there but I'm not going to take any of it without checking here first. I don't have an algae problem at all however, last time I cleaned the filter system which was after about three weeks time, there was a white, fuzzy fungus in some of the filter parts which I've never seen before.

[VeipaCray]

Could you post a picture if you see it again next time? Normally white fuzzy fungus is mold growth on uneaten food that's been sucked in by the filter.

[turtlesrmom]

Yesterday when I cleaned the filter and tank, there was mostly a slimy, gooey kind of stuff all over everything. I teensy bit of the white fuzzy but even a photo wouldn't have shown what it looked like the time before. I replaced the carbon and put in the regenerated Purigen, replaced a small amount of the C nodes plus the polyester foam pad and that other filter on top of the little box with the C nodes in it (can't think of what the filter is called). I vacuumed it out and replaced about 1/2 of the water. It looks much better now but still not as clear as it should be. I have been feeding Krush mainly the frozen squares of food that I like because it's easy and he loves them but also I've been giving him a shrimp now and then. I wonder if the oil in the shrimp would be causing the mold in the filter and the slimy gooey stuff.

I am going to get a big canister filter system soon and now I'm shopping around for a good deal.

[VeipaCray]

The slimy gooey stuff is normal. The C nodes are biological media... you shouldn't need to replace them. The manufacturer would LOVE for you to believe that you need to replace their expensive media regularly. Just give them a quick rinse under water and you can re-use those things indefinitely.

The foam pads are reusable as well... this one is your call. You can rinse them under hot water and get them clean or just replace them if it's easier. When you get a large canister filter, the foam media is expensive to replace and most people just end up rinsing it really good.

FX5 on ebay is always a great choice... they run around $200USD (not sure in canadian).

[turtlesrmom]

Alrighty then. And when I get my new filter, I'll be back on here to find out about changing the media according to turtle keepers, not turtle sellers! Thank you very much, sir In Canada it's way more expensive and the tax'll kill ya