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Disclaimer: I did a pretty thorough search for this prior to asking.


Anybody have any suggestions as far as keeping the water from being so smelly?

We just set our 55 gallon tank up on Sunday and the water is fairly smelly already.

XP3 filter, too.

Only 2 turtles, 1 pleco, & 1 crayfish.



Thanks, in advance, guys!

Any live plants like anacharis?

Are you using activated carbon in it?

How big are the turtles & pleco and how much water volume is actually in the tank?

Sorry for the delay, guys.

No live plants at all.

Two turtles. One is about 3.25" and one is a tad bit shy of 4". Pleco is about 3" - 4", as well

We are using activated carbon and the tank is at least 75 - 80% full.

Well, a bigger tank with more water would help. The pleco and crayfish are adding to the bioload...

Do you have any substrate on the bottom like gravel/small pebbles?

Do you have any bio media in your filters? That is what will really break down the gunk. Your tank is overloaded, that plays a part.

Did you cycle the tank before adding the animals? You probably don't have much biological action going on.
You have a lot of animals in not very much tank, so that's going to be pretty hard to keep clean. Turtles and crayfish are both very messy.

Just out of curiosity, how long have you had the turtles and crayfish together?

I didn't cycle the tank. I can honestly say that I'm not even fully sure what that even entails.

We cleaned the tank out this past weekend and changed most of the water. The smell of the tank fluctuates, it seems, and right now everything seems to be alright.

What sort of bio media do you recommend for the XP3?

Aside from the large river rocks, I don't have any other rocks. I have 50lbs of those.

The crayfish has been in there for almost 2 weeks now. He's been safe, thus far, with the exception of shortened antennae. I have numerous hiding spots for him (that he utilizes daily since he mainly comes out at night)

I thought that 55-gallons would be able to comfortably sustain 2 juvenile turtles, the pleco, and the crayfish. I certainly would love to upgrade but, in an apartment, space is a valuable commodity. Should everything go our way, we'll be moving into a house at the beginning of next year. Then, I'll be in a much better position to upgrade.

I have to keep the tank in thet diningroom - out of TV-range - and I'll spend an hour or more sometimes, just watching the tank. I truly have gotten much more enjoyment out of the tank than I thought.

Have you tried feeding your turtle in a separate container, outside of the tank? I'd also remove any other creatures that are sharing the tank.

The biomedia that's sold for the XP3 is ceramic rings and stars. (I use both.) But you can use other biomedia as well (some people use lava rock, for example). I just like to use what was intended for the filter.