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I have two RES's in a 10g tank.
My filter is set to cycle 90 gph and keeps things pretty clean.
Been a week like this and the water is getting a little cloudy.
(pic of of setup, not today's water)



The turtles are just perfect, eating, playing, sunning.

I have three tiny feeder minnows, 1 pleco, 2F guppies, and 1M guppy.
The fish are all very tiny, but I thought the turtles would eat some of the fish by now, but they could care less about them. I fear my bio load is too high.

So the question is do I let my tank cycle or do a water change?
Either way I am going to get some type of suction cleaner today to suck solid waste off the bottom.

For a smaller tank, you are going to be looking at more frequent cleanings. Maybe as much as once every week to week and a half....maybe even more. If it's starting to get cloudy, I'd clean it.

I bought a gavel vacuum today - wow that is awesome!
$4 at Wal-Mart.

I sucked all the junk off the bottom and sucked out 50% of the water, then replaced with clean water & treatment.

How often should I clean the filter?

Don't know what kind of filter it is, but with most filters you know by the water outflow---if it's reduced, the filter is getting clogged. But with such a small tank and two turtles (and if you feed in the tank), you're probably going to have to clean it fairly frequently. Do a little experimenting with how long it can go before a cleaning.

I used the same filter, except with higher capacity, for years. With only 10-gallons of water, you don't have enough water to truly cycle. You will probably need to to a change about every 2 weeks. I don't think it could go longer than that. Do you have a test kit? It's important to test your ammonia and nitrite levels so that you can keep the water safe. Clear water is not necessarily safe water.