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I have 2 eheim canister filters. One is a professional II and the other is a classic 213. The pro has a standard set up and the classic has filter floss insted of a substrate. Levels (Nitrate/Nitrite) are fine. I haven't turned them off in about 2 or 3 months. When/how should I clean them?

Ammonia and Nitrite should remain at 0 for a cycled tank... this is a function of the nitrifying bacteria that lives in/on your filter's bio media. When you clean the filter, you need to make sure the bio media stays wet and that you don't actually "clean" it. Your best bet is to take a small bucket of tank water and just rinse it in there.

Nitrate isn't controlled by your filter. Your regular water changes are what keep the nitrate levels in check.

When to clean your filter? well.... that depends. If you have carbon in your filter (you should) then that needs to be replaced monthly. Since you have to open your filter to replace the carbon, it's a good time to clean it.

If you're not using carbon and are dealing with chloramine via a carbon pre-filter, then really you only need to clean the filter when it starts to clog and the output isn't flowing as well.

As for your other filter parts.... rinsing them in tap water is good enough. Cheers!

Thanks! I do have carbon and will be replacing that, as well as cleaning all the gunk on the flow bars and intakes. Would it be OK to put a plecco in the tank to help clean the glass? Also, what about brown water? I'm sure mine is from the giant piece of drift wood i found that is in there. How should i go about making it more "tea colored"?

You can try a plecco but it may become turtle lunch. Some turtles will leave them alone some won't. My advice... don't spend a lot on a rare plecco.

Yes the tea colored water is most likely from the tannins in your driftwood. You could take the driftwood out and rinse it. Some say boil it. In the tank... add some purigen to your filter. There's a ton of posts on this forum about purigen. It will help get your water crystal clear.

I have also noticed there is a strange grey "fuzz" growing on the driftwood. I removed some of it. My question is if is dangerous. Is it?

Without knowing what it is, it's hard to gauge it but anything that is not green algae I normally try to remove quickly.

I use Chinese algae eaters, they keep the glass and silicone clean, along with the filter plumbing. They can't keep up with the driftwood pieces I have in the tank. There is 8 pieces of driftwood in my tank. I have two algae eaters in my tank. My turtle can't catch them, they are very quick when they need to be.

Thanks! I do have carbon and will be replacing that, as well as cleaning all the gunk on the flow bars and intakes. Would it be OK to put a plecco in the tank to help clean the glass?

A little late to this discussion, nonetheless here goes. I'll start by saying I have 2 ancistrus, 3 golden algae eaters and 7 cory julii sharing a tank with my three juvenile turtles (one about a year and a half, the other two about a year old). Everyone is healthy, active and seems to get along well with everyone else. The fish and turtles have been in the same tank for 8 or 9 months and no fish have been eaten yet. For security I have a couple of stainless wire shelf units in the bottom of the tank so the fish have about an inch and half of relatively safe space. I also have a number of items in the tank that provide hiding spaces for the fish. That said, I'll add that the turtles mostly ignore the fish even when the corys are swimming around them. The goldens are much more cautious and don't swim near the turtles.

If you are seriously considering adding fish (or a few) to your tank to help with the housekeeping, be advised that many plecos can grow to 2 FEET or more in length! That's a heck of a lot of fish. For most tanks, the preferred algae eaters are ancistrus, sometimes called "bushy nose" or "bristle nose" plecos. They are NOT the same as plecostomus (Hypostomus plecostomus), the cute "little plecos" you will find in your LFS, even though they look similar when young. Ancistrus typically grow to 5-6 inches max. You'll find them only in some fish/pet stores and you'll probably have to ask around to locate a store with a knowledgeable fishman who knows what you're talking about. Your average salesperson will try to sell you a plecostomus and may even try to convince you it won't get "too big". Ancistrus are nocturnal so they'll do most of the housecleaning while everyone else is sleeping and hide out during the day in whatever safe holes you provide for them. That means you won't see them very often. But if you've got algae you will see it disappear.

I don't recommend Chinese algae eaters (Gyrinocheilus) for two reasons. First, they can grow to 11-12 inches and get pretty unfriendly as they get bigger. I don't think they would be much of a threat to your adult turtles, but they will harass any smaller fish in the tank unless you keep them very well fed. Second, they tend to stop eating algae as they get bigger and older. So you end up with a big, ornery fish that will only add to the waste in your tank. On the other hand, the albino Chinese (aka "Golden algae eater") will max out at about 5-6 inches and continue to eat algae. As long as it has plenty to eat it also will not harass other fish in the tank. Although, if you have more than one golden in the tank, one of them will become dominant and grow larger and more territorial than the other(s) and will harass any other goldens a bit. Again, best thing to do is make sure the goldens get plenty to eat, algae or otherwise.

I got the corys to clean up the bottom debris, which they do really well. They also like to eat the layer of slime that forms on everything in the water. The goldens like that stuff, too. All my goldens grew up with the corys, and get along well with them. The corys are very fun fish to have as they are quite entertaining. You need to have a min of 3 (I'd even suggest a min of 5), however, since they are a schoaling species and do better the more of them you have.

Finally, if you keep fish to eat algae and turtle food leftovers, be sure to feed them real fish food as well. Otherwise, they'll probably starve to death eventually. Unless you've got a really dirty tank, there won't be enough algae and turtle scraps to keep your fish alive very long. I give my fish some food and an algae wafer in the evening when I feed the turtles. Unless I over feed them, they will pretty much eat everything by the next afternoon.

Fish are fun, too!

I keep Chinese algae eaters. I don't have any problems with them being aggressive to anyone else in the tank. They eat all the left overs and they eat the algae on the glass. Mine are several years old and are only about 2 in. max. Not sure about the 12 in length, but I also have a very large tank that gives my fish space to escape. My turtle will see them but they leave the area and he doesn't pursue long enough to catch them. I have a 6 in. 4 yrs. old male, he will eat anything! As long as the fish have room to go to another area away from the turtle, and are fast, they can survive in a turtle tank. But don't mistake me, my turtle is fast! Very fast! Sliders, are very good swimmers. I believe if he really wanted to he would eat every fish in his tank. I only keep algae eaters and guppies. All other fish have been eliminated on my turtles decision. As your turtles grow they could see a conflict in interest and the fish will begin to disappear. Another good example. My turtle ate all the female guppies and leaves the males alone. I can't explain it but yep. So know there is only males in his tank. I said at an earlier time before this new idea the guppies would never go extinct in his tank. I guess he didn't like that idea so he got rid of the gender that gives birth in his tank and makes new babies show up in his water!

Thanks for your reply. I got my info re CAE from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrinocheilus plus a few other sites. I guess like many things, YMMV!

Since you have a relatively large tank and your CAEs are relatively small, it could be that they have enough territory to keep them happy. Assuming you have several, is one of them larger than the others? One of my goldens is about 5-6 inches long and about 3/4 inch in diameter in the midriff, while both of the others are about half that. Aside from occasionally chasing the other goldens, the large one doesn't harass anyone else. The two smaller goldens chase each other occasionally as well. All three goldens get along very well with the corys and ancistrus. In fact, the two smaller goldens seem to think they belong to the cory schoal and spend most of their time with the corys. They swim very fast as you say.

Yeah, mine are all the same size except one, that one is only an inch or so. My others are 6 in. They all get along and will swim around the tank from driftwood to driftwood. They don't seem to harass the guppies or my turtle. I suspect this is due to the size of the tank and volume of water.

I have a golden CAE that I've had for over a year. It is about 3-3.5 inches. How long does it take them to grow to 6 inches?

devilduck wrote:I have a golden CAE that I've had for over a year. It is about 3-3.5 inches. How long does it take them to grow to 6 inches?

I got two goldens at the same time, around Dec/12. Both were about 1 1/2 inches when I got them. In about 3-4 months one of the two was nearly double the size of the other one. After about 6 months the larger one had grown to about 6 inches, which seems to be about all he's going to grow. The smaller one grew to about 4 inches and that seems to be it for him. I bought a third golden about a month or 6 weeks ago and he's grown to about 3 1/2 inches already. I expect he will get to 4 inches and stop growing.

Get another baby and see what happens!