Habitat - Indoor

As for the epoxy resin, i'm not sure. Its been in the tank for about 3 weeks before I added any water that wasn't used for just cleaning. I don't know if it matters, but when it dries it forms what feels like a hard plastic-like finish. I'll just call them and ask about any potential reactions.

Well, its brand new and I've never had one of their filters before. When I change over the filter media, I will give the inside another look over. I let my 12 year old clean the housing...probably a bad idea. Would the possible oil residue/plastic be potentially hazardous to the turtle, or do you think it will dissipate? Like you said, I will let it go one more day. I've already changed out the water twice before even using the filter and I'd prefer to just wait until next month.

The reaction between the epoxy and the silicone is possible... but unlikely.

generally speaking if there's any oil residue / plastic residue from the filter... it should work its way up the surface and float.

Did your son clean the housing with any kindof chemical or just rinse it with tap water? You could always try re-cleaning the housing... a mixture of white vinegar and water works well.

I guess if after a day or so it doesn't go away you'll need to try and isolate the parts to see where the smell is coming from? Transfer some of the water to a bucket... see if that smells. Empty the aquarium and see if the dock smells, disconnect the canister and see if there's an odor coming from there. Once you locate the source of the odor, we can work on removing it.

Maybe you should add some feeder fish to see if there is any negative reaction to the water.

steve wrote:Maybe you should add some feeder fish to see if there is any negative reaction to the water.

OK i know this is a turtle forum, but poor :mrfish: (you need a fish smiley steve)

My son is the 4 year old and he pretty much only feeds Tuck...Its my 12 year old daughter that was "helping" me clean. We just used strait tap water...probably didn't do any good removing the oils that I'm pretty sure were in there. I will reclean the housing with the vingar/water mix and pray that that was the source and cure. The feeder fish is an excellent idea Steve! If they survive, Tuck gets his snack for waiting an extra day or so. I will probably clean the filter tonight or tomorrow AM and post an update afterwards.

Nono... don't use a feeder fish. I think Steve was kidding.

If there is some chemical reaction or something being leeched into the water... your fish will ingest that water and your turtle will ingest the fish.

Let's just figure out where the smell is coming from (water, dock or filter) and we can address it.

True, I would not want to feed the fish to the turtle. I could always "release" them. I have not been home all day, however I do have a thought on where it might be coming from. I'll explain more later after I get home I will take a pic and upload it here.

Well, I just got home and smelled around the tank. I noticed that the smell was strongest on the left side of the tank right by the water output and almost no odor on the right side of the tank...the side with the dock.

This is a picture of the right side of the tank where I noticed water had leaked into the space around where I sealed a section of the dock to the wall of the tank. I did not notice any of the odor on this side, but nonetheless, that leak may need to be resolved in the future.

Now I am really curious if the smell is originating from the filter, or from deep in the water of the tank. Without a uniform smell above water, my bet is on the filter. I'm off to the store to get some white vinegar. Wish me luck!

The easiest way to clean the filter when you get that vinegar is to pour the vinegar into a bucket and top it off with warm water. Take all the media out of the filter. Put the intake and the return in the bucket and let the filter cycle the vinegar water for a while. When it's done, dump out the vinegar water and let the filter cycle some plain cold water (rinse).

I just got home with the vinegar. Will I be starting with the filter housing empty (no water), or should that be filled with vinegar water solution in addition to one bucket of vinegar water? Also, what proportion of water to vinegar should I use. I bought a 64oz bottle. The only bucket I have is approximately the same size as the filter housing.

Well, I just went ahead and used what I had...but when I took apart the filter, I noticed that filter floss smelled a little bit off, but when I smelled the carbon (admittedly, I overcompensated with the large amount I put in, in hindsight possibly causing some flow issues) it had a relatively bad egg/sulfur smell too it. Also, I had two brands of carbon inside, and the off-brand I bought from Petco seemed to smell slightly worse. For the sake of it, I will be running the vinegar solution through the filter for a couple of hours anyways because it did have traces of unidentifiable build-up in the crevices. I'm wondering just how carbon can go bad. Should I still try to use it, or dump it for some higher quality stuff? (insert plug for purigen here)

VepiaCray, I added the large amount of carbon BEFORE you and I discussed the proportions you use. I just never changed it because I was only going to run it that way for a couple of days. Who'd have thunk the stuff would end up smelling like rotten eggs.

God Bless Build Threads!

I found this bit of information from ehow.com that talked somewhat about my dilema. "Hydrogen sulfide gives off the odor of rotten eggs, and it appears in groundwater as a result of decaying organic matter and bacteria." Also that while low levels of sulfur in the form of hydrogen sulfide or sulfates are not immediately harmful, the odor and taste of the water is unpleasant.

I should also mention that my filter has a built in UV sterilizer. Not sure if that could have anything to do with it, but in theory, it may have killing that bacteria a.k.a. organic matter...I really have no idea and am just pulling at strings. For now, I'm making sure the UV sterilizer is off, and I'm replacing the filter floss and carbon and starting over tomorrow.

Do you think I should dump all the water as well? :shock:

*edit*
This is another link that talks about the sulfur smell issue I have.http://www.barrreport.com/archive/index.php/t-8390.html
Hopefully someone a lot more knowledgeable than me can help interpret this. So far it looks like I may not be able to avoid doing a 3rd water change in the last week. I'm also wondering if it is all due to circulation issues inside the filter by me overloading it with way too much carbon.

There's no exact formula with the vinegar water. It will rinse any surface oils from the plastic much faster than water alone. Protein skimmer manufacturers tell you to do this exact thing for the same reason with a new skimmer.

Carbon doesn't go bad. It does become exhausted. Once it pulls organics or chloramine out of the water to it's capacity, it won't do any more.
There's not much difference in quality of carbon in terms of performance. More expensive carbon might have less dust and rinse clean quicker. There's also extruded carbon... All of the pieces are of uniform shape.. Less dust and fines with extruded carbon. No real difference in performance. I use the lignite carbon (extruded) from bulk reef supply

Yeah floss and sponge in the filter will trap all kinds of gunk and stink. I highly recommend you do not make a habit of smelling your filter media when you open the canister.

Replacing your water won't hurt. (some time and a few bucks on your water bill).
Add your bio media in the filter this go round.

Last night I let the filter run for a couple of hours with a vinegar/water solution...turned it off for a few hours and in the morning rinsed the housing out with hot water...cycled very warm water through the filter with a bucket, then again two more times with cold tap water (currently on the 3rd change. I am also going to do a water change in the tank when I'm done with the filter.

Today I went to Pet Supermarket to buy some more carbon, so I picked that up, and I just happened to see out of the corner of my eye, a single 100ml box of Purigen. It was way over priced, but doing this on the cheap will cost you more money in the long haul. I will buy a second bag online next month then swap and recharge. I picked up some filter fiber, and a few filter floss pads as well. I still have 3 filter pads the filter came with and a ton of ceramic rings.

Since you know all of my short history with this filter, and now the supplies I have on hand and seeing that im essentially starting over...how should I set the filter up?

VeipaCray, you mentioned adding the ceramic rings this time, any suggestions on how i should do the rest of this optional-optional setup? A cool picture would be awesome, but at this point some advice would help.

Oh, I 'accidentally' bought some bio-balls and read that they are more or less ineffective. I will be returning them tomorrow.

Just set your filter up for normal day to day media config.

First in the water path is the sponges that came with the filter. Second in the water path is chemical media (your bag of purigen and a bag of carbon). Fill the rest of the canister up with bio media.
The carbon will handle the chloramine from the new water.

Bio balls are deisgned to work in trickle filters (older style sump filters) where the dirty water is splashed over them. They aren't very effective in a canister filter. Bio rings/nuggets/stars are your best bet for bio media in a canister.

Habitat - Indoor :: Tucks New But Temporary Home - Build Thread

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