Habitat - Indoor :: Water treatment ok and gravel vaccums?

[daredevilgirl013]

Ok so my turtle water is really cloudy. Just changed the water two weeks ago and it shouldn't be like this. Why I don't know but it seems like my Ghost shrimp are lacking when it comes to cleaning up the waste and the left over food. So today I went to Walmart and got Tetra Aqua Water Clarifier, clears cloudy aquarium water. Now it says it is safe to use on fish and plants but it never says anything about turtles. So is it safe for the turtles?

Also I bought a gravel vaccum because I personally do not want to do a water change everytime the water becomes cloudy (seriously that takes out my whole day and with working full time and odd hours I usually can't just clean the tank on a whim and do a whole tank cleaning..so I figured this would help) Are they relatively simple to figure out? I was just wondering because I never used one before and I don't have any gravel in my tank, I just want to use it to get the debris the animals are not cleaning up. Also for those of you with ghost shrimp..how often do they get caught in it?

[mullman]

I bought my gravel vac at Wal Mart on Sunday, and I think it is the coolest!
I did a 50% change in just a few mins!

[GEMS]

Mullman -

What brand is yours? I bought one at Walmart but it is on a manual basis, and it didn't seem very effective. I am condsidering taking turt out and using wet/dry vac! Thanks

S-M

[samandnelly]

You might need a stronger filter. I used a Fluval 1 [said to be used for up to 12 gallons] for 12 gallons full of water and it did a terrible job. But I moved up to a Fluval 2plus [up to 25 gallons] and it's worked like a dream.

[CountryGirl68]

Also I bought a gravel vaccum ... Are they relatively simple to figure out?

The Super Battery Vac I have is easy to use and it doesn't syphon the water out. It uses a cheesecloth-like bag to catch the gunk in the tank. You just put in 4 D batteries, put the vac in the tank, push the button and it sucks up whatever is in the tank effortlessly. With my fish tank, I have to be careful because it will even suck up the gravel. So it should work fine even if there isn't any gravel in the tank.