General Care Discussion :: Need some advice =)

[julie373]

My turtle is doing pretty good. Besides some skin peeling around his head (i've read that this is normal). I need advice on keeping my water clean. Visibly my water is clean, my filter works pretty well and the water is really clear. Do I need to be changing out the water? Also, the bottom of the tank has like food pieces and stuff on it. How do I get that out without emptying my tank? If anyone had advice on products I might need for this let me know. Im going to run to the petstore today.

[powerofvoodoo]

Yes, the water needs to be changed periodically. A lot of people test the water in their tanks to see when it needs to be changed.
Also, a lot of people here use turkey basters to get out the poop and stuff at the bottom every day, and I've used a cup.
To help keep the water/bottom of the tank clean, you might want to feed your turtle in a separate container. It doesn't cut down on the poop, but it does eliminate food particles from the water.

[julie373]

Thanks. How does a water tester tell you when the water needs to be chagned?

[SpotsMama]

On cleaning up the bottom of the tank, you can use a fish net to scoop things up or a turkey baster. I use a hand held battery powered vacuum cleaner and love it. Here's a link to it:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1

I don't know whether or not you'd be able to find something like this at a pet store but it sure is nice.

As you know, you can't really tell if the water is clean just by how it looks. Ammonia and nitrites can build up and these are both harmful but invisible. A functioning bio filter will neutralize these waste products but one of the reasons you test is to make sure your bio filter is functioning.

The byproduct of the breakdown of ammonia and nitrite is nitrate. Nitrate is also invisible and is not as detrimental as the other two (ammonia and nitrite) but it shouldn't be allowed to build up too high. The way to get rid of nitrate is to change the water. With a large aquarium most people do partial water changes every few weeks and only completely drain the tank monthly or even less often, assuming there's a good filter in place.

[scripta_elegans]

I loved my battery vac too. Now the water is 22 inches deep, and I have to drain half of it just to use it! I switched to a net. It works well and the turtles like to chase it, and bite it occasionally, which is funny.

In my personal opinion, the tank should be cleaned by removing waste at the bottom of the tank every few days, and by doing a partial (1/4 to 1/2) water change every 2 weeks. Even in the big cleaning where the tank is emptied and cleaned, I retain about a fourth of the water to pour back into it. I do this about once every 3 months, but it was more frequent when the turtle to tank to filter ratio was smaller.