General Care Discussion :: Water Saga Continues

[Jet]

Me again, water issues continue. I came home on Friday and the water so cloudy I could hardly see my turtle. So I changed his tank water completly (I know not a good idea) and the water was beautiful for like a day now it is so cloudy again. All the levels good.
Can't think of what it could be. Maybe something in the filter media?
This is a puzzle.
Thanks.........Tina

[SpotsMama]

Can you refresh our memory about a few things - how long have you had your tank and filter?

What kind of filter do you have?

Is the filter media new - if so, how new?

How large is your tank?

And how many turtles are in it and what size are they?

[Jet]

Can you refresh our memory about a few things -

how long have you had your tank and filter? About 6 months

What kind of filter do you have? Fluval 205

Is the filter media new - if so, how new? Rings are original, carbon is about 1 1/2 weeks old.

How large is your tank? 45 gallon with about 20/25 gallons of water

And how many turtles are in it and what size are they?

1 turtle

Thanks

[Cramer]

Assuming your filter is adequate, your levels are good and you carbon was well pre-rinsed or not recently changed, I would think it is an organic pollutant from left over pellets or crappy ones that clowd the water unnessecarily.

[mikee]

Your filter, 205 fluval is a 110 gph which is a little small for your tank. If your water is about 30 gallons you will need to exchange it at least 5 time per hour gph. You may want to consider someting that will put out 300 to 350 gph in that tank. The Fluval 405 puts out about 300 gph and Marineland has a couple that put out 350 to 360 gph. You may have to do your 50% water changes right away until it get straightened out.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Another thing you can try is to feed your turtle his pellets in a separate pan of water. I find this to be a lifesaver for my big adult RES. Pellets don't look like they would be all that messy, but after you watch them eating them, you will see all the little pieces of pellet ("crumbs") floating in the water when they are done eating. These crumbs can mucky-up the water pretty quickly & make the water smell bad in a short period of time (remember that the pellets have "fish meal" in them & we all know how bad fish can smell when it rots!). The bigger the turtle, the more pellets he/she will eat, which leads to more food waste in the water.

Some turtles are not fond of eating outside their tank (in a separate pan of water), and that's ok. It depends on the turtle whether you will be successful with this or not. In my case, it is one way where I can interact with my turtle regularly. After 18 yrs, she has gotten used to it.

[grey goose]

The only way to diagnose whats going on is to get a water test kit:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... tertestkit

Test for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. Then post the results, and we can go from there.

The best thing you can do in the mean time is water changes BUT STOP changing out all the water! This won't help the situation....50% water change max every other day. And you must use the appropriate amount of conditioner at every water change.

How often are you cleaning the filter? What kind of media are you using? Are you using carbon? If so, do you change the carbon once a month?

When you clean your filter, do you clean the sponges and media in old tank water or conditioned water? You're not cleaning the sponges and media under tap water, are you?

[mikee]

And revisit the size of your filter/pump. Is the gph and filter area enough?

[Jet]

Thank you all for your help. I bought the filter at a store that only sells turtles and other reptiles. The guy there told me the filter would be adequate. Since this is a recent problem I can only assume that the filter has been working properly all this time.
I don't rise the media in tap water but in old tank water and if it doesn't need it I don't rinse it at all. The carbon gets changed once a month regularly.
He typically eats all his food and there is usually nothing left over, not even crumbs.
I am wondering if I need to put some new rings in with some of the old. I am going to take the filter apart but can't get to it until this weekend. I have been doing a 25-30 water change each day and adding at least an equal amount of water conditioner. This water condition won't harm my turtle will it? He seems fine and as happy as ever.
Thanks again I do appreciate your help.
Tina

[mikee]

Your water conditioner is to get out the chlorine out of the city water. If done properly it will not harm the turtles and if a little remains in the water it will harm your bacteria, which you don't want to happen. What size filter did you get? What was the gph?