General Care Discussion :: how do i improve the water quality?

[speedylover]

???

[Raphulk]

well where are you currently getting your tank water from?
what is your filtration like?
how often do you do water changes? (what percentage?)
do you feed your turtle(s) in the tank?

[speedylover]

well i get the water from the faucet
i have the reptofilter you one?
well i guess every week or week and a half
yes i feed them in the tank because if i put them
in something else they'll act weird and ignore the food:

[Raphulk]

what size is your tank?
how many turtles do you have? (size?)

[speedylover]

well:(
i cant really afford a realyy big tank i have a 20 gallon
2 turtles Speedy=4 in and Obama=2.5

[Raphulk]

it's ok

when I had my 20 gallon I did full water changes every week
since the tank is considerably small it doesn't take much time.
water from the faucet is usually ok.
I used it before, I now use hose water if I do water changes
the biggest problem with tap water is probably the hardness
hard water causes mineral deposits around the tank and on the turtle shell (they are white and rough)

bad water will also cause illness, but if it's just regular tap water from your sink faucet, the best way to "improve" or maintain good water is to:

have a decent filter (change the filter pads when need be)
do water changes every week

[speedylover]

thanks:)
ill do that

[mikee]

spee-lov -- Your tank is too small for your turtles. You will need at least 10 gallons per inch of turtle. With that you will need a filter pump that pumps that amount of water at least 5 times per hour of the volume of that tank. As they grow you will need to get larger tanks. Turtles are not cheap to keep. Good Luck!! m.