General Care Discussion :: Water filtration and i.d. please.

[Simanta]

Hello.
Got two queries here.
1) My two RES of sizes 4" and 3.6" respectively produce so much waste that I have to clean the tank every 2nd or 3rd day even though I do have a top filter and a small waterfall filter in place. So, is there any alternate way of keeping the water clean for a longer period say a week. Not that I am fed up of cleaning the water for the RES, I do regular WC for my discus tanks, just want to know of alternatives if any.

2) Posting a picture of my two RES, actually the tail pics, would request the experts to i.d if its a M/F or M/M. I do understand they are still very young. Took the nail pics but not much of a difference there.

Thanks
Simanta.

[rsour24]

you want a filter rated at least 3 times the amount of you tank, so if you have a 50 gallon tank, you want a filter for a 150 gallon tank. you should upgrade to a large canister, either a fluval 405 or a fluval fx5 ,rena xp3 or xp4

id say the 4" one is female, and the one on the right looks male, but they are still a little small so give it a little more time

[marisa]

A better filter would help greatly. How big is the tank and how much water is in it?

If you feed them outside the tank in a separate container, it would cut down on some of the debris (but not what they produce). How much do they get at a feeding?

The one on the left looks like a female. At 3.6" the one on the right is a bit small, but the shape of the tail looks like it will be that of a male. Wait until s/he grows another half inch.

Do the nails look the same on both of them?

[mike hill]

It is obvious you need more filtration and more gph filter. Be careful of ratings as when filters are rated thay are rated for fish. You will need to stick to the basics of 10 gallons per inch of turtle and five times the volume in your tank (gph) for your filter. At this point the minimum tank size should be 75 gallon. Good Luck

[Simanta]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.
I did come up with a DIY solution for the filter yesterday.

Worked on the principle of vacuum suction filtration. I fitted another glass sheet about 3" away from the back tank wall and left a gap of about 1/2" at the bottom. The top filter is attached within this 3" area and it creates quite a turbulence at the tank floor, sucking up almost 90% of the debris. The glass partition was actually a big broken looking-mirror which I cut into required dimensions.

Was actually planning to build a tank level sump but knew that the bigger excretes won't be removed by the sump. Right now quite pleased with the filter doing its job, planning to shift the RES to a 150-160g tank by year end. Right now they are quite small and in a small 60g tank.

I understand profiling them for M/F is a bit difficult right now as they are still small and adding up to the poor pic. quality I had posted, just hope that they are not M/M and start fighting later.

regards
Simanta.