General Care Discussion :: Hi. New Here. I have a few questions ; )

[Harold The Turtle]

Hey all.

I bought a couple of turtles for my sister, (She's 10) and there are a few concerns I have that yo guys hopefully could help me with.

1. The new filter i purchased is quite loud. It's a repticlear F350 (non-compact). It's not a big deal for me, but she will be losing a bit of sleep over it. I bought a much smaller filter and its inaudible. The problem is the tank gets dirtier a lot faster. Is there a trick to setting up the big filter so that it is quiet? Does the filter get quitter after a few hours?

2. One of the turtles seems to be shedding quite a bit. He has lots of flailing skin coming off his neck and leg. I feed him 2 capsules twice a day of normal turtle yums. I'm hearing that turtles shed more if they are overheated. THe water is room temperate and I think my heat lamp is too close to their basking rock. Is there a recommended distance for that sort of thing?

I love these turtles very much and I hope somebody can answer me soon.

Cheers,
Jimmy

[db'sSlider]

Id recommend getting a thermometer (i prefer digital) so you can check you have the correct temperatures.
Your water should be 78-82 degrees F. More toward 82 for younger turtles.
Your basking area should be about 10 degrees hotter than that.

[Jaysea]

What is the noise in the filter, just the mechanical noise or the noise of the water flowing out of it?

I'm also going to recommend thermometers, you should have one in the water to measure water temp and one at the basking area so you can make sure temps in both areas are where they should be. Here's the sites section on lighting and basking for a little more detail. http://redearslider.com/index_lighting_basking.html

This is the section on feeding and nutrition for your little guys. http://redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html

And here's for general care. http://redearslider.com/index_basic_care.html

I spent a ton of time just reading through all the info on this site when i first got my turtle. I'm gonna guess i spent a few hours a day on here. There's alot to learn about these little guys and this site is very helpful for that. Enjoy your turtles it's amazing how fast you can get addicted to these little green cuties, I love mine to death.