General Care Discussion :: Update on Brixie!!!

[Peva]

Hello everyone! I've been gone from the forums for a while so I think it's only appropriate to post a entry of sorts on the adventures of Brixie the turtle!



Yeah, I love her lots. So time for her adventures!

For the longest time, she had no heat bulbs. It was something scary, not having them. She did manage for quite a while, however, with a regular bulb. I'm sure you all remember the crisis of when she got out of her tank for two days, right? Well when that happened, I kept the water level really low. Then my uncle made this nice little thing for me.



It's fits over the basking area perfectly, stopping her from escaping that way. My Uncle custom cut it so it could rest left of the area and not interfere with the filter. It's dang awesome, it is.

Lets see, what else besides that? Grasshoppers! It's Grasshopper season in Colorado! You know what that means? Free food for Brixie! Here is a Youtube video of her eating one. I think this is a two day old video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oPCYub1VwI[/youtube]

She really seems to enjoy them, the people that hatched her must have fed her Crickets a lot. Yeah, why does the store only sell Crickets? Am I not supposed to feed her Grasshoppers? Anyways, more on food. Brixie REFUSES to eat Cuttlebone anymore. So I figure the best way to get some extra Calcium into her diet would be to try making some Jello shots, which I'll try to do soon. I can sneak some calcium into them. That also brings me to my next point, her shell? Take a good long look at her shell in the video and in the following picture.


It's definitely not normal, I know this much. That might be because of the following:
1. I haven't been monitoring her diet well. I'll start to do that. I'd love some feeding lists that include Pellets, Feeder Fish, Grasshoppers, and the such.
2. Poorly conditioned water. I really have been neglecting her water. I spent a good three hours Yesterday cleaning it out, but for the first time since May, I think. I know, bad me, but I'm going to do much much better from now on, a bucketful of water out every other week at least, more if you think I should. Also, I never add anything to the water, besides lately some de-chloronater.

Whats next on food? Oh right! Rosy Reds! When she was still a new member of the tank, she would never be able to catch them! That's not the case anymore! At the beginning of summer, I bought...maybe 10-20 RRs, and until Sunday, one of them survived. He/she must have been a good swimmer, because it took Brixie the whole summer just to catch the others! On Sunday I went out and bought 10 more, and she pretty much instantly got all of them. I got 10 more at the store Today, and there is probably 5 left. My brother told me the other day "Dude, Brixie is chasing this orange fish with vengeance!" She is a trooper and won't give up!

You see the green spots all over the tank? I cleaned those off with a scrubbie Yesterday, so no need to worry about them. I'll clean them more often now.

Well that's my update! I'd like to know everything I can do to improve her life! Especially her poor shell.

[steve]

Thanks for the update, she looks like she's doing well!

If possible, don't use a water conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramines but use activated carbon.

[Peva]

What about her shell condition? Does it look ok?

I also forgot to mention that I have never replaced the filter packs, I just thoroughly wash them. Should I think about replacing them?
And normally I just let the water sit, what is that thing, activated carbon? Can I buy it at local pet store?

[steve]

I can't tell much from the pics.. maybe it's getting ready to shed.

For filter media...
Foam media -> wash and reuse
Carbon -> replace
Bio media -> rinse in tank water and reuse

[Peva]

I'm probably already using Carbon then.

[PridgNYC]

I'm probably already using Carbon then.

I'd say probably not, since you asked what it is, and have never replaced your filter packs. It is possible that there is some carbon in one of your filter packs, but it is only good for about a month (even if you clean it). Activated carbon looks like small black rocks or pellets. Here is a link to an amazon search for it... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=activated+carbon&x=0&y=0 You should be able to get it at any pet store that deals in aquariums and fish. I don't know what kind of filter you have, but whisper packages the carbon inside the white floss envelope cartridge. This should be replaced. If there is room for a little more media in your filter, you could just buy carbon in bulk and put it into the little mesh bags they sell at the pet store or a little bag made out of a new clean pair of nylons.

[PridgNYC]

I actually came up with a good idea the other day (at least I think it is). I always keep a 5 gallon jug of water filled just to the top of where it starts to narrow to the top (for maximum surface area exposed to air), that I use to top off the tank. This is to allow the chlorine to evaporate, unfortunately chloramines don't evaporate. So I took one of my extra carbon bags and attached a stiff wire to it and put it in the jug as well. The stiff wire allows me to stir the water a couple times a day with the bag attached, and I can pull the bag up into the neck of the jug when I pour out the water into the tank providing a last shot of chlorine/chloramine removal before adding to the tank.

Still not sure about what to do about my first big water change coming up, the tank has been cycling for 2 1/2 weeks so far, and the 5 gallon jug is not going to be nearly enough to do a significant water change in my 75 gallon tank.

[VeipaCray]

@ PridgNYC > you only need to do about a 10% water change monthly. Your 75 gallon tank doesn't quite hold 75 gallons (an ongoing discussion with a few people). So let's say you need 6-7 gallons to do a 10% change each month. Your 5 gallon bucket isn't far off.

Other options...

1. Add new carbon to your filter each month. Let the carbon in the filter deal with the chloramine removal. If I remember correctly, you have an FX5 that's about 600GPH. Let's say your tank holds 67ish gallons, but you have sand substrate so really your tank is around maybe 60 gallons (for easy math). You're still cycling your tank 10x per hour. The chloramine will be dealt with promptly in your setup.
2. Do you have filtered water in your fridge? Newer refrigerators have a single stage carbon filter. You could use this water for your water change / top off water.
3. A britta style pitcher has a carbon filter.
4. A Pur style attaches to faucet is a carbon filter.
5. You can get a tap water filter from any hardware store. It uses the water pressure to force water through one or two stages of filtration. Usually they have a sediment filter and a carbon filter. They are relatively inexpensive and work very well. I do something similar to this for my tank.

[Schimpf]

If I may add one thing about filters.

The white filter media I use is pricy, but because of my sewing company I have lots of quilters batting in the house.
Turns out for 90% of the batting out there, its the same as the fish filter media. So now I buy carbon and make my
own filter replacements. You just have to make sure that its not chemically treated. Which because the bedding I make
is for pets I make sure of that anyway. My Betta has been using batting filter media for a while now with no issue.

[Peva]

I'm posting a new topic, I'd like it if you all went and looked there! I'll post it in a minute.