General Care Discussion :: Full Water Exchange

[Peva]

I feel it's time for me to do a full water Exchange for my turtle, it's been 10 months. Only thing I'm worried about it...where is my turtle supposed to stay? I cant immediately put her back in the water, it will have chlorine in it still...I do have anti-chlorinator, but I dont like using too much of it. Any suggestions? Anyone?

A full list of what I should do for a full exchange would be nice.

And yes, I did search.

[steve]

Plus the water will be too cold.

This is what I do:
Wipe turtle dry
Place in a large rubbermaid container lined with newspaper, clean towels/shirts
Put container somewhere warm, dark and quiet - like a closet
Unplug heaters, wait a few minutes and do water change.
When done, plug in heaters.
In the morning, check water temps. Check turtle (there might be poop/pee) and cleanup if necessary.

*edit - formatting

[Peva]

So take her out, put her in a little tub lined with a clean towel, after I wipe her off, keep her somewhere warm, like my closet, then do the exchange - after turning off everything, of course, then let the water sit overnight, and put her back in? How long should I wait, 12 hours?

[steve]

Are you planning on cleaning the filters too?

[Peva]

Of course I am, I'm cleaning entire tank.

[VeipaCray]

The important thing is to keep your bio media wet. Also, if you have sand, keep that wet as well. When you take your canister apart take the bio media out and set it in a bucket or ziplock bag with some of the water from your tank until you're ready to clean it. If there's sand in the tank, leave it in the tank and leave about 1/4" of water above the sand. The sand and the bio media hold your bacteria colony. If they dry out, the bacteria dies and you'll cycle your tank all over. Plus the dried out dead bacteria stinks like hell.

also for the chlorine / chloramine - don't use any water conditioner. All you need to do is add some fresh & rinsed activated carbon to your canister setup when you put it back together. Any chlorine will evaporate out of the water. Any chloramine will be dealt with by the carbon. By the time your water temp comes back up overnight, your water will be ready for your turtle.

As for cleaning your tank.... just use warm water. NO chemicals. A mr clean magic eraser (brand new one) works really well for scrubbing algae off stuff.

To clean your filter (after disassembly)
rinse your sponges under hot tap water... helps loosen the crud. The warm water is also comforting that it may be killing some of what you now have your hands in.
The bio media can be taken out and placed in a bucket with some water... clean this last.
Replace your carbon. Regenerate your purigen if you're using purigen
To clean your filter, using hot water usually does the trick. If you have some tough crud in there... use a mixture of white vinegar and water. No specific ratio.. i've even used straight vinegar on some of the really tough crud. Just make sure you rinse it with clean cold tap water when your done.
The bio media can be rinsed under warm (not cold or hot) tap water.

Put your filter back together and hook it up.

[Peva]

I know how to clean my filter ^^

[VeipaCray]

I know how to clean my filter ^^

Sorry.

[CactusJohn5]

why does it take so long for your chemicals? Usually it should only take an hour or 2 tops for the chemicals to mix into the tank water, i better way to do it, might be to add the chemicals in at about 20 gallons and let the rest of the water mix in. I have 75G (apx 70g) of water and i just add my stuff when i'm letting the tank fill.

As for where to put the turtle, i have a 10 gallon Rubbermaid container i use to feed in, i just put about 5 gallons of water in it just enough to be completely submerged, and my girls can stay in there for hours with no problems.

[VeipaCray]

You shouldn't be using chemicals at all in your water that your turtle lives in and drinks from.

Most water conditioners contain a chemical called sodium theosulfate - which is very harmful to the turtle. Adding just a bit of activated carbon to your filter will do the same thing as the water conditioning chemical (remove chloramine) and do it safely.

[Peva]

Very vigorously cleaned the tank, the biggest problem was algae. Anyways, got some more glass out of it (Another heat bulb explosion) and my brother was very helpful. After I filled her back up, I put the turtle in (haha, gotcha) but I did put the last surviving Rosie red that brixie didn't catch, and it died. It's ok, at least it wasn't the turtle, she'll eat it tomorrow when I put her in. The water will be nice and warm, and no chemicals were used.

[Peva]

I'm gunna bump this because it's urgent...I bought some more rosie reds and some mystery snails today. When can I put brixie back in?

Here are some pictures of the nice clean tank.