General Care Discussion :: Is it true...?

[penelope]

No.
No more 100% water changes on a regular basis! Every time, bacteria bloom or not, you are causing the tank to cycle (ammonia to nitrite/nirate) - the cloudy bacteria bloom only means that it is on its way to becoming 'normal'

If your filter is cruddy, then you may have to resort to the old fashioned "scoop the poop" method - meaning - get a fish net and some paper towels. Scoop it when they poop it and flush it down the toilet. The paper towels are to keep it from dripping on the floor between tank and toilet.

100% water changes each month do not make up for sitting in dirty, poopy water all month.

My bacteria bloom happened after a couple of days and only lasted a couple of days, but from what I understand, it can last longer

I have agonized over the cycling, but you have to let a tank do what it is going to do. It has to cycle to get the beneficial bacteria going.
I've tried the approach of doing partial water changes to reduce the ammonia level, but am finding that not doing partial changes isn't making it any worse.

Any time you change all the water and/or all the filter media, you can expect that the tank has to cycle (go from regular water, to bacteria bloom, to ammonia, to nitrite/nitrate, and then finally normal - whew!) I've had times where it has taken 2 or more weeks to cycle. Right now it has been a couple of weeks and I am still waiting.

If you want/need to do 100% water changes on a regular basis, then you need to do it basically every day so the tank doesn't start cycling (ammonia, nitrite/nitrate, etc).

Partial water changes come with time. First it has to cycle, then partial changes to keep it clean without starting all over.

yeah - confusing as all heck..I'm still trying to learn

[VeipaCray]

So you don't want ammonia nitrite or nitrates. The bacteria will consume ammonia and convert it into nitrite (less toxic than ammonia). A second strand of bacteria will consume nitrite and convert it into nitrate (less toxic than nitrite). You do water changes to keep the nitrate levels in check.

Yeah the reptofilter is more of a decoration than it is a useful filter. When you get your new filter you'll load it up with lots of bio media. You'll then see the bacteria bloom. The bacteria will bloom and reproduce to match the food it can find (ammonia or nitrite). Once the bloom happens, the bacteria will colonize on every surface in the tank... and the bio media. The bio media's sole job is to provide a ton of surface area in a compact space for the bacteria to live.

Your tank will probably not cycle as there isn't sufficient bio media in the reptofilter to sustain enough bacteria to keep the ammonia and nitrate levels at 0. So your only choice becomes water changes. If your tank isn't cycling (you can tell by taking ammonia and nitrite readings), then yeah you can change as much water as you want.

To clean your tank... don't use any chemicals... distilled water works well for cleaning stuff. If it's really crudded up, soaking parts or wiping with white vinegar will help loosen the crud. Just make sure you rinse the vinegar off with some clean water before refilling your tank and putting the turtle back in.