General Care Discussion :: Cleaning Tank

[Kayra33]

I am going to take the gravel out of my tank after much reading of how gravel is dangerous. Even though she doesn't eat it and if she thinks that it is a piece of food, she'll just spit it out. But anyway, I read on the forum here that it actually keeps the tank cleaner without the gravel so I am going to give it a try. I have aquatic plants won't it look stupid just sitting at the bottom of the tank without gravel? I am thinking that I will look for some river rocks, any that I should stay away from besides shart pointy ones? I want to make her tank nice and pretty but unfortunately Brooks is one of those aggressive females as far as "pretty" things in her tank. I gave up on fake plants b/c she picks them up and bashes them into the glass, also with other decorations. She leaves my bubbler alone though but occassionally pecks at one of my heaters. I guess that my question through all of this is I have annoying snails in my tank that have came from the aquatic plants, will not having gravel make these annoying pests go away? I don't like to feed my turtle live creatures b/c of the parasites so I try to stay away from them and that's including the unwanted snails. At first I didn't care about them but if they're going to cost me money to take Brooks to the vet and possibly her life then forget it! I have cleaned and recleaned my tank and the population of snails have seem to gone down but I want them gone for good. And also she loves, loves, loves anchoris how do I keep buying her plants without the snails? Would rinsing them off over and over help?

[marisa]

Cleaning/rinsing them well will help cut down on snails, but they can be difficult to get rid of completely. After rinsing aquatic plants like anachris, I keep anachris in a separate tank of clean water where a few snails always seem to appear. If you kept the stalks in clean water for a while, you'd be able to pick out even more snails (and if you have a lot of it, the stalks will eventually grow and root if they have enough light).

Yes, snails can carry parasites. Some always manage to make it into my tanks, though, and I just leave them, if they're really small. About the only time I take action against them is if they start to overun the tank or if there are a lot of eggs being laid.

You can buy polished river stones that are aquarium safe.

[kmichael55]

I just starting growing anacharis in a separate tank (it's already starting sprouting new growth I'm excited) I think that if you are able to grow your own it should be easier to keep the snail population down than to keep reintroducing pet store plants. What petsmart does for the snails is to put a vacation feeder block (it's a white block used for feeding fish when you can't be there) the snails will gravitate to it and every once in a while take the block out, remove all the snails and replace. I used this with some effectiveness with my snail problem a while ago, you would be amazed how many will show up on the feeder block.

[TXGUY]

Hi, I would like to share my experience with you, I just got a new tank, i can't afford a big glass tank, so got me a rubbermade container the largest I was able to find 116 qts Clear, and work perfect, I removed all the gravel also b/c what i read in this web, so what I did is this:
1.- went to the aquarium store and get white water sand for fish tank, (suitable for fresh and salt water) and put some for the bottom of the tank,
2.- go to the dollar store and get river rocks, they're round and big, no sharp edges, so a bag for $1.00, get as many you want and this work good no risck that the turtle will eat those big rocks or get hurt
3.- get some big rocks that your turtle can't move and put it arround your heather, pump or filter if they are under water, Donatello was real good on trying to move my filters so this is what i did, I put the rocks arround the filetrs and make it look like a cascade so far ( 1 month) all this is working good,
I don't know about plants, I'm fixing to try to add some plants and see what can I do to keep Donatello away from move them
HOpe my experience in this new set up help you or give you some Ideas

[Parnasa]

Don't bother on keeping plants on the same spot, the turtles eat them so fast! My baby RES eats a plant (quite big ones) in a week....

Anyway what I did was to take a steel wire covered with plastic, and have a rock that is like a finger, put the plants around it and tie it with the wire, so it doesnt float around or move all around the tank (looks ugly) and it looks great when its in 1 spot! =)

[Kayra33]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I just want to make my turtle have a better home. I would spend thousands on her if I had it!! But she has a pretty big home in a 125 gallon tank. I have a submersible heater and a fluval canister filter for her, and I found snails in the filter also! I have another tank that she used to be in it's a 55 gallon and I want to put some fish in there so maybe I will just put the anchoris in there and get a snail feeder so they will go to it and the rinse the anchoris the best that I can before putting it in her tank. You all have great advice THANKS