General Care Discussion :: Baby turtle being sucked towards Filter intake

[pboyvb]

Hi all,
I just got my first turtle (baby turtle), my setup is a 20L with about 3" of water, and for this tank i bought the xp2 (knowing that i will eventually have to get a larger tank). Please note that i also have everything else required i.e. basking area, heater, etc.

My problem is that whenever the turtle swims too close to the intake filter it gets sucked to it. And then i have to go in there and give it a little push, and it freaks out and gets all scared all over again. I am trying to leave it alone because i literly just got it 3 hours ago, and i want to let it get adjusted. Now the turtle is very afraid of me, because i've had to go in there a few times to free it from the filter.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how i could go about fixing this problem?

[Kallistos]

From watching it swim around you'll be able to find out the relative area where the suction is strong enough to pull in the turtle. Put some sort of barricade at this area, it'd be peferable if the material had holes in it so the filter could still clean the tank. This way if the turtle feels the suction it can kick itself off the barricade.

[marisa]

You could put something around the intake like a piece of pantyhose/nylon stocking to prevent him from getting caught in it. You can also buy a prefilter to fit over the intake. I've made prefilters from plastic mesh to prevent leaves from getting caught in the intake, and I think something like that would work for hatchlings as well.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Feel free to add more water. Fill that tank right up! That will help disperse the current a bit.

You said it is a "20L" tank. You mean Liters? Or is that just a typo?

Do you have a picture of your set up that you can post?

[Andrew7769]

i think that refers to the 20 gallon long tank is that correct? there are tall and long varietys of 20gallon tanks

[Muirner]

I also assume if you have the flow regulator on the discharge spray bar, you could turn it down a lil bit and it wouldnt suck as much through the filter.

[pboyvb]

Yes i was referring to the 20Long Gallon tank. And right before i went off to the gym, i cut a solo cup in half and put it there and placed a large enough rock to keep the cup there, it seems like thats where the turtle likes to hang out though, because its still hangin around next to the rock. And thank you, i am using the spray bar, and i cant believe i didnt think of closing the valve a little bit.

Any ideas on how i can gain this little guy's trust again?
Thanks everyone.

[pboyvb]

here is a picture of my setup (and turtle hiding in the right corner.
maybe the turtle is hanging out there because of the heater? the temp reads 76-78 on the opposite side...

[pboyvb]

heres the link to that pic
http://pattsyboy.tripod.com/dsc00220.jpg

[marisa]

All I get is a blank page with a Tripod logo in the left corner...

[megcornell]

Nice set up, you can add more water, turtles love to swim as much as possible, and there's no worry that baby turtles will drown due to deep water ( the only hazard is if they can get pinned by something underwater...). You may want to get a floating dock instead of stacking rocks because it's safer and can be adjusted with the water depth. Plus it takes up less room leaving more room for your turtle to swim
It looks like he's looking for a little place to hide... maybe you can bunch some fake plants up for him. I made a hiding place for my turtle by attaching some large leaves to a suction cup, he likes to squeeze in between the glass and the leaves- i think it makes him feel hidden and safe.
Other than that it just takes some time for turtles to warm up, when you first get them its a huge change for them. It took my turtle over a month before I finally could enter the room and not scare him. Even now after 6 or 7 months he still doesn't seem as charming as the other turtles I hear about on here but he's definitely more social and has quite the vibrant personality.

p.s what's your turtle's name?

[SpotsMama]

Can you turn down the force on the XP2? At least until you get some other solution worked out. On the XP3 there's a valve on the outflow tube that can be used to reduce the outflow and if the outflow is reduced, the inflow must also be reduced. I assume it's the same with an XP2.

And don't you have the plastic guard on the inflow tube to keep things from being sucked into the filter? I assume you do and the turtle is just getting stuck to the guard and not on the inflow tube itself. Is that right?

I'm not 100% sure of my physics here, but I do not think increasing the water level - while a really good thing to do - will dissipate the force of the water at the inflow tube.

[marisa]

Now I can see it in the post above the link. It looks nice. Adding more water, which means the basking area would have to be raised (or replaced) would give your turtle more swimming room.

The tube flourescent on the right is a UVB light? If so, it should be as much over your turtle's basking area as possible near the heat source so your turtle can benefit more from the UVB rays (the basking area needs to be moved so that it's more under both lights).

[Hoooneylynn]

marisa, wouldnt putting a panty hose/nylon over the intake block some waste from being filtered?

[steve]

It should still suck up some, and I would imagine that she would remove and replace it or wash it. That's what you would do with a prefilter anyway. A prefilter is supposed to keep the media inside the filter cleaner. I think those foam bags for those cheap tetra filters might work well as a prefilter too.