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It seems things have gone a little haywire in the tank lately. I check the water quality weekly, and suddenly the ammonia climbed to an extraordinary level (4.0 PPM).
I have a big honkin' Fluval FX5 plus a small 402 taking care of the filtration. When I got the FX5, I thought I'd give the Seachem Matrix Bio a try. In the past I've always used Biomax rings with great success.....so that was my first suspect. So I switched out half of the Seachem for the Bio rings, plus I started adding Biozyme to try to speed things up a little, along with a 10% water change every other day.
After 2 weeks, the ammonia level has dropped to .5 PPM, but the nitrate is screaming, between 40 and 80 PPM......The pH is 6.5, the water is kinda soft around here. I'm wondering if I should raise it to 7.0.
Has this happened to anybody else?

Now on to Beaker. While I was fooling around with the water tests the other day, I noticed the Beakster was digging around in the rocks. Nothing unusual about that, except when she stuck her head up, I noticed she had a rock in her mouth. Not holding the rock at the edge of her mouth. The rock was IN her mouth.
My first reaction was to reach in and grab her and pull it out, but I thought if I did that, she may panic and swallow it. So I just stood there, frozen.
Then she turned her head, looked directly at me.........and swallowed it.
"YOU IDIOT", I screamed at her. She just turned her nose up at me and swam into the pipe....
So I put in a call to the Vet, and he said not to worry just yet, she may pass it (it was a pretty big rock). Just clear out the bottom of the tank and wait a few days.
Well, two days later, here's what popped out of Beakers butt:



These rocks used to be bigger than their head, but no more. I'm going to keep the bottom bare for a while, who knows how many times she has done this.

After I've separated my two RES, I haven't been doing any water testing. In the past, I really can't say that I've encountered any dramatic swings like that though.

Glad Beaker is OK! At first I thought that was an egg you posted I'm also keeping a minimal amount of river rock in the tank.

My two girls are growing fast, maybe I need to fast track that 30 gallon, and hope they can eat (and poop) in that tank as opposed to container feeding, once they finish eating, they get very anxious to get out, maybe I can keep them in the 30 gal. long enough for them to crap.....
Although I still think the filtration I have should be more than enough to handle it.

WHOA! LOL At first I thought it was a immature egg, too!

Good grief!

The very first thought I had, goose, was that poor Beaker had swallowed a penny. I thought, "Doesn't he ever feed that poor girl?" But I don't think that's what you meant is it.

On water quality, I had a drastic swing one time and decided it was because I had overdone the ph down and killed all the good bacteria. Our ph runs very high - over 8.5 normally - and I wanted it just below 7. I think I got it down to just below 6.5 and then the water quality crashed. I got high ammonia then high nitrites. The tank cycled though it wasn't as intense as with a new tank. Since then I've gone slower with the ph down and haven't tried to get it quite as low and haven't had a problem.

Don't know if this relates to your situation but it is curious that your ph is so low and you've had a bio filter problem. Is it normally that low? I've read that high ph is friendly to fungus but unfriendly to bacteria, and low ph is unfriendly to fungus but friendly to bacteria, so you wouldn't think that a ph just below 6.5 would harm the good bacteria but in my case I think it did.

I would agree with Spotsmama. The beneficial bacteria are having problems. The type of bacteria that we want colonizing our filters, are free living fresh water organiams which means that 7-7.5, or neutral PH, would be better for them, (which I think you already thought about.). 6.5 is the cut off line for our filter colonizing nitrifying bacteria. If it gets even a little below that they will die off fast.

Dear GOD that's a big rock to pass. Poor Beaker! i am so paranoid about that! Each time I clean the tank I remove a few more rocks that I think only look 2 times the size of their heads, because I have seen them nipping at the rocks. I have also found a couple that cracked at some point in the tank. Talk about making me nervous! I keep thinking what if they swalowed a piece that broke off! The vet told me to calm down, and bring them in if they hadn't pooped in a few days, or didn't eat. They were fine.

ps- If you had picked Beaker up, she may have dropped the stone in order to bite you.

To SpotsMama and Grey Goose: what type of equipment or test kits do you use for testing your water conditions? are they very accurate? expensive? where can i find it?

I think this is the test kit that Spotsmama and I use, I am thinking it might be the one greygoose uses too, but I am not too sure about him..
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... tertestkit
It is the one that greygoose uses!

We should attach this thread to the why you shouldn't have gravel in your tank warning. I'm glad your turt is okay and you did the right thing calling the vet.

ps- If you had picked Beaker up, she may have dropped the stone in order to bite you.[/quote]

LOL I never thought of that!

The pH is about 6.5 right out of the tap. I'm going to try bringing it up to 7.0 and see what happens.......Odd thing is, it came on so darn fast.

I use the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals master test kit. It's got everything you need to test your water.

It was a pretty scary two days around here, until she pooped that stone out. I hate it when pets make you worry. But I've removed all the containers for now, in a few days I'll just refill them with VERY large rocks.

What should be used in lieu of rocks? I've thought about sand, but really wouldn't be able to deal with the mess. I think I'd be more worried about them taking mouthfuls of sand instead. Is water testing that important? I just let it go, and let the filters do the work. What are the benefits of water testing?

Kevin

You could have nothing in the tank at all except for a few big rocks.

ps- If you had picked Beaker up, she may have dropped the stone in order to bite you.

LOL I never thought of that!


I was thinking that the only good time to pick Beaker up was when she had a mouthful of something..

Hmm.... Just a few rocks... so if i was to go splashing around in a river, and pulled a few out, how do I go about cleaning them of anything bad for the turtles???

Kevin

GotEmInOkinawa wrote:Hmm.... Just a few rocks... so if i was to go splashing around in a river, and pulled a few out, how do I go about cleaning them of anything bad for the turtles???

Kevin

If you could find some smooth, non-porous rocks, you can boil them for 10 minutes or so.

Water quality is essential to the overall health of your turt. Turtles can be very messy, and without the proper filtration, your water quality will crash, and the tank will turn into a toilet!