General Care Discussion

Hi everyone,

I am fairly new to keeping RES and have tried to create a healthy environment for them. I keep Speedy and Shelldon in a 50 gallon outdoor pond in the atrium in our house. When we adopted them 6 months ago they were living in a tiny indoor aquarium, so even though 50 gallons is still a bit small for 2 RES, they seem really happy to have room to swim around. I have a heater and a Fluval U4 filter in the pond, along with some aquatic plants and 3 small koi fish. I test the water regularly and perform a 25% water change every 1.5-2 weeks. Today when I tested the water the nitrites and nitrates were at unsafe levels (according to the chart on the test kit). This was right after a water change, so I am not sure how to fix it. Any ideas? Any advice would be appreciated. I don't want the fish or the turtles to have unsafe water.

Thanks,
Kim

Testing it right after a change will not yield the best results since the tank doesn't have a chance to cycle. Depending on the size of the RES, you will have regular issues in water quality in only 50 gallons.

You have 2 issues. The first Steve mentioned... 2 RES in 50 gallons. Why is the volume of water so important? 2 reasons. First as you noted is swim space. Second is having enough water to dissipate the waste of the turtles until the filter can process the water.

Second issue is your filter. The fluval U4 doesn't hold enough bio media to handle the ammonia levels produced by the waste from two turtles. Not to mention you have 3koi in the same 50 gallons as your two turtles.

If your nitrites and nitrates were at unsafe levels AFTER the 25% water change.... how bad were they before the water change? More important than the nitrate level is ammonia. What's the ammonia level?

What are you using to measure / test your water?

The levels were the same before the water change. I use SmartPond test strips, which don't specifically test for ammonia but just have color indicators for nitrites and nitrates. Is there a test for ammonia I should be using?

Rather than getting a new filter (we just bought this one), is there another way to introduce additional biomedia filtration to the pond?

Should I remove the fish? I thought I read that having aquatic plants and fish helped to deal with the turtles' waste, but I must have misunderstood or read bad info somewhere.

The test strips are very inaccurate. Your best bet is a drop based test kit like the API master test kit.

The fish add to the bioload and do nothing to help with ammonia or nitrites. Plants are always good, but they help absorb notates not ammonia or nitrites.

Adding sand to the bottom of the pond is one way to help promote a natural bio filter, but the solution is really a better filter.

I would get rid of the Koi. They produce a lot more waste than the turtles. I bought feeder goldfish for our Martha that she never ate. They started as little 1 inch goldfish to 6 inch or larger goldfish. Keeping the water clean was a battle. I finally gave away the goldfish 2 weeks ago and the water cleared up very quickly. It's very clear, has no odor at all and even the algae on the basking rock died about a week ago.

-Michael

Thanks for the advice. The turtles seem to be helping me get rid of the koi...one went missing last night. I can only assume they ate it. Kind of strange my little turtles ate a 4 inch fish but they must have because he's gone. Water looks clear, no algae or smell of any kind. I cleaned out the filter too (using pond water to rinse of course) and I noticed tons of worm looking things imbedded in the foam. I tried to clean them out but they are stuck in there. It looked like blood came out of a few of them while I was cleaning the foam. Any idea what these critters might be? Friend or foe?

8 yrs/SCL 7 inches (03/05/12)

Watch out for them raccoon! They are strong enough to lift nets and gates! And they eat turtles!

I've seen a raccoon lift a garage door open!

My turtles live in an atrium in the center of our home. I have never seen anything in there - no flying insects, birds, cats, raccoon, etc. It has flat walls on all four sides that extend up approx 2 stories to an opening on the roof structure. I don't think a predator would risk that drop as there is nothing for them to climb down on - it would be a straight 20 foot fall. Seems about as predator proof as it gets, but I appreciate the concern. I love this forum and all the knowledgeable posters on here.

Speedyshelldon wrote:I cleaned out the filter too (using pond water to rinse of course) and I noticed tons of worm looking things imbedded in the foam. I tried to clean them out but they are stuck in there. It looked like blood came out of a few of them while I was cleaning the foam. Any idea what these critters might be? Friend or foe?

Sounds liks Bloodworms. Whenever I clean the filter, I find tons of them. Your turtles will probably eat them if you can get them out and stick them in the water. If not, they'll eventually turn into midges and fly away. They are harmless to your turtles and your koi.

-Michael

I finally figured out how to post pictures, so I thought I would post some of the habitat in our atrium. Speedy (the larger and more social of the two turtles) seems to have a few small patches of green where he is shedding. The shutes that come off are very thin and translucent but I did see a bit of green on them. Is this something I need to take care of? Is this caused by the water quality? I don't see algae anywhere in the habitat - log, rocks and sides of pond are all algae-free. Anyway, I don't really know what a healthy turtle looks like, other than the pictures I have seen on this forum. If you see something wrong with my turtles please let me know. I don't even know if they are boys or girls. Hate being so clueless, but I am new at this and there is so much to learn!

View of habitat from our entryway in the house/walls of atrium - Predator Proof??? Not sure...

Pond/Basking Areas/Turtles playing

Speedy - Healthy or no? Some green spots on Speedy are obvious in photos. He is shedding.

Shelldon - Healthy or no? He is shy and eats less than Speedy. His shell looks ok to me, but I don't know much about turtles. I saw him shed today and the shute was very thin and transparent.

Speedy looks to have grown a little fast, but consistently. Her shell is smooth, but you can see large seams which indicate fast growth. Overall, she looks very good but I would review what you're feeding them. I would try wiping or using a new toothbrush and gently scrub the algae. Algae is not a bad thing for turtles, some wild ones are completely covered in algae but if you're inspecting her shell, you'd want to clean it.

Sheldon, also a girl (but did something happen to her claws?) looks OK to. The shell is a little bumpy, probably attributed to the diet and lack of proper lighting. It should also smoothen out with plenty of Sun and a good diet.

If that were my atrium and would make that entire area into an aquarium/pond and you can view them underwater through your windows... that's just me though

Birds can still potential be a problem... always keep an eye out.

General Care Discussion :: Nitrite/Nitrate levels elevated in Outdoor Pond

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