General Care Discussion :: What should I do? Extra cold water?

[Silvermist464]

I'm not sure how cold the water is. I know it is cold to me in a house that is only 55 degrees or so. My 55 gallon tank is at 70 degrees and it feels warm. Skit's tank, however, feels ice cold.

Skit has lodged himself up against the glass, on top of the sand, and next to a plastic log thing I have in his tank. I had to steal his heater for my fish tank so no fish would die. It was a lose/lose situation. Turtle or fish? I knew Skit would live where-as the fish would die so I had to choose the fish.

Now, why did I need his heater in the first place? Well, we ran out of propane. Our furnace used more than it should have and the company that delivers propane could not get to our house until today. We ran out of Sunday night and it's been less than 20 degrees here in Michigan every day since then. When we got up this morning I think it was only 1 degree... This morning the house was down to 48 degrees.

I still cannot use the heater for the turtle as several of my fish have come down with ick and will die if I don't treat them... I know I need another but money is really tight. If it wasn't, this would not have happened to begin with. I will do a 1/2 water change with some warm water for my turtle, but what else should I do?

[Silvermist464]

Quick check of the themometer in his tank tells me the water is at 56 degrees. I'm working on getting it up again.

[devilduck]

Wow how is your family living and sleeping in a house that is that cold? I assume you have an electric heater someplace? Put the turtle tank in that room.

Do you have a regular old fashion incandescent light bulb? You can take the turtle out of the tank and put it in a box lined with warm towels or old blankets and have the light bulb shining into it. The bulb should be enough to warm the turtle.

How many fish are you talking about? Can you put the fish in a container and put the entire container into the turtle tank? That way the heater will heat the turtle and the fish. Or is the fish tank large enough you can divide it up to put the turtle into it too?

[Kansasslider]

Great advice couldn't have said it any better myself. Im not sure how cold it has to be to hiberate turtles? I do know that the cold won't hurt them .It just slows down their metabolism.

[ljapa]

Since you have the heat up in the other tank, do you have a microwave? You can heat water that way. But, you aren't going to want to bring the temp up too quickly. I'd get a quart of water boiling in the microwave, then siphon a 5 gallon bucke with tank water so it's three gallons or so, then add the microwaved water.

Ten, I'd check the temp in the bucket. If its not too much warmer than the tank, you can slowly add it all back.

If it is, add just a bit, let the filter mix it, then siphon off more and add a bit back in.