Habitat - Indoor :: new tank, heater question.

[bubblestheturtle]

I just bought a 55 gallon tank for bubbles and shemp!

I got a rena filstar xp2 to go with it.

my question is about heaters...is there and brand or wattage that I should go with?

the tank will be about 3/4ths full and then later on compleately full when we build an above tank basking spot.

ive seen some people buy two smaller heaters to go on each side of the tank, opposed to one big one too. is this the way to go?

[xsavingsaturdayx]

The marineland visi therm stealth heater is a very good one. You might want to to buy the one rated for 75 gallons since i havent seen ones for 50 gallons (or you can get two heaters and put them on oposite ends of the tank). You can find it here, www.bigalsonline.com the heaters are in the fish section.

Keep in mind, although I vote for the stealth heater, There are others that are just as good.

And whoa, thats awesome! I remember a month ago where all you had was a 10 gallon setup. Way to go! By the way, did you ever find out what was wrong with your turtles ( I assume they are better)

[industrial_girl_2000]

I agree with you xsavingsaturday, the visi-therm stealth heaters are awesome....less chance of it breaking than the glass heaters & they are also more accurate in terms of temperature. So even if those heaters are a few bucks more, the idea that Sheba can't crack/break it (I have a very large adult turtle that has a lot of attitude, strength, and energy!) is just plain awesome.

[marisa]

If you've got a tank that's long, say 48 inches or more, it's often better to buy two smaller heaters and have them at opposite sides of the tank to distribute the heat more evenly. The wattages of the two heaters together would equal the wattage for one larger heater if you were using one. So, for example, if you normally had a 250-watt heater for a 55-gallon tank (allow 3-5 watts per gallon of water, I usually allow 5 watts per gallon), you'd ideally have use two 125-watt heaters. Since I don't think I've never seen any with this wattage, you could use either two 100-watt heaters or two 150-watt heaters. It's up to you.

[bubblestheturtle]

xsavingsaturdayx,

yeah, its a miracle. i dont know what i did but all signs of RI are gone.

however, shell rot seems to be thre problem now.

what happend was i started seeing spots in shemp, so i bathed them in sulfa dip and scrubbed them with hibiclense. then, during one of their water changes, the heatr broke. so i tossed it. i couldnt buy nother one at the time, and we were about to get a big tank, so buying a tiny heater would be pointless, abd getting a big one would fry them. so i checked what the water temp would be if i had my uvb light, basking light, and two house lamps shining over the tank would be, and it was perfect.

but then they wouldnt have any heat at night.

so i killed two birds with one stone. i kept them our of the water at night in a bucket with a towel for them to burry themselves in. i put the bucket on top of a heating pad (it was totally safe i swear) then put a screen and a blanket over it to keep the towel warm.

this fixed the heat problem and also helped kill whatever has been eating their shells.

the lights also caused the algae/gunk/i dont know what to increase GREATLY in the tank. which i think is preventing them from fixing the shell rot.

hopefully the new tank and filter will kick the shell rot's butt.

although, i do understand its a long process sometimes.

hibiclense scrub every other day should help.

that...was long.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Hibiclens is good for shell rot, so is letting them dry out overnight. Are you sure they have shell rot? It could be mineral deposits which are tottally harmless. If you can take a picture..we could determine if its shell rot or not. Are the spots spreading?

[bubblestheturtle]

yes, shemp had it and it spread to other parts of his shell. then bubbles caught it but not as bad as shemp, just one spot. when the new tank is set up, i may keep one in each tank to seperate them for a bit. and its not calcium deposits, the spots are soft and are white that then turn brown or black. its not good. i fix one problem (RI), another one comes up.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

And you have been treating them with hibiclens for one month and still no improvement? You might want to try something stronger. Or taking them to the vet maybe the best option. Its possible that the shell rot is too advance to treat. The last thing you want is for it turn into septicemia (blood poisoining).

I know some of the members on here have dealt with shell rot first hand, maybe they can help you a bit more. Good luck,

[bubblestheturtle]

i have been diluting hibiclens with water for a 1:1 ratio. maybe ill use a higher percentage of hibiclens. i cant tell you how long its been, but i think that the dirty tank is making it worse. how can that lead to blood poisening? i hate shell rot. the vet will literally cut off my arm and leg. (i got the tank and filter for really cheap. its awesome. turns out my bf has a cousin in the business)

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Shell rot is a fungus, and if its left untreated it penetrates deeper and deeper, eventually it will enter the body and septicemia will take hold. Septicemia is realy hard and expensive to treat - you might want to ask a vet nicely if he/she could take a look at your turtles without making you pay, or just cutting you a break and giving you a payment plan. I have a feeling it wont come out to be as much as you think it would be. Probably no more than 100$.

I have only treated a few questionable spots on my turtles shell with hibiclens and they have always disapeared. I have no experience with shell rot but i read alot about it. You might want to do a search on this forum and see what others have gone through..I know that hibiclens isnt the only thing that you can use to treat shell rot.

[bubblestheturtle]

will do. all i really want is healthy turtles