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I have a 55 gallon tank for my turtle that I consistently use 3, 5 gallon jugs of purified water from my local grocery store filling station instead of tap water. It costs me $1.50 per jug to fill, and since I change at least 5 gallons of water every weekend, and all of the water once a month at the end of the month, I was wondering if I am spending too much for water??

I live in the country so I have well water which I guess does not have chlorine in it. I wanted to use purified water because I thought it had less chemicals in it and would save me from having to worry about testing the levels of ph, amonia, nitrates and nitrites, etc. I was reading on the main site about all you would have to worry about with tap water is ph, water hardness, and chlorine, so I obviously do not have to worry about the chlorine, but I know my well water is hard. I currently have a RENA XP3 with the ceramic rings in it already, and just the 2 other media sponges for filter debris. If I would switch to using my tap water instead, would using conditioning tablets be ok for the turtle?

I also do not have any kind of aeration in my water and was wondering how to go about adding this which I think, according to the main site, is necessary, but difficult to maintain without agitating the water for the turtle.

Basically, I am confused about how to simplify using tap water but want to do it right and without a lot of money and time spent into doing so.

You dont need to do all that.. Go to the petstore and buy water conditioner. it takes out all the chlorine harmful to turtles. Also purified water has chlorine too so its not good either without the conditioner.

Go for just your tap water. Most peoples water is hard, doesn't affect anything other than leave water deposits.

You just have to treat the water with a water conditioner. I use Tetra Aquasafe. Some people use repi safe from zoo med. They both do the same thing essentially.

It won't affect your bio media, just treat the water before you dump it in the tank.

As for aeration, go with a air stone. You just have to buy the air stone, air pump and tubing. Pretty cheap, probably less than 30 bucks for everything.

I agree with everything Chris said. I use aquasafe as well.

And just because you're using filtered water doesn't mean you shouldn't test your water quality. There are several other things that could affect your water.

Well right now I have about 15 gallons of purified water in the tank. My dad suggested I just change the 5 gallons at a time like I have been doing every weekend, but slowly ween the turtle off of the purified water and not change it all to tap water at one time. Does that make sense to do?

As far as an air stone and air pump, is there one brand out there better than the other for both?

Chris--what do you mean as far as the bio media just treat the water before I put it in the tank? Do you mean put the aquasafe in the water before I put it in the tank?

Well, not really. Turtles are much more tolerant than fish, so they could definitely withstand going through a change that small.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2753029
This is a good brand that many people use and are happy with. The air stone is pretty much personal preference as to what you want it to do once its in the tank. The cheaper they are, the shorter they will last usually, so buy a reasonably nice one.

And yes, that is what I meant. should have elaborated on that.

I've used air stones and different air pumps, the only thing I require is that the pump have rubber feet or a rubber bottom. It cuts out a lot of noise. Other than that, they seem to be all the same to me.

my tetra whisper air pump works great. i never hear it with its rubber feet.

I have well water and I don't use any conditioner, and never have. It doesn't hurt him at all.

You don't know that if it hurts him or not, the slightest amount of chlorine can be harmful to a turtle and you wont even know it the chlorine will just build up in there system.

Our well water has absoulutley no chlorine in it, we have to put at least double the amount of shock and cholrine in our pool! They only thing that's really, really high in our water is the amount of hardness.

I dont even know about how hard my turtles water is.. it leaves alot of hardwater stains though!

Ok, so I only put about 5 gallons in the tank of tap water and added some of the Tetra Aquasafe, I'll just keep changin the water each weekend but using tap water. About how much Aquasafe do you think I would use? I put in about 40 ml or so yesterday, I forget exactly.

I also added a bubble wall with the air pump you suggested, now it creates a lot of bubbles on the surface of the water, it's hard to tell if its foamy or just from the bubbles. Any idea how I could get rid of this?

There are supposed to be the bubbles on the water. thats normal.

It says on the bottle how much you should add per gal. I don't remember off the top of my head though. But add it to any water you add to the tank.

Holy cow!! That's waaaaay too much for five gallons. I think it's 5ml for 10 gallons. One cap full is 10 ml and I use like 30-40 cap fulls for my 1255 gallon tank.