Habitat - Indoor :: Tank maintenance (water quality and filtration) question

[branfarm]

Hi there,

My wife and I have two RES's and we are struggling with the upkeep on their tank. We need some help! In very little time the water turns a cloudy green color and has a bad smell to it. The turtles never seem to mind, but it's gross to look at and smell. We have had these turtles for over 2 years and have upgraded their tank twice. We are now in a 50 gal tank and we have a over the edge filter.

It seems like our filter gets overwhelmed fairly quickly -- we change the filter once a week, even though it could stand be changed at least twice a week. It's expensive to keep buying filters though. I'm certain that a filter upgrade is necessary but we don't know what we should get. I'm not averse to spending $$ on a nice canister filter, as long as it will reduce the amount of work we have to do each week.

Also, our turtles are each 4-5" long -- what size tank should we really have? We've struggled finding basking platforms for them because they are so big.

Any advice would be appreciated. My wife is losing her patience and has talked about giving our gal's up for adoption, but I don't think I'm ready to let them go.

Thanks in advance!

[Chrisbarnett]

You need 10gallons of water for each inch of shell, and half of that for each additional turtle.

so you need at least 60 gallons minimum if the turtles are 4" each. But keep in mind that the turtles will keep growing so they will need a much bigger tank.

I'd go for a canister filter... Well worth the money.

[Rubicon]

^ X2 what he said. However if you don't have the space for a large one right now a 50 gallon is better than some of the other setups I've seen out there. If you know you're going to get them a larger tank in the future get a filter that you can grow into. The Rena XP4 or Fluval FX5 are both great filters. They are both in the $160 range on ebay (brand new w/ warranty). Store bought they can go upwards of $270!

You'll want a good mechanical as well as biological load in your canister filter. The bottom trays can be loaded with a coarse foam or ceramic rings. Towards the top you'll want media like biomax/bioballs,etc...



Also with a small filter like you have now, you should also be doing 25% water changes monthly.

[Chrisbarnett]

^ X2 what he said. However if you don't have the space for a large one right now a 50 gallon is better than some of the other setups I've seen out there. If you know you're going to get them a larger tank in the future get a filter that you can grow into. The Rena XP4 or Fluval FX5 are both great filters. They are both in the $160 range on ebay (brand new w/ warranty). Store bought they can go upwards of $270!

You'll want a good mechanical as well as biological load in your canister filter. The bottom trays can be loaded with a coarse foam or ceramic rings. Towards the top you'll want media like biomax/bioballs,etc...



Also with a small filter like you have now, you should also be doing 25% water changes monthly.

I'd say you would want to be doing water changes a lot more frequently than that. More like 25-50% weekly.

Also, don't go for bioballs in a canister. They lack a lot of surface area for biological bacteria compared to Biomax, Ehfisubstrat, Ehfisubstrat pro, Bio Bale, etc.

[branfarm]

Thanks for the replies. We do about 50% water changes weekly, and our water is still horrible. How often do you change the water with your canister filters?

[Rubicon]

25% monthly for me. My turts are happy, plants are hearty, and fish are happy.

[pickerbp22]

honestly you need a canister filter if you want clear water. its totally worth the money. the power filters pump alot of water flow but they dont have great filtration. not alot of room for media.

[grem89]

I thought bio balls had the most surface area of any bio material? If you look at them they are a bunch of tiny rods which have tonnns of surface area. im cheap though and opt for plastic pot scrubbers

[Chrisbarnett]

I thought bio balls had the most surface area of any bio material? If you look at them they are a bunch of tiny rods which have tonnns of surface area. im cheap though and opt for plastic pot scrubbers

Nope. They have much less surface area than Ceramic or Sintered glass bio medias. Scrubbies are a good option. They actually have a lot of surface area, more so than bioballs if I'm not mistaken.

[StevenAkaProek]

you should look into matrix

best bio media IMO