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I had to drain my 600 gallon pond. It had a leak in the liner. While I rebuild the pond, I have put my RES in a outdoor aquarium. Things went well for the first 2 weeks, water was nice and clear and then the algae bloom hit me. I put a UV sterilizer in which took about a week to clear up the green funk. It came back with a vengeance and has been hard to get rid of ever since, even doing 50% water changes with new media has not helped. Any suggestions? My tiny RES is in a 20 gallon tank for the meantime. I have been thinking of an external filter, right now I have a Fluval C4 with an additional 5W submersible UV light. Any suggestions are welcome.

So your turtle is in a 20 gallon outside for the last 2 weeks? How much longer will he be out there? I would probably bring it indoors, but you can also use more shade. I'd also set aside some water (buckets? storage totes?) and just use those to refill the tank rather than buying new things to keep a temporary setup going.

His tank is partially shaded. I have to have some concrete work done, and the area where the filters are going to go dug up, so it might be a few more months. I checked the UV filter, and it was clogged up with a scute and some twigs, so that's working better, but the 5 stage filter just can't cut it. I do 50% water changes every other week for now. Might try moving his tank to where there is more shade...

More shade might help a little more, but air temps can't be managed when outside.

Water is good now. Turns out the UV sterilizer bulb had gone bad. I replaced it and within a few days it was looking great again. Good point on the air temps.