General Care Discussion :: Cloudy water, new filter...

[kikicool]

A few days ago I wrote and asked how I could tell if my filter was working; someone advised that the water would quickly cloud up. Well, now it is cloudy, but ... i also put all new media in it. So could the clouds be the media repopulating?

Thoughts? Thanks

[Vtolds]

Check your ammonia Levels, I bet they are elevated. I did and was suggested to do when this happened to me was to do Daily water changes till it goes away. Just dont do more than 50%, because it may do more harm than good.

[kikicool]

Great advice, thanks. I was just thinking of changing half the water. I'll do less now

But I still don't know how to tell if it's caused by the recolonizing bacteria, or a faulty filter.....?

[steve]

It's called "new tank syndrome"... and the cloudiness is probably a bacteria bloom.

[SpotsMama]

When the tank or filter or filter media is new, the bio filter doesn't function yet because the bacteria haven't grown, so ammonia (turtle waste) builds up to a high level rapidly. Then, the population of ammonia consuming bacteria explodes, or "blooms" in the water. At this point, if you test the water you find that ammonia is high and the other chemicals (nitrite and nitrate) are still low.

Then, the newly grown ammonia processing bacteria consume the ammonia and the ammonia level goes down. The byproduct of ammonia processing is nitrite. Therefore, as the ammonia level is declining, the nitrite level goes up. In the presence of nitrite, another set of bacteria, the nitrite consuming bacteria, explodes, or "blooms" so the water stays cloudy.

Then, the newly grown nitrite consuming bacteria consume the nitrite and the nitrite level goes down. The byproduct of nitrite processing is nitrate.

Finally, the water is clear because there aren't excesses of ammonia and nitrite in the water to feed the bacterial blooms. Colonies of the nitrifying bacteria are established on surfaces like in your bio filter and they keep the ammonia and nitrite levels unmeasureably low.

Nitrate continues to build until the water is changed. Since nitrate is fertalizer for plants, including algae, if it is allowed to build too high, algae will bloom.

You can track this really interesting process day by day with a water testing kit and observe the ammonia going up, then down as nitrite rises, then the nitrite also goes down as nitrate rises. The whole cycle takes a week or two.

[kikicool]

Great. Thanks! I remembered this happened last time with my other filter, but it was so noisy I was SURE it was working. I'll track it. Thanks again!!

[Bascomb]

kiki-co -- Yep; the first little guy to show up on the scene is heterotrophic bacteria. He produces NH3 (ammonia). This bacterium is everywhere and especially in the poop of the turtle and from anything that is in the tank. It is the first step in the mineralization process. From that comes nitrite and nitrates. In trying to get the tank balanced you will have to do 50 percent changes until you get this under control

[curly]

Hi guys, Is it okay if I don't have a filter on my turtles tank?

[SpotsMama]

Curly, you can theoretically keep a turtle without a filter. Over the long term, though, it won't work. The only way to keep your turtle healthy if you don't have a good filter is to change the water very frequently. My turtle lived for a year or two in a 55 gallon tank without a filter. I had to change the water - 100% - twice a week every week, and even then the water was really grungy just before a water change. It was a major pain to have to do this.

On the other hand, now that I've got a nice sized tank (100 gallons for a 7" turtle) and a good filter (XP3), life is ever so much easier. I clean the filter once a month (takes about 30 minutes start to finish) and clean the tank and change out about 3/4 of the water about once a month. The rest of the time I basically just enjoy my turtle.

If you try to keep a turtle in a tank without a filter and don't do the (very) frequent water changes, the water will be toxic, smelly and unpleasant to look at and your turtle will get sick.

[curly]

Thanks again SpotsMama : )

[kikicool]

Bascomb, thanks for the info. I like to know these things Question: Vtolds had said not to do more than a 50% water change, and you say to do a 50% water change. I was thinking that I might be dumping the baby (bacteria) out with the bathwater when I change it? No?

The nitrites are sky high and the nitrates are getting higher. So soon it should be good Meanwhile, is this bad for them to be in that water like that??

[SpotsMama]

Some people leave their turtles iin the tank while it's cycling and don't change the water at all. If you change the water it will cut down on the bacteria cloud in the water but it will, as you say, remove some of the baby bacteria that you're trying to grow.

I happened to have another place for my turtle to stay while his big tank was going through "new tank syndrom". I put him in it for a couple of days so he could "seed" the water, then as it started to get cloudy I removed him to his other home while the tank cycled, then put him back in when the water cleared. It wasn't necessary for me to have done that, though.

[kikicool]

Okay, so my guys will be okay for now in that? Phew. Thanks, Spotsmama!

[Bascomb]

kiki-co -- Everyone does things a little differently. Turtles, if healthy, can with stand a lot. Of the three major chemicals that occur when getting your tank in line is; ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are the two most toxic of the three. The nitrate is what remains when the others are brought into line. Please don't get too comfortable with high nitrites. While working my way through college, and working an outside crew, I observed three sliders swimming around in a septic tank. I had them fished out and placed in a near by ditch and they seemed okay. They just swam away. I don't know how they got in there, but there they were.