General Care Discussion :: RES and Water

[k9ck024]

How long should the RES stay in the water?

Is it ok to add water once a week without washing the tank, if the tank isnt dirty?

[marisa]

If your RES has a basking area (and proper lighting with a good basking area temp), he'll get out of the water to bask when he wants to. This can vary from day to day---some days my RES basks a lot, some days he stays more in the water (that I can see). There is no set rule that your RES should stay in the water X amount of time.

How big is the tank?
How much water is in it?
What kind of filter is being used in the tank?
How much water is being added once a week?
How long are you thinking of just adding water without changing it because the tank "isn't dirty?"

The water may look clean but may not be (you can't see pee and poop will eventually dissolve). Do you test the tank water?

Without more specific info about your set-up, it's hard to give a simple yes or no answer.

[1981camaroz28]

I have had tanks all my life I am 38 same with my father and 1 trick that keeps anything thats live in water is your filter. Whatever size tank you have double the filter rating. I have a 120gal so I have 2 140gal filters. You can never have water to clean. Also most people don't realize this but the carbon or charcoal only last about 3 weeks. I use the black and white mix the white remove ammonia. It's very cheap but a old trick is to take it out and bake it in the over for 20 minutes high heat. Also I filters you should rinse them out weekly do 1 the first day the other the next. Also try and get a filter with a bio-wheel. Even a small tank like 40gal a emperor 400 is great and the filters last long just rinse them. My turtles go in and out of the water all the time I agree there is no set time they do what they want.

[k9ck024]

If your RES has a basking area (and proper lighting with a good basking area temp), he'll get out of the water to bask when he wants to. This can vary from day to day---some days my RES basks a lot, some days he stays more in the water (that I can see). There is no set rule that your RES should stay in the water X amount of time.

How big is the tank?
How much water is in it?
What kind of filter is being used in the tank?
How much water is being added once a week?
How long are you thinking of just adding water without changing it because the tank "isn't dirty?"

The water may look clean but may not be (you can't see pee and poop will eventually dissolve). Do you test the tank water?

Without more specific info about your set-up, it's hard to give a simple yes or no answer.

the tank is about 5-8 gallons. it is about 70-80% full. i use black charcoal. about 1/2 or less gallon once a week. i just add water because the water is getting less.

How can I test the tank water??

[marisa]

This is a very small tank and not much water. While tanks lose water from evaporation, continuously adding half a gallon of water or less weekly to compensate doesn't sound like much fresh water is being added, especially over time, since dissolved substances won't evaporate and will build up in the water. How big is the turtle that's in it (shell length without the shell curve)? If he's really tiny now, the water may be looking clear and it may take time for it to become visibly dirty, but that doesn't mean that the water doesn't need to be changed.

If it were me, I'd change the water and clean it periodically, even if the water looked clean. I used to change and clean 10-gallon tanks weekly, or at least as close to weekly as possible. You didn't say what kind of filter you're using, but media like sponges (mechanical media) and rings (biomedia) should be rinsed off in the tank water before you throw it out (keeping them in a bucket with some of the "cleaner" tank water until the filter is ready to be reassembled would be good).

You test the water with testing kits that can be bought at stores that sell fish and aquarium set-ups. Testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are the most important. Testing is especially important for larger tanks, with good filtration and where partial water changes are done and complete changes are infrequent. For a small tank, I'd just do regular water changes and cleanings.

[hdaisog]

1981camaroz28- Can you explain the baking of the charcoal thing a little more? Are you saying that once the charcoal loses its effect to bake it and then its good to go for another 2 weeks? If so, how high of heat?

[Bascomb]

The filtration is biological filtration. The carbon is to filter out other chemicals and would be better replaced than "baked'' When you start out with the bacteria that is in your new tank and the bacteria from the turtles gut is heterotrophic bacteria. These little guys leave ammonia, NH3, which has to be taken care of by Nitrosomonas. These guys leave, NH2, which is Nitrite. The nitrite is taken care of by Nitrobacter which leaves Nitrate. A small amount of nitrate is tolerable. The ammonia and nitrite it the most dangerous for you turtle. This short explanation is called the NITROGEN CYCLE. To get this to a near ''balance'' will take several 50 percent water changes to get the water cleared up.
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When sizing a filter think of gph and not how a fish tank is sized. Doubling a fish tank size is not large enough. You should think of gph and that should be at least 5 times gph the volume of the water in the tank.

[Nettle]

Ya, you absolutely need a bigger tank. The rule of thumb is for every inch of turtle, there should be 10 gallons of water (a 4 inch turtle needs a 40 gallon tank).

Here's a link to the main site:
http://www.redearslider.com/

How many inches long is your turtle?