Habitat - Indoor :: Plants in a turtle tank

[talal]

Lately I have been fantasizing about planting my turtle tank. I want to go with an easy plant for starters. I know turtles can be very rough with plants and shred them to pieces so I have something in mind that might work. I will get a fish bowl or a 10 gallon tank and fill it up with water and put it on my patio so it will get plenty of sunlight. I want to put a bunch of anarchis in it and let it stay for a while until the plants are atleast 12' long. So, the question is would this plant growing habitat require a filter or anything else? I know anarchis are fairly easy to grow and once they have a good length and I will put them all in my tank. I'm pretty sure some of them would make it and keep growing. Since my turtles are hatchlings I dont think they would cause that much havoc anyway. Any suggestions? I'm sure others have tried something of this nature. I would love to know more.

[steve]

I don't think it'll thrive with just water and sunlight. Maybe some snails and fish should be added?

[VeipaCray]

You need nutrients in the water to feed the plants. You can add fertilzers but beware, algae will most likely out compete the plants you are trying to grow for the nutrients in that small of a tank.

I buy my planted tank dry fertilizers from here: http://greenleafaquariums.com/

In your scenario, you need plants that can feed from the water (non-rooted) plants. Anacharis, or any of the floating pond plants like water lettuce would work.

[talal]

Thank you guys for replying, VeipaCray I was aiming for anarchis or other plants that would float on water. If I choose to plant them in the same tank as my turtles and create a blocked area where the turtles cant get to and plant them there and move them once they get bigger would they grow if the water is filtered by carbon? Im afraid carbon might be removing nutrients from the water along with the bad stuff. My second concern is if I add dry fertilizers in my turtle tank, would they in any way harm my turtles? I have a 55 gallon tank filled with 50 gallons of water so that might be big enough to keep the algae out or atleast not effect the anarchis. I have no algae at all so far.

[devilduck]

In my experience it doesn't take much to grow anarchis. Since your in Texas you might be able to grow it outside in a bucket, that way you can add ferts without them being removed by the carbon. Another fast growing plant to look into is frogbit.

[talal]

I was wondering if there was a way to do it in the tank but I guess carbon would not let it grow.

[devilduck]

Won't hurt to try growing it in tank.

[ljapa]

I was wondering if there was a way to do it in the tank but I guess carbon would not let it grow.

I have a 55 gallon tank with a 55 gallon refugium. They are connected. I have carbon in my my filter and I have both anacharis and duckweed growing in the refugium. The anacharis is floating, not rooted. Both are doing fine. The anacharis grew faster before I added the duckweed. I think it's pulling out lots of nutrients.

But, assuming your turtle doesn't eat it all, I wouldn't let carbon in a filter scare you away from it.

[talal]

I see, I guess then I'm going to add some anarchis and see how it goes. One more thing, are you using any sort of fertilizer along with it? that's one thing I am really curious about. I am planning on creating a small box with egg crate to place on the corner of my tank to which I will add the plants, that way they will have time to grow before the turtles can get to them. I will add atleast two different kinds anarchis and duckweed or maybe water hyacinth. My concern was carbon but i guess i will give it a shot, my second concern is if I add dry fertilizer for aquatic plants could that be harmful to the turtles in any way?

[ljapa]

In my refugium, I have amazon sword, hygrophila, anacharis and the duckweed. First bit of advice: I'd try frogbit instead of duckweed. I wasn't able to grow it, but the duckweed gets on everything!

The amazon sword and hygrophila are both rooted plants. I do put in root tabs every two or three months. I add nothing else for fertilizer. The anacharis grew very fast when I first added it. It's growth slowed down once I added the duckweed, because I'm sure the duckweed is pulling out tons of nutrients from the water. The anacharis is still growing.

I harvest duckweed about twice a week for the daily vegetable feeding. The anacharis is harvested about every other week. I'd say, don't add anything initially. I think you'll be fine.

[annar]

I have a side tank for the extra plants. It has anacharis, java fern, and anubias. A couple of snails live in there, too. It sits in the sunlight and once a week I pour some dechlorinated water into it. So far, no algae and the plants are doing well.

In the turtle tank, my little guy started to leave the anacharis and the anubias alone, but the java fern gets pretty torn up because he likes to swim through it. If you decide to keep plants in the tank, I'd also recommend putting some kind of screen on the filter intake to keep plant matter from gunking up the filter.

[Drewet88]

If you want to put it into the turtle tank I would build a small box out of egg crate and just train the anarcharis o grow through the holes.
Or if you want to grow it in a tank on your patio couldn't you just use the water from when you clean your turtle tank and put it into the plants so they can have nutrients?
I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.

~Drew