Equipment Review and Discussion

I have the same sand in a 20 gallon fish tank. It was the original too small turtle tank.

It will need lots of rinsing. You will loose some siphoning, but you'll get the hang of swirling the siphon over the surface and not losing much.

Make sure the filter intake isn't too low. I don't have a turtle with that sand, but I'd bet a turtle could swirl some up, which will get into the filter. Make certain you check the impeller with ever filter cleaning and you'll be fine.

My filters intakes are pretty close to the sand and I have verry little sand in my filters but then again I clean them once a month. By close I'm talking 2".

Kansasslider wrote:My filters intakes are pretty close to the sand and I have verry little sand in my filters but then again I clean them once a month. By close I'm talking 2".

My 55 gallon turtle tank with pool filter sand is less than an inch, and sand in the filter isn't really an issue. That carribsea stuff is a very fine sand. It looks nice. It provides a larger surface area for good bacteria. But, it doesn't take much to get it floating. I can just imagine the way Tobie pushes off the bottom with that sand.

playsand didn't work out too well for me... i tried rinsing it in the bucket and 90% of what i put in the bucket (probably not even a quarter of a 5 gallon bucket) ended up on the ground... does pool filter sand need to be rinsed as well or is that already cleaned?

You're better off rinsing it, but I know some skip it.

Pool filter sand is screned sand of a very uniform size. It stil has some dust, but nothing like play sand.

Gotcha, thanks. I think I'm just gonna go with a bare bottom tank then. As much as I wanted a sand substrate/plays living in an apartment building makes it very difficult to rinse it the way it should be.

Last edited by YonkasTone on Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

it's nothing exciting but i'm getting there. just need to figure out the filter and let it run for a while before i finally get my turtle. is the heater ok where it is? Also, is there anything I can do to get the egg crate to sit flat or do I just have to deal with how it bows?

Image isn't working for me.

Looks nice and clean. Consider a simple background to hide the cords, and use a drip loop with your electrical gear. The heater is fine, just make sure your turtle can't get stuck under it. Does that tank have a center bar?

unfortunately no center bar in the tank. I'm going to clean up the cords this weekend, just need to grab some tie wraps. as far as a drip loop goes (once i looked up what it was

) i'll be doing that as well. right now i have everything going into a power strip but i can mount the power strip to the wall so i can get the loop.

Maybe you can find small clamps to hold the eggcrate down? I'd use velcro straps over ties, but everything else sounds good!

I was wrong, there is a center bar on the stand. I tie wrapped the power strip to the bar and cleaned up all the cords to go down the leg of the stand then up to the power strip. I may still get a background but it looks a lot cleaner now. I'm going to move the heater up a bit so the turtle definitely won't get stuck under it.

Finally put the filter in and cleaned up the wires, just a few more questions...

1) The water has been sitting in the tank for about a week with no filter. I noticed yesterday morning it was starting to get a faint greenish tint to it so I put the filter in last night when I got home from work. Is that something that will clear up with the filter after a few days or should i do a partial/full water change before i get the turtle? I didn't treat the water with anything, it's just regular tap water.

2) I was thinking about (finally) getting the turtle this weekend, is that a long enough time for the water cycling through the filter or should I wait longer?

It's a 40 gallon feeder with a fluval 406 filter. The filter has carbon in the bottom 2 trays and ceramic on the top 2 with the big sponges on the side. Thanks again for all your help and patience.

Sitting water will becone stagnant. Hence the smell. I would change it out for fresh. And yes you can get your turtles this weekend.

1) The water has been sitting in the tank for about a week with no filter. I noticed yesterday morning it was starting to get a faint greenish tint to it so I put the filter in last night when I got home from work. Is that something that will clear up with the filter after a few days or should i do a partial/full water change before i get the turtle? I didn't treat the water with anything, it's just regular tap water.

I recommend you test your 'tap' water for: pH, ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate. If you can get the required test kit, you should also test for chlorine and chloramine. That's the only way to determine what's going into your aquarium from your source water. Ideally, you'd want your source water to test: pH 7.0 (or close), and the others 0.0.

The 'greenish tint' is most likely algae. It could also be bacteria. Algae requires light and inorganic nutrients, mostly nitrates and phosphates, although it will consume ammonia/ammonium and nitrite if any of that is available. If there is chloramine in your tap water, then you can rule out bacteria. It takes 36-48 hours for chlorine to evaporate completely out of a container of water, but if you have chloramine it can only be removed by either filtering through activated charcoal or treating with appropriate water treatment to neutralize it. If your tap water tests positive for ammonia/ammonium (common for many water sources, including wells and springs) then you probably also have chloramine whether or not your municipality adds it. That's because chlorine, which is added to virtually all municipal water sources, reacts with ammonia to form chloramine. Chloramine will kill any bacteria in the water but won't affect algae.

If your 'greenish tint' is a bacterial bloom and not algae, it will go away on its own as soon as the bacteria run out of whatever they're eating. Whether algae or bacteria, however, your aquarium filtration system will have no affect on it unless it's being caused by free ammonia and/or nitrite in the water. Once your filtration system starts to cycle, those elements will be eaten by the nitrifying bacteria in the filter.

If there is ammonia/ammonium and/or nitrite in your source water, you have to get that out either by filtering through activated charcoal or treating with one of the commercial water treatment chemicals sold at your LFS. Fortunately, turtles are more tolerant of nitrates and phosphates than fish. So if your source contains only a very small amount of nitrate and/or phosphates, less than 20ppm nitrate and/or 1ppm phosphate for example, you probably don't have to do anything about it. Just be aware that you're adding both with each water change and test frequently to make sure they don't get out of hand over time. If you have either nitrate and/or phosphate in your source water and your aquarium is exposed to sunlight during the day (or 'full spectrum' flourescent), you will have algae. The easiest/best way to deal with problem algae is to purchase or build an algae scrubber which will not only grow algae in the scrubber instead of your water tank, it will also reduce both nitrates and phosphates in the water.

If you've got high nitrates and/or phosphates in your source water you have two alternatives to deal with it. Some treatment chemicals claim to remove and/or bind it. Or you could have a planted tank and/or an algae scrubber. Your turtle(s) would probably eat any plants in the tank, so you'd have to set up a separate tank for the plants and plumb it to exchange water with your turtle tank. An algae scrubber would not require a second tank of water and will remove nitrates and phosphates more efficiently than other plants.

Anyway, first step is to test your tap water to see what's coming in. Hopefully, nothing.

Equipment Review and Discussion :: Lots of Equipment Questions for a Newbie

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