How Do You Keep A Turtle Tank Clean

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Keeping Your Turtle's Water Make clean

Healthy hatchling turtles playing on top of the UGF powerhead.

I of the most important things you take to do to go on your turtle healthy and happy is proceed the water in its tank clean and fresh. This is also one of the things that will make yous proudest of your turtle habitat: When people wait at it and say, "Wow, I can't believe how clear the h2o is!"

Keeping the water articulate isn't as easy as nigh people think, though. Turtles are messy animals, and they don't make clean up their rooms no affair how many times they're told! So its up to united states of america, their human being keepers, to keep their habitats clean, fresh, and healthy.

The nearly important thing to remember most the water in your turtle'south habitat is that turtles eat, drink, swim, defecate (poop) and urinate (pee) in the same water. That makes it get dingy very quickly. If we don't keep up with it, your turtle'due south water will very apace get dingy and smelly, and your turtles will become ill.

How to Keep the Water in Your Turtle's Tank Clean

Maintaining water quality in an aquatic turtle's habitat takes only a few hours every week if it'southward done properly. Hither are the most important things you lot demand to do to maintain a healthy h2o environment for your aquatic turtle.

1. Utilize a Big Enough Tank

If your turtle's tank is also small-scale, it will be much harder to continue clean. Turtles poop a lot, and if their tank is also small, it will get muddied a lot faster. Also, aquatic turtles like to swim, and a too-small tank won't requite them enough pond room to get enough practise to stay healthy.

In addition, turtles generate a lot of ammonia, which is toxic to them. The filter of a turtle habitat is what filters the ammonia out of the water using something called biological filtration, which ways that "friendly" bacteria colonize the filter and digest the ammonia. But if in that location's not plenty water, the concentration of ammonia can become very high, and your turtles may become sick or even dice.

We'll talk more about turtle tank filters here, and more than about the way friendly bacteria keep your turtle'southward water clean here. Yous should read both of those pages before setting upward your turtle habitat or buying a tank or any other equipment.

The Rule of Shell

Have you ever heard of a "rule of pollex?" Well, turtle keepers have a rule of shell!

Ane fashion to determine how big a tank you need for your turtles is that for every inch of carapace (upper shell) length, your tank should hold a minimum of approximately ten gallons of water. So if your turtle's carapace is two inches long, your habitat should concur at least 20 gallons of water. If information technology'due south four inches long, the habitat should hold at least forty gallons of h2o.

By the style, for our visitors from outside the United States, the "rule of shell" comes out to roughly 38 liters of water per 2.v centimeters of trounce length in metric measurements. That'due south not as well piece of cake to remember, then let'south merely say 15.two liters of h2o per centimeter of turtle. Then for a 13 cm turtle, you should have at least 197.six liters of water (13 centimeters x xv.2 liters).

If at that place are more than one turtle, size your tank for the first turtle, and so add half once more as much for each boosted turtle. And then if y'all accept two 5-inch turtles, for example, your tank should hold a minimum of 75 gallons of water: l gallons for the start turtle, and another 25 gallons (half of 50) for the 2nd turtle. Unless y'all plan to upgrade your tank as your turtles grow, size it based on your turtles' developed sizes. They do abound on you, y'all know.

Of course, not anybody has enough space (or money) for a tank that big. If your tank is a little smaller than what's recommended above, your turtles volition probably be okay. But you'll have to work a bit harder to go along the tank make clean. Smaller tanks are harder to continue clean and good for you than bigger ones are, so effort to use the biggest tank you lot can.

2. Become a Good Turtle Tank Filter

The water filter is such an important part of a turtle habitat that I've moved the turtle tank filter information to its own page. Please click here to read about turtle tank filters. Please read that folio earlier you get a filter for your turtle tank.

3. Clean Up the Leftovers

If there is food left over after your turtles cease eating, it will rapidly begin to decay and volition crusade the water in your turtle tank to foul. Then clean upwardly any leftovers quickly with a net and throw them out. Some other thought is to feed your turtle in a split up tank from the one they live in. But remember that aquatic turtles have to be in the water to eat because near turtles can't produce saliva.

Y'all can also use a large bucket to feed very messy foods similar fish to your turtle. If you time the feeding of messy foods to happen at the same time equally a water modify (nosotros'll talk nearly water changes further down the folio), you tin can feed the turtle in the water that you removed from the tank; and then discard the leftovers with the water when the turtle is done eating.

iv. Vacuum Frequently

Turtle swimming with head above the surface of the water with an eBay logo

It's very important to vacuum your turtle habitat frequently, particularly if y'all are using a substrate.

You can use an inexpensive aquarium vacuum cleaner to vacuum your turtle habitat. Put the terminate of the hose in a bucket, and utilise the nozzle to vacuum the tank. This fashion y'all're doing a partial h2o change every time y'all vacuum.

My favorite tool for this particular chore is the Python Aquarium Maintenance System because it has h2o faucet adapters that permit it to be used to add or remove water from the tank, in addition to vacuuming information technology. Information technology certain beats conveying buckets of water through the business firm, particularly if yous have a big tank (or a large house).

When using whatsoever siphon-blazon vacuum cleaner, never commencement the siphon using your mouth. Turtle tanks often harbor the bacteria that cause salmonella. It doesn't affect the turtles, just it makes humans sick. Use the clasp seedling built into the siphon. That's what it'due south in that location for.

Merely on case you've never used a siphon before, make sure to have a big enough saucepan on the outflow end of the siphon hose. Once the h2o starts flowing, information technology volition keep flowing all by itself considering water seeks its own level. That also means that you tin can stop the water flow by raising the outflow cease of the siphon above the water level in the tank. Just cover the stop of the hose with your thumb, lift it upward higher than the water level in the tank, release your thumb, and let the water drain back into the tank.

5. Monitor the Chemical Levels

Turtles are not quite as sensitive to chemical changes every bit fish are, just you should monitor at least the water'southward pH, ammonia, and nitrite / nitrate levels. You'll need an aquarium water test kit for the type of habitat you lot're keeping (freshwater or saltwater).

Read and follow the instructions very carefully like any scientist would or you may go inaccurate results. You tin can besides utilize aquarium water test strips, which are easier to employ than a water examination kit, merely not quite as accurate.

There'due south a lot of chemistry behind aquatic habitat water quality. We'll talk nearly it in a bit more detail on this page nigh turtle tank water cycling. For at present, the following numbers are what yous need to know.

A fully-cycled aquatic turtle tank water should take the post-obit water chemistry numbers:

A pH between vi.0 and 8;
A chlorine level of 0;
An ammonia level of 0;
A nitrite level of 0.v ppm (parts per million) or less (preferably cypher); and
A nitrate level of forty ppm or less.

If your tank's chemical levels meet all those requirements, your turtles should be pretty happy with the h2o. If you also have fish in the tank, however, y'all volition demand to follow the stricter water quality rules for the fish that you have. Fish are more sensitive to water chemistry problems than turtles are.

A slightly acid pH (half-dozen.0 to half dozen.ix) will assist deadening the growth of leaner and fungi in a turtle tank's water, but it can kill some fish and invertebrates. When keeping fish in your turtle tank, you take to stay within the pH range that the fish need because they're more sensitive to pH and other water chemistry values than turtles are. You lot also don't want to become lower than 6.0 even in a turtle tank because information technology tin starting time irritating the turtles' eyes. Also, the benign bacteria that live in the filter tin't tolerate a pH much lower than 6.0.

You can lower the pH in your turtle tank's h2o by adding driftwood to the tank or by using peat moss in the filter. Y'all'll need to put the peat moss within of an aquarium media filter bag or make a bag out of something like an old pair of nylon stockings so it doesn't muddy up the water earlier putting it in the filter.

You lot can raise the pH using an aquarium pH increase additive, ordinary baking soda, or by using crushed coral as a filter medium. If the pH in your tap h2o is e'er depression, and so you tin fifty-fifty mix crushed coral into the tank'southward substrate. Information technology volition leach calcium into the h2o, which will raise the pH and buffer information technology against future changes. But only do this if your tap water pH is always low. For temporary problems, yous're improve off using it in the filter. Information technology's easier to change the filter media than the substrate.

six. Change the H2o Regularly

If you vacuum frequently using a siphon-blazon vacuum and throw abroad the water that you siphon off, you may not accept to change the water very often (if at all) because you'll be doing a partial water change every fourth dimension you vacuum. If yous drain more 25 percent (one-quarter) of the water when you vacuum, so that counts as a water change, too.

Water changes are easy to practise fifty-fifty when you're non vacuuming at the same time. You just use a siphon hose to siphon off some of the h2o into a bucket and replace it with fresh h2o (or common salt water or brackish h2o if you lot're keeping turtles who demand those environments). Unremarkably you supersede one-quarter of the water with every change if there are no issues, merely you may change more of the water (like half, or maybe fifty-fifty all of it) if you are doing it to right a trouble.

Make certain to plow off your tank heater(southward) and let them cool downward for a few minutes when doing water changes if the water level will drop beneath the tiptop of the heater(south). Electrical aquarium heaters will instantly burn out if they're operated out of the water. Have my word on this. I've burned out a few over the years past forgetting to plow them off when doing water changes.

How frequently to change the water depends on your setup, the size of the tank, how skillful a filter y'all have, how many turtles you have, and many other factors. Basically, when the water starts getting cloudy and evil-smelling; or the nitrate levels get too high, that means you've waited also long to practice a water change. Nitrates are the end product of the nitrification cycle, and so they have to be removed by changing the water.

About turtle keepers do fractional h2o changes at to the lowest degree twice a month if they take good filters and take no water chemistry problems. If your tank or filter are a bit besides small-scale, or if your h2o chemistry numbers are not good, you may accept to exercise h2o changes more frequently.

I way to reduce the frequency of h2o changes is to use live plants in your turtle habitat, as described on this page. Aquatic plants all use nitrates as food, and some of them have quite the ambition for it. Of course, keeping plants in your habitat introduces more complexity, then it may not be something you want to exercise right at the beginning. Just information technology's something to keep in listen for the future.

7. Aerate the H2o.

Turtles have lungs and breathe air like people do, so some keepers don't carp aerating their tanks to put air in the h2o. Only aeration helps keep the water healthy by discouraging the growth of anaerobic bacteria. The word "anaerobic" basically means bacteria that "don't like oxygen," and the "bad" leaner that we don't want in our turtle tanks are all anaerobic; so by adding air to the water, we make the water less suitable for bad bacteria.

An inexpensive aquarium air pump and an air rock volition help continue your turtle'south water cleaner. It as well makes prissy bubbles, which some turtles enjoy playing in. Air stones do go chock-full upward after a while and need to be cleaned or replaced.

8. Move the Water Effectually.

Water filter spray bar installed under the water level, with a turtle in the path of the water flow

If you accept a big turtle tank (which you should if yous have large turtles), yous can help amend the water quality past moving the water around. If you take a powerful enough external canister filter, you tin circulate your h2o simply past placing the outlet end of the tube underwater and using an elbow or spray bar adapter to betoken the water in a good direction to keep information technology moving, like in the movie on the right.

Another manner to keep the h2o moving is by using an aquarium circulation pump. These pumps basically just move the water in the tank around in whatever management you point them.

Moving the water around helps your turtle habitat in several ways:

It improves filtration efficiency by by causing a slight circular movement of the h2o, if you lot aim the pump properly. (You don't want too much movement, though. We're not trying to build a whirlpool bath for our turtles.)
It helps maintain a more even temperature throughout the tank.
It helps diffuse bacteria and oxygen throughout the tank. Oxygen is necessary for aerobic (good for your habitat) leaner to thrive. It too discourages the growth of anaerobic (bad for your habitat) leaner.
It helps slow down algae growth a bit.

Some Other Water Quality Ideas

In improver to the above, there are other ways to help keep your turtle's water make clean. Some of these involve more piece of work to fix, yet, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Not everyone agrees virtually whether some of these things are good ideas, then exercise your enquiry and make your own decisions. (I personally use all of them and accept not had any bug.)

Add a constitute or two. As mentioned to a higher place, plants help swallow nitrates and other pollutants and compete with algae for available carbon dioxide. Merely calculation plants to a turtle habitat has to be washed advisedly. Some plants are toxic to turtles, and others will but become salad for the turtles. Besides, most plants need to exist rooted in something, so unless you're using floating plants or plants that tin can exist tied to something similar a rock in the tank, you'll have to utilise a substrate like Flourite. Floating plants similar hornwort, of course, are an exception. You don't need substrate for floating plants.
Add a few working fish. Some fish, like Otocinclus catfish ("Oto's") and Hypostomus plecostomus ("plecos" or "plecs"), can help keep the water make clean past eating algae and scavenging for leftovers on the bottom of the tank. Ghost shrimp are also very good at this, just unless you provide acceptable hiding places for them, the turtles will usually swallow them earlier they get to do very much work. Other fish, similar Danio sp. ("zebra fish") assist past eating scraps that our messy turtles ignore. But working in a turtle tank is a dangerous chore for a fish because your turtle may eat them! And then unless you're willing to have a take chances that your working fish may become turtle food, don't add them to the tank.

Be careful about which fish you add: Otos, plecos, and zebra fish are probably the safest. They're also pretty fast swimmers, so they may exist able to out-swim your turtles -- for a while, at least -- and avoid becoming lunch. It's important to avert fish that could hurt your turtles, such as armored catfish (unless they're bigger than the turtles can consume). Finally, remember that you
must
aerate your tank if you're going to introduce fish, or else the fish volition suffocate and die.

Ghost shrimp are also adept scavengers, but they're also a favorite food of turtles. If you desire them to survive for very long, you'll need to provide some sort of harborage for them to live in, such equally Java moss or another dumbo plants on the bottom of the tank. You can also brand them a hiding infinite with apartment rocks, only make sure that your turtle tin't become stuck under them and drown.
Ghost shrimp are very inexpensive because they are sold every bit nutrient for larger aquarium fish. If you add them to your turtle habitat, they run a loftier risk of becoming turtle food eventually. Because the shrimp are nocturnal (active at dark) and the turtles are diurnal (active during the twenty-four hours), if your habitat has places for the shrimp to hibernate during the day, they have at least a fighting chance of surviving.

You can learn more about keeping ghost shrimp in a turtle tank hither.
Ultraviolet Sterilizers. UV sterilizers utilize ultraviolet lite to kill algae, most bacteria, and many viruses, fungi, and parasites that are in the water. The organisms die or are their reproductive capabilities are damaged when they pass by the light. The sterilizers can be placed in the water line to the filter. Some filters, like many of the larger SunSun models, have them congenital right in to the filters.

Sterilizers and clarifiers can assistance proceed your h2o clear and free of floating algae and can help keep your tank healthy by killing germs that tin can brand your turtles ill and make the water smell bad. They're a good addition, especially for larger tanks. They should not be used during initial water cycling, even so, when introducing friendly bacteria supplements, nor for a few days subsequently changing a filter or the media within a filter. They should be turned off during these times to let the friendly bacteria to populate or re-populate their substrates.
Innovate friendly leaner. Pet supply stores sell tablets or liquids that can be added to a new fish tank to "condition" the water by removing chlorine, and sometimes chloramine and ammonia. Some of these conditioners too comprise starter cultures of benign bacteria, and because the aforementioned bacteria that assistance keep fish tanks clean as well aid continue turtle tanks clean, these additives aren't a horrible idea when setting up a new tank. They're also helpful right after changing the filter media, since you volition take just washed a lot of the friendly bacteria down the bleed.

If you choose to use them when setting up a new tank, add bacteria supplements to the tank at the dosage on the label after information technology's set up and the filter is running, and non more a few hours before you introduce the turtles. The bacteria need the turtle wastes or else they will die, and so adding them to an empty tank is just a waste product of money.

In a big tank, yous tin employ a bacteria supplement for fish ponds. This is what I ordinarily do when I ready up a new habitat, or add together a new filter or alter the media in the filter. The pond bacteria is substantially the same stuff every bit is sold for aquariums, just it's a lot less expensive.
H2o additives like the various turtle h2o cleaners incorporate leaner and enzymes that help dissolve poo and leftovers and then the filter tin more easily remove them from the water.

Other than bacteria supplements, which are basically the same for fish or turtles, y'all should only use additives that are especially made for turtle tanks. Some products made for fish can exist harmful to turtles. Specially avert algaecides (chemicals to kill algae). Many of them can impale turtles, other reptiles, and amphibians.