first Chinese New Year

Just posted this in the Turtle Times forums…just thought I’d share it here too:

first off, some pix of my turtles tank with the holiday (Christmas trees) background on…

Me and my girlfriend went to a place that was doing calligraphy of peoples names in Chinese for free in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Rather than having our names done like normal people would, we had our turtles’ names done. This is Cinderella:

…and this is Rex:

…and their tank with their Chinese names as decoration

Rex

Cinderella

I know the tank they are sharing is way too small for them and I’m tired of doing 100% water changes all the time..so we bought them a ginormously humongous 150 gallon tank…

…but it’s too big and really overwhelms our small living room. We’re trying to switch it to a smaller more manageable tank that should be big enough for them for a few years

And a pic of a snail riding a napping Cinderella. The turtles have killed several other snails, but this one is a survivor. It has really learned to protect itself from two very friendly, biting turtles

Hope you enjoyed the pix!!

Zoo Med 501 Filter review

I’ve been using the Zoo Med 501 filter for several months now and here’s what I think about it:

Overall: a good ‘first’ filter for small turtle habitats. The filter will eventually need to be replaced with a stronger, bigger filter when the turtles grow and the habitat is upgraded to a larger size.

Strength: Rated for up to 30 gallons of water with a max flow rate of 79 gph (gallons per hour). The max flowrate is the rate that water is pumped through the filter without any filter media. The circulation rate would be the rate with the filter media actually installed. It’s typically about 80% of gph, so flow rate would be roughly 63 gph (79 x 80%). This means that for 30 gallons of water, it will circulate all the water just twice (63/30 = 2.1). Not bad…but for turtles circulating all the water 3 times or 4 times would be more preferable, but twice isn’t bad.

Filter media: Comes with all the media you need and is ready to use right out of the box. It comes with a sponge (mechanical media), a carbon bag (chemical media), and ceramic rings (biological media). Carbon isn’t really needed in a turtle tank, but if you really wanted to continue using it, it would be cheaper to buy your own carbon than to keep buying the Zoo Med branded carbon packs. I prefer to ditch the carbon and just use more biological and mechanical filter media instead.

Noise: It’s a quiet filter. You’ll hear it running if you’re right next to it, otherwise you won’t hear it at all. The waterfall sounds from the spraybay can be avoided by putting it underwater or by aiming the water to spray right on the wall of the aquarium.

Complaints: My main gripe with the filter is that you don’t have much flexibility with how to arrange the media. The canister is divided into two parts, one for the biological and chemical media and the other for the sponge with the water flowing only in that direction. Because of the design, you can’t adequately have the water flow through the sponge first (which makes the most sense) then through the other media next. Because the water will flow through the carbon or rings first, the filter will clog a lot quicker than it otherwise would.

By the way: there is no right/wrong order in inserting the carbon and ceramic rings. They each filter out different things from the water and it doesn’t really matter which one cleans the water first. In the case of this filter though, it would be better to keep the carbon on the bottom and the rings on top. Doing it the other way around will only make the filter clog quicker.

My experience: I’ve used this filter for two RES turtles for when they were hatchlings to about 2.5″ in a 5.5 gallon tank starting with 1 gallon of water which slowly increased to 4 gallons of water. It has done an excellent job. It isn’t strong enough to suck most of the debris out of the water, but it keeps the water looking clear and clean. Spot siphoning everyday or so is needed to keep the tank looking clean. The spray bar does a passable job of providing surface water agitation in a small aquarium but isn’t enough to remove the oil film that forms. All the ammonia and nitrites are completely removed from the water with the filter, but with two turtles a weekly 100% water change was needed, as nitrates only took a week to get to 40ppm. The filter can get clogged fairly easily, so I usually clean the filter media every time a water change is done. Also, the tubes accumulate algae and dirt fairly quickly. It is very easy to prime (start), and will even start even if the canister isn’t completely filled with water.

I will continue using this filter in the small tank long after the turtles have been moved to a much larger tank. It did a good job with the turtles and I’m positive it will do an excellent job with fish and shrimp.

Mar.19, 2009 Update: I’ve made an updated review of the 501 filter. See it here: 501 Zoo Med Turtle Filter review, appended.

First time to use test strips

I used some test strips today.

Ammonia and nitrite were at zero, which was expected since I use biological filters and my tank cycled a long time ago.

Nitrates were around 30 ppm. The strips are the kind where they change color and the color was between the 20ppm and the 40ppm colors. That was after a water change. This means that I have to change the way I’ve been doing my tank maintenance.

I always do tank maintenance on sundays, not counting the times were siphon clean any waste sitting at the tank bottom. On the first sunday of the month, I do a 100% water change and scrub everything down. I change one or two gallons of water the remaining sundays after that. Every sunday, I clean the sponge filters under running water and clean the biological filters (ceramic rings and lava rock) with old aquarium water.

I did some research and it seems that 40ppm of nitrates should be the max in turtle tanks. I should do an 85% water change when nitrates reach 40ppm, which will reduce it to 6ppm. At least according to the turtletimes forums.

I reached the 30 ppm level today after a week, and that was with a one gallon water change. I have four gallons of water (too little, I know – a bigger tank is coming soon!!). Since I changed a gallon, it means I actually had 40ppm before the water change!

From now on, I have to change all the water every week!!

more live food and aquarium mates

I feel like it’s been awhile since I posted about something other than my turts’ size. Here’s an update on their live feeding…

Since the last rosy was eaten, they haven’t eaten any of the 2 remaining goldfish. When November rolled in, I bought them more live food – which I aim to do for them everytime a new month comes in.

I bought them 5 rosy minnows this time. Rex immediately ate one of the fish as I was transferring them to the turtle tank. It was so quick!! After putting 3 or 4 of the fish in the tank, I saw one of them in his mouth with its tail sticking out. It was head first and he was swallowing it whole. I reached for the camera as he was swallowing it, but didn’t manage to get to a photo of the action.

The day after, another minnow was missing, although there’s no way of telling who ate it. The next day yet another minnow disappeared.

When I bought the minnows, I also bought a mystery snail. I figured the turtles might want to try some other food, and if not, then it could help keep the tank clean. The turts have bitten the snail a few times, and even took a chip off the shell, but haven’t managed to eat/kill it yet.

In the meantime the turtles, Cinderella in particular, was getting very aggressive. She was always trying to flutter Rex and would make bite attempts at his claws and face. Given the overly aggressive behavior, I divided the tank to avoid any of the turtles from drawing blood and missing eyes and such. Dividing the tank was a bit difficult since I also divided the basking area, which is a Zilla corner basking platform. I’ll post pics of the divided tank later. I placed a minnow and a goldfish on each turtles side and the snail on Rex’s side. Several days into the divided tank, the remaining minnows disappeared at about the same time.

It really makes me happy when the turtles eat the live fish, and even happier still to know for sure that Cinderella ate one too!! The gold fish are still there, I think they just don’t like the taste of goldfish.

Then we thought that the snail was dead. With Rex biting and clawing at it a few times a day, we thought he might have gotten successful. So I went out and bought 3 snails and 3 Chinese Algae Eater fish. After putting the new animals in the tank, the dead snail proved it was alive and not dead after all. So now the turtles each have 2 snails, a gold fish, and Chinese Algae Eater each, with Cinderella having an extra Algae Eater.

The Algae Eaters are quick nervous little fish that the turtles are likely never going to eat. The snails are likely going to become turtle food one of these days. If the snails spawn and create dozens of baby snails, the tank will not become snail infested – I’ve no doubt the turtles will enjoy eating all those tiny, yummy baby snails!!

On an extra note: the turtles are now being fed every other day as they are no longer hatchlings (over 2″ in length).

Rearranged the turtle tank

I wanted to give the turts more water to swim in. I bought some UVC pipes and attached them under the Zilla basking ramp with some aquarium rock epoxy. Then I moved the small internal filter and heater to the back wall and stacked them up for the ramp to rest on.

When it was all set-up, I noticed that the PVC pipes were big enough for the turtles to fall into and that they might get stuck inside and drown, so I stuffed some unused aquarium air tubes in them.

With the basking spot a lot higher than before, I got worried that they might be too close to the heat/uv bulb. I put to use a lamp stand to raise the lamp higher.

The tank now looks incredibly different, and the turts certainly enjoying having more swimming room…

Current set-up

I just responded to a question about what the setup for the turtles looks like in the RedEarSlider.com Turtle Talk forums. So, copying from what I wrote over there, here is my setup:

ok. They’re currently set-up in a 5g tank, which they are going to outgrow soon.
There is a Zilla corner basking ramp on the right, a Zoo-med 501 filter in the background to the left, a heater in a guard on the left wall, and a dive clean mini in an angle on the back wall. There is also a thermometer in the water on the front glass wall.

here’s another angle of the whole setup. The thing hanging on the back right corner is the temperature probe for a Herpstat Thermostat I just got. I’ll be using that when the weather heats up again to control a CHE bulb. The CHE and a UVB/UVA bulb will replace the current basking lamp. I think it’s important to be able to control the heat separately from the light, especially in the summer, when there is a chance that m turtles might bake in too much heat

The white thing in the water is a calcium turtle bone. The Dive clean mini is the first filter I got, before the 501. I still keep it in the tank though, even if it’s ineffective since the turtles like hiding below it and climbing over it.

Lastly, here’s a pic of them basking…I need to clean the glass

no more gravel and a bit about the tank setup

A lot of people don’t recommend having gravel in a turtle’s habitat. I learned first-hand why today.

Gravel is very dirty and hides and keeps tons of dirt in it. When I went to change the water in the turtle tank today, the gravel was filthy. Very filthy. So me and AG cleaned it out and now the turtles have a clean tank bottom. The turtles don’t seem to mind and I’m sure they appreciate having much cleaner water to swim in.

That’s Rex climbing up on the water heater.

Rex on the steps on the right and Cinderella on the left under the small filter. An empty bottom looks a lot cleaner.

Rex trying to swim through the glass.

So far this is what the turtle set-up is:

- 5 Gallon aquarium. Space is an issue in the apartment so I got a 5 gallon aquarium. The turtles are going to outgrow it, but for the time being it works very well. Eventually, a new tank will be needed.

- Dive Clean Mini Filter. The first filter that I bought. It’s a really small submersible filter that I bought together with the aquarium. This was before I knew anything about filters. It’s a sponge filter (mechanical) which obviously isn’t enough to clean the waste of two turtles. The turtles like hiding underneath it and hanging onto and standing on it, which is why I still keep it there.

- Zoo Med 501 Turtle Filter. After doing some research I settled on getting this canister filter. It works great! I won’t be buying the Zoo Med carbon filter packs since they’re too expensive and aren’t that great from what I’ve read. Same about the sponge. I bought some activated carbon and will be getting a filter media bag soon. When the sponge needs to be replaced, I also won’t get the Zoo Med replacement – I’ve read that there are some other better and cheaper materials you can use instead of a sponge. I know the filter won’t be enough for when the turtles get bigger and we get a larger aquarium, so I’ll be getting a bigger canister filter when that time comes.

- a glass water heater with a plastic guard. Forgot the brands, but they’re good. Should the heater break for any reason in the future, I’ll get an inline heater as a replacement. This will give the turtles a little bit more room and also keeps the electric wires out of the tank. I get worried that they might bite into it and fry themselves, even though I haven’t read of this happening to anyone’s turtles yet.

- Zilla Basking Platform Small Corner Ramp. I had originally picked up some rocks from the neighborhood. After a good cleaning I stacked them up in the tank. They had some rough edges and also weren’t very stable so I got the Zilla platform instead. The turtles like it.

- Thermometer. Thermometers on a strip are a waste and are inaccurate. I know, I got one. It didn’t work too well and didn’t have much range (went up to 85 only). So I got a real aquarium thermometer instead.

- lamp and full spectrum heat/UVB light bulb. Turtles need to bask and they need heat. In the summer though it gets too hot that the water temp even reaches above 90 degrees, which means that the air temperature in there has got to reach 100 degrees or more!! I’ll be getting a ceramic heating element, a proportional thermostat to control it, and a UVB UVA fluorescent bulb. I think it’ll be the best way to make sure it doesn’t get too hot for the turtles in the warm weather and still have them get all the “sunlight” they need.

Rex and Cinderella

On September 1st, me and AG went to Philly on a day trip to eat some authentic Philly Cheesesteaks and see the sights. Walking through a market, we saw some turtles and bought a pair.

We’ve named them Rex and Cinderella, two Red Eared Sliders, who are actually more expensive and complicated than I first thought. Since the pix were taken, we’ve since purchased an aquarium, filters, basking light, food, a basking spot, aquarium heater, and such. Anyway, here are some pix:

We brought them home in a chinese food disposable tupperware. They were probably over an inch in length.

This is the plastron of Cinderella.

The Plastron of Rex.

This is the second temporary bowl we put them in. I’ll post more about that later.