Bio-Balancing a Turtle Aquarium
BALANCE IS KEY
Ok I have a question…. What does 99.9% of turtle and fish owners agree upon? The answer is that it is impossible to make a freshwater aquarium biologically balanced with a turtle. What do I mean by biologically balanced? If I succeed I should only have to clean my tank maybe once a month and change the water very very rarely. Sounds good but how do we do it? Well before I try to tackle any problem I look at all of the obstacles. In this case there are so many I’m going to make a list.
The Reasons it is “IMPOSSIBLE”
- Turtles Eat Everything that moves and tries to eat everything that doesn’t
- Turtles when startled rampage around cage destroying everything and re-landscaping your aquarium
- Turtles are extreamly nasty and poop A LOT
- Aquarium Stuff is Craaaazy Expensive and I am totally BROKE
- Filters Suck Unless You want to spend BIG dollars
- Turtles will be turtles….
Alright here are my successes and failures so you dont have to make them! Also I would like all the help I can get so share your stories as well!!
YEY’S and NAY’S
- Do not buy $15 stalks of bamboo unless you have a way to literally cement them to the bottom of the tank! My turtles alternately attacked, ate, dragged and subsequently killed the damn thing within 72 hours!
- Ghost shrimp = food. I put ghost shrimp in the tank but they just kept getting eaten by either the turtles, goldfish, feeder fish and most recently by my Tiger Oscar. They help clean but die quickly.
- Live plants = Bad Idea. They decay causing yellow water….. damn the yellow water!
- Feeder Fish = Awesome if eaten immediately. Other wise you end up with a tankful of feeder fish that are friends with the turtles.
- Tiger Oscar = Feeder Fish Solution. Get one of these big guys and they wont get eaten by the turtles (or at least hasn’t yet) and they clean up the ‘herd’ of feeder fish.
- Bottom Feeding Fish = Algae Solution. If you get them big enough they wont get eaten
(once again not yet) and they clean up the tank! - DO NOT GET SHITTY REPTILE CANISTER WATER FILTER
- NO GRAVE
- Evaporation does not clean tank for you. It makes it worse because just clean natural H2O is evaporating not the nasty stuff!
Thats it for now! Give me your feedback!
Categories: Turtles
algae, aqu, Aquarium, balanced aquarium, balancing, bottom feeders, canister filter, filter, ghost shrimp, plac..., shrimp, submersible filter, tiger oscar, UV Light
Extremely informative, Sprig! And yes, turtles poop ALOT and filters suck unless you want to spend big dollars. And I was just exhausted to take care of my daughter’s any more and that’s why I am soooooooo thrilled that they found a new and loving home with YOU!!!! How are the little rascals, anyway???
loving life. I have them in my big tank! One of them we named Quagmire is the horniest turtle I have ever seem. He tries to have his way with both the girls and one of the other guys….! No luck with any so far! Ill get some photos on here eventually!
I bought some Live Aquatic plants for Raphael and he loves sleeping in them, very strange little man.
However, I have noticed the water changing color recently, and I had to clean the tank today.
Man, the first time was a pain in the ass!! LOL.
Anyhow, great blog, I check this everyday, really appreciate all the tips.
-Nathan
Hey thanks nathan! Cool your lucky my guys just tear the plants to pieces. They are really useful tho for ammonia absorption and for proving the turtles with a sense of security!
“hello again, i just checked out your website http://www.sprigamatron.wordpress.com.
and i rarely need to change my water in my tank. i have one filter in there and thats, but my feeder fish does most of the job. I divided my tank in half, top and bottom, with eggcrates (the light defusers that you can get at homedepot). to top is where my turtles dwell and the lower part is where my feeder fish cleans. i have river rocks covering the eggcrate so it will look more natural. eventually the mess the turtles make up to will settle where my fish are, and the fish eats everything. whatever the fish misses the filter gets. it worked for me so far.
the bad part about this is that the turtles will dig up the river rocks and the “dumb” fish will swim up and get eaten. but my local fish stores sell 15 feeders for $1 and i think paying that $1 is a lot better than cleaning the tank. haha. also if the fish dies, you will need to get the fish out from the bottom deck to the upper deck. i use chopsticks to get the fish to float thru the eggcrate. extra treat for my turtles too.
worked so far, but i would love to see your plan for a maintenance free tank.” Kevin Lee
Hey I got an awswer from you on my yahoo question, shoot me an email and ill lokk forwarding to hear from you, thank you
Thanks for the update, Sprig. So happy to hear that Bill & Ted (or Quagmire & ??) are happy in their new home! I had a good laugh at your post!
hey shane! My email is sprigamatron1@gmail.com!
Is it important to have a fresh water source for you turtle to drink? I can’t figure out if he’s content just drinking the water in his little space.
lol nathan. I dont think I have ever thought about that. As far as i know they do not need it! Hows the little guy doing?
He’s doing great! The tank is a little smelly
I’ve been changing the water every week, he sleeps a ton but he hasn’t eaten all that much. Sometimes I worry about him, but then I just remember that he’s like that and I need to let him do his own thing.
He’s gotten used to us, and he doesn’t freakout and swim out like mad when we enter the room anymore, lol. My wife and I both agree he belongs here, and he’s a great addition to our little family.
Best,
Nathan
greetings from quagmire! he seems to be enjoying his new home and getting along with the other turtle. awesome and hilarious tips. i recently tried to add a plant to the turtlequarium, and had to take it out before they devoured the entire foliage of their home. sorry it took so long to get in touch with you, and thought you’d enjoy some pics (if they work):
omg! I’m so glad quagmire is doing good! The ‘girls’ he was harrasing ended up being guys!
You said that when you added plant sit made yellow water. How did you get rid of teh yellow water?
get a good additive from your pet store that contains live bacteria. They will literally clean the water itself!