# Best filter for water dish?



## crissyshine (Oct 19, 2016)

So my boxie has a nice sized water dish he likes to soak in and swim in (its a tupperware container he can easily get in and out of, no risk of flipping over and drowning, shell still shows when he is completely immersed). He also likes to bury himself in his substrate then promptly go swimming. 

I recently went out of town for a few days, bought the filter for fresh water, it did its job for the few days then stopped working.

I've seen a few videos on youtube with people giving their torts filtration so they will always have fresh water. 
I've used 2 small filters with no luck ( they either get clogged with dirt or the motor stops working). Does anyone use filtration for big water dishes so they don't have to chang the water everyday?
Its not a hard taks for me. Its just convenient.
I was looking at the fluval or external canister filters. Again, i need something that will keep the water clear for a messy, dirt loving boxie, in a medium water dish.


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## ZEROPILOT (Oct 19, 2016)

Unless you go large scale...With layers of rocks and a lot of water movement, I've never encountered any thing to clean drinking water.
I just use a broom to sweep out my pools and refill them twice a week.
Is it outdoors?
maybe just a large shallow pan that you can flip over and refill from time to time?


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## crissyshine (Oct 19, 2016)

ZEROPILOT said:


> Unless you go large scale...With layers of rocks and a lot of water movement, I've never encountered any thing to clean drinking water.
> I just use a broom to sweep out my pools and refill them twice a week.
> Is it outdoors?
> maybe just a large shallow pan that you can flip over and refill from time to time?


Indoors. And this soaking dish is shallow, but deep enough for soaking and swimming.
So I guess until he's outdoors, which is the plan for our next warm season, I will just empty the dish.
Thank you


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## PlutoTestudo (Oct 20, 2016)

I'd do the same filtration for turtles. Try getting a small canister filter that is recommended for 3x the water amount you have in your dish; I am pretty sure ZooMed has some.

Maybe something like this: http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/E...6MjoiMjQiO3M6ODoiU2VhcmNoX3kiO3M6MjoiMjAiO30=


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## wellington (Oct 20, 2016)

Myriapod said:


> I'd do the same filtration for turtles. Try getting a small canister filter that is recommended for 3x the water amount you have in your dish; I am pretty sure ZooMed has some.
> 
> Maybe something like this: http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/E...6MjoiMjQiO3M6ODoiU2VhcmNoX3kiO3M6MjoiMjAiO30=


I don't think any filter is going to keep a shallow water dish cleaned, nor will a canister be able to pump that little of water.
I suggest trying what I am trying, as all my male torts love dirtying their water dish. So, they have their dish, but I also went and got those automatic water filling dishes. The kind that uses a bottle or reservoir to refill the dish as the water level goes down. This way if/when they mess up their water saucer dish, they at least still have water to drink.


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## ZEROPILOT (Oct 21, 2016)

Please. If you find something that works for you, make sure you post about it. It's something a lot of us have tried before.
My pools have about 6" of cement as a "skirt" around them to keep my tortoises from tracking dirt inside. It doesn't work for tortoises pooping in them.
I tried a few different filter ideas. Even a solar powered pump with a fountain. They all failed.


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## crissyshine (Oct 21, 2016)

Myriapod said:


> I'd do the same filtration for turtles. Try getting a small canister filter that is recommended for 3x the water amount you have in your dish; I am pretty sure ZooMed has some.
> 
> Maybe something like this: http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/E...6MjoiMjQiO3M6ODoiU2VhcmNoX3kiO3M6MjoiMjAiO30=


Haven't tried this one yet. I've tried a smaller zoo med filter, one with a waterfall, that wasn't strong enough to compete with the amount of dirt he tracks in.
But it would need to be external. He's very interested in new things and will try and knock over anything in his soaking pool. And he gets mad when he can't knock it over and starts doing other random things because he's mad.
I will look the one in the link up, thank you!


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## crissyshine (Oct 21, 2016)

wellington said:


> I don't think any filter is going to keep a shallow water dish cleaned, nor will a canister be able to pump that little of water.
> I suggest trying what I am trying, as all my male torts love dirtying their water dish. So, they have their dish, but I also went and got those automatic water filling dishes. The kind that uses a bottle or reservoir to refill the dish as the water level goes down. This way if/when they mess up their water saucer dish, they at least still have water to drink.


So, I feel like I need to show his soaking/ swimming pool (I just changed the water). It's shallow enough that when he's fully submerged, I can still see the top of his shell. He can easily stand up and get out via ramp (on right side). No risk of flipping over inside the dish and drowning.
I feel like I would be able to filter this amount of water.
I've tried the smaller waterfall filters with good results the first couple of days, but it can't handle the amount of dirt and the motor burns out.

So his soaking/ swimming dish is pretty much a Tupperware container I got from Target. I was using the terra cotta dish thing, but he really likes to soak and swim and it didn't seem like enough for him.

He absolutely loves it, and hates when I catch him enjoying himself soaking or swimming.


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## Yelloweyed (Oct 22, 2016)

Another idea- You could get a much larger container (more water = easier filtering) and add an egg crate light filter as a false bottom to prevent drowning.

This is a link to a nice example of a box turtle enclosure
- http://nebula.wsimg.com/d093c8a02f6...784782F81D21389AD&disposition=0&alloworigin=1


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## crissyshine (Oct 27, 2016)

Yelloweyed said:


> Another idea- You could get a much larger container (more water = easier filtering) and add an egg crate light filter as a false bottom to prevent drowning.
> 
> This is a link to a nice example of a box turtle enclosure
> - http://nebula.wsimg.com/d093c8a02f6...784782F81D21389AD&disposition=0&alloworigin=1


This is great! Thank you!


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## kelii (Oct 27, 2016)

What about putting a sponge filter over the intake? That should stop a lot debris from clogging it up.


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## Alex Z (Dec 28, 2016)

crissyshine said:


> So, I feel like I need to show his soaking/ swimming pool (I just changed the water). It's shallow enough that when he's fully submerged, I can still see the top of his shell. He can easily stand up and get out via ramp (on right side). No risk of flipping over inside the dish and drowning.
> I feel like I would be able to filter this amount of water.
> I've tried the smaller waterfall filters with good results the first couple of days, but it can't handle the amount of dirt and the motor burns out.
> 
> ...



I have the same issue...I just use a reg small filter and its been working..cost 25 at petland...I keep it vertical n thankfully he ignores it...if i were you add in some river rocks to help with boosting out and prevent a drowning..


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## hugefailftw (Apr 10, 2018)

A canister filter might work if you drill a hole down into the water area and out of the enclosure, use PVC pipes and lead that down into a bucket underneath the enclosure fill it entirely with water and have the output of the canister filter go into the enclosure and the intake be in the bucket, and put a grate over the pipe going down so that they cant fall into it, and as long as the output for the filter is pointed towards the pipe the dirt and everything should go that way, or make it so that the area funnels down to the pipe and have stones on top, to make it so they cant get hurt by it.


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