how do i change my aquatic turtles' tank? (PLEASE HELP!)

[tinytipsytortoise]

i have two aquatic turtles who live in a large tank and i dred changing their water every two weeks! i always see other aquatic turtle owners online who keep their turtle's tank full to the top with water and i have no clue how they do it and still manage to change their turtle's water. i am 98 pounds and 5'0 so i'm not very strong, i hate to admit. but i cannot carry the large tank full of water to the sink to change the water sometimes due to how heavy it is! once i had no choice but to drop the tank and break it before it fell on me due to its heaviness. i've tried putting less water in there but everyone says that an aquatic turtle requires a lot of water in it's tank. my question is, how can i clean my turtle's tank and change the water since i can't carry it to the sink? i don't want to get rid of my turtles but if i can't find a solution i might have to. please help, i'm desperate here.

 

[Gillian M]

Welcome to the forum!

Please post pics of your turtles so as to enable the experience members help you.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Get a clear tube made especially for cleaning the crap out. That way you can clean the tank without moving it. I suck all the crap and dirty water into 5 gallon bucket, fill it halfway and it's easy to dump out on my flowers. You keep doing that until you've taken out most of the water. Then you get a saucepan and fill the tank back up. Lots of walking and dumping , but you don't have to lift a heavy tank. That's how I clean my 250 gallon tank. It's a hassle, but necessary......

 

[mark1]

it would probably be worth the effort to get an understanding of the nitrogen cycle and filtration methods , like folks that keep fish , it will save you a lot of work .........

 

[Markw84]

What type turtles do you have? What size / how old are they? How big is your tank? Pictures would be very helpful

Many turtles do not require full tanks. There are also many options from what was mentioned above to better filters to a system you connect to your sink faucet and twist a valve to drain, then twist back to fill the tank. Let us see what you have and there are lots of options we can suggest

 

[Yvonne G]

I used to have a 100 gallon fish tank in my living room. About once a year I'd drag the garden hose in through the sliding glass door and have someone hold one end of it in the tank down near the bottom, while I turned on the faucet outside. Then, once all the air is out of the hose and water is running into the tank, you turn off the water and quickly disconnect the hose and lay it on the ground. This will siphon out the water. You can mix up the gravel in the tank with your hand to get all the particles floating so they will siphon out.

But an even easier way to clean your tank is to save up your money and purchase a GOOD filter so there is no longer a need for weekly cleaning.

 

[TardisTortoise]

I have a python. It is a large hose that you can attach to any faucet that will remove water and waste. No need to carry any heavy buckets. I just hook it to my faucet outside so the turtle water does not go into my sink. Waters the lawn too. Keeping their water clean keeps them healthy. Definitely worth the money. I use it to clean my pond, turtle tank, and fish tank.

 

[Rue]

I will add that it is well worth the effort to set it all up to make it as easy to maintain as possible. If it's easy, you are more likely to keep up with it. If it's a big pain, it's more likely to be neglected.

 

[Yelloweyed]

If you can't find a Python brand tank cleaner (probably one of the better models), just use one similar. It'll save your back!

 

[Markw84]

The python is one of the things I referred to. But that is not your real solution. You should not be needing to change the water every few weeks in a properly set up tank. Please show us the turtles and your setup and we can suggest solutions to avoid those frequent water changes.

 

[Yelloweyed]

The python is one of the things I referred to. But that is not your real solution. You should not be needing to change the water every few weeks in a properly set up tank. Please show us the turtles and your setup and we can suggest solutions to avoid those frequent water changes.

Sorry @Markw84, I didn't mean to say that the Python is the fix. It's just a step of tank maintenance.

 

[Markw84]

Sorry @Markw84, I didn't mean to say that the Python is the fix. It's just a step of tank maintenance.

No problem @Yelloweyed I didn't take it that way. I just didn't want the OP to get sidetracked as we haven't heard back from the OP since the initial post.

 

[ethan508]

Many aquarium keepers use 5-gallon bucket and a gravel vacuum (less expensive) or the Python Cleaning System (make sure the nearby faucet will work) for water changes. With the gravel vacuum and bucket you could change 10-15 gallons in about 30 minutes (this what do every week for my 55 gallon goldfish aquarium). The python will be much quicker and you won't need to haul buckets of water back and forth. There are good YouTube videos that show the use of both.

With an aquatic turtle the water will dirty rather quickly even with good filtration. A species that poops in its water just needs frequent changes to keep the water clean. A 25-50% water change every week is probably in order (rinse the filter media in a bucket of tank water at this time as well). My goldfish (which produce far less waste than 2 turtles) need 10-15 gallons change every week to keep the water safe.

Side note: clean water isn't all about what can be seen, although I have seen aquatic turtle in some pretty murky looking water. High levels of ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates (the by-products of animal waste) will cause illness or death and can be present in water that still look clean. Test kits are the best way to measure the concentration. Regular water changes and a good filter system will keep these products at appropriately low concentrations.

 

[mark1]

With an aquatic turtle the water will dirty rather quickly even with good filtration. A species that poops in its water just needs frequent changes to keep the water clean. A 25-50% water change every week is probably in order (rinse the filter media in a bucket of tank water at this time as well). My goldfish (which produce far less waste than 2 turtles) need 10-15 gallons change every week to keep the water safe.
.

i have about a 700 gallon pond in my basement with maybe a 40-50 gallon filter , the top pond is completely overgrown with peace lillies , arrowhead , and anubias . 9 P. Manni live in it , with guppies , rainbow fish and snails ....... i haven't changed the water since i put it in 15-20yrs ago , the filter hasn't been cleaned in 2 yrs .......... the water just tested 0 for ammonia , 0 for nitrite , and a ph of 7.6 , my tap water ph test pretty close to this , i could bring it down with peat moss , but i don't see the need .......... i just raised 5 hatchling blandings in 60 gallons of water , in a well planted , well cycled 75 gallon tank , they'll go outside tomorrow , their tank has never been cleaned , i'll clean the filter over the summer in case they come in for the winter ........ i kept two yearling blandings in a 20 gallon tank , not planted but good filtration , under gravel and canister also well cycled , i changed the water no more than twice all winter , cleaned the filter probably every 2 weeks ........ some of those manni in the pond in the basement have been in it for the complete 15-20yrs , some grew up in it i've never had a sick one ........... i have a pond outside about 200-300gallons with 4 north american wood turtles , i clean it every spring , and not very well , on purpose .... the water is crystal clear .......... possibly na wood turtles , ca wood turtles , and blanding's are just hardy turtles , but the water in my ponds and tanks is crystal clear and odorless , and test what appears to be good ....

 

[Yvonne G]

My guess is that the OP doesn't have a filtration system.

@tinytipsytortoise : If you feed your turtle in a small dishpan of water outside of his tank, the water stays clean longer.

 

[Markw84]

Agree totally , Mark. A properly set up turtle tank or pond should not require water changes every two weeks or every month I keep more turtles in my setups than I would recommend others do as I am raising many hatchlings and yearlings to 4" or outdoor pond size. I feed them in the tank and maybe change water twice a year when I go through everything with spring or winter re-evaluations of who stays where.

 

[mark1]

i look at the pond you have , it would be absolutely impossible for you to maintain it if you had to do regular water changes , you couldn't have it without your understanding of how it works , and once it's working i bet your worst nightmare is having something mess it up ...... ....... i think , at least for me , the only sustainable way to keep water turtles is to understand filtration and water quality ....... i had a guy at work who kept an aquarium , he told me his fish always died , i told him to quit cleaning it so much , it solved his problem ........ i certainly don't advocate not cleaning your tanks , but you need to be careful how you clean them when you do and understand what your doing ..... it's like dog doors , once you've had them you can't even believe you could keep dogs without them .......my water turtles are actually less work than the ones who have pans or bowls of water ..........

 

[ethan508]

A pond system is a little different than the simple tank that many beginner start with. With hundreds of gallons you have far more time for bacterial to break down wastes before concentrations become toxic. Secondly a well planted tank is an entire different system as the plants will absorb nitrates. That being said, Mark, do you check nitrates in your unplanted tanks? Ammonia and Nitrites are consumed by the beneficial bacteria that grow on an established (or "cycled") filter media and other surfaces in your tank. Without plants a person needs to perform water changes to keep nitrate concentrations low. For fishkeeping it is believed that nitrates aren't immediately toxic (like NH4 and nitrites) but will negatively affect long term health. Are turtles less affected by nitrates than fish?

Over cleaning and 100% water changes can wipe out beneficial bacterial. That isn't what I was advocating and is a pretty outdated method. But frequent water changes and knowing the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate concentrations is pretty basic for aquarium keeping.

Sometimes a person starts out with what they can afford and not always the most optimized habitat. While a new keeper saves up money for a better filter system and a larger tank they may have to work a little to keep the water clean and the turtle happy/healthy.

 

[Markw84]

I believe setting up an aquatic turtle habitat is no different that taking on setting up an aquarium as far as water quality is concerned. You should never set up an aquarium, put in you desired fish, and then do frequent water changes until you can get the right filtration. You set it up and let the filter establish, carefully understocking at first. Once the bacteria is doing its job, you will have the healthiest water. My pond is 10,000 gallons, but I was not referring to that at all in my previous post. My indoor tanks all average between 15 - 30 gallons of water. Most are set up shallow for the well being and health of the hatchlings and yearlings. All have ample filter systems designed to do the job and eliminate water changes. Established water is the healthiest vs. newly changed water.

The NH4, NO3, NO2 cycle, which is normally the NH4, NO2, NO3 or Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate cycle should only be of main concern when the system is new. Once established the whole idea is to never have an elevated reading of NO2 or NH4 in your system as the biological filter is doing its job. The eventual build up of NO3 or nitrate has to reach extremely high levels to really affect fish, and don't even know when it would affect turtles.

 

[Yvonne G]

This is all well and good but I have a sneaking suspicion the OP has a turtle or two in a tank of water. Period.

You all need to dumb it down like you would for a beginner. Not saying the OP is dumb, far from it. They joined the Forum, didn't they? But help the OP understand about the need for filtration. What kind to get, etc. I know a lot depends upon the tank size they have and how many turtles, and it would really help if we could see pictures.

Can anyone post a picture for the OP of a turtle tank including landing dock and filter?