All Turtles Message Board

orion27 · Level 1 Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 9

Hello, I currently have a 15gl tank and I'm in the middle of setting up new 33gl tank. Some of my questions are:

1) Do I need a 36" Reptisun 5.0 UVB light or should I just keep current one (18" 5.0 UVB)
2) Is a Fluval 4 and Fluval 2 (both) filters good enough for my size of tank? I am thinking that 2 seperate filters will keep water cleaner.
3) Any ideas to prolonging tank cleaning? I tried Turtle Clean and that made the water worse.
4) Any turtle food ideas? Anything. Right now I just feed them floating sticks and Gammers (shrimp, treat)

Thanks ahead for any and all answers.
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L8R from 2 turtles in a half shell

goggles · Level 1 Joined: 20 Mar 2002 Posts: 14

fluvals are pretty powerful filters. If by fluval 4 you mean 404, they are big enough for tanks up to 100g alone. with the great messiness of turtles, i think just that filter would be great for a 33g. just think, a 33g for turtles only has like 15 gallons of water in it. you could really get a 304 or 204 and be fine too.

i think the best place to buy those filters would be bigalsonline.com. you can get the 404 for less than $100

as for the bulb, i'm pretty sure as long as the bulb is over the land, you're fine with the smaller one. if you get the bigger bulb, anywhere the bulb is over water is just a waste. the water filters out alot of the rays that the turtles need anyway. you could just use a less expensive bulb for general lighting.
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Take that, Frenchy!

poohbear · Level 2 Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 61

I don't know much about the tank stuff but I know about food. Baby turtles are carnivorous. They like chicken, turkey, tuna, occasionally, brine shrimp, ocean fish, squid,small salamanders, snails, crayfish,(with the claws pulled off)crickets, worms, (wash off first), and gold or feeder fish for short trips. NO HAMBURGER. Teens eat plants and meats. They eat banana's, strawberries, blueberries,peas, mulberry leaves, escarole, endive, romaine, dandilion leaves, amazon swords, anachris, and water lettuce and hyacinth. The teens also eat all the meats the baby's do. NO ICEBURG LETTUCE AND SPINACH. Adults are herbavores. They eat all the vegtables the teens do and also no iceburg lettuce and spinach. You should feed the babies twice a day, teens once a day, and adults once every other day. Hope the info's helpful!