Here is may take on this just to clarify everything in this whole post because alot of things are being thrown at you and at some points it seems you are missunderstanding the concepts which is normal for someone new to the hobby.
Mechanical= all types of "media" that work like a strainer, in that they physically run water through them and trap particles that are larger than the pores of the "media" the most common form of this is foam or sponge. What sponge to use? its up to you and no one can give you a real awnser because on one hand the finer pores will catch more particles but the catch is they will clog faster. the bigger pores will not clog as often but only because they catch less. However for a turtle i would reccomend that you would want a sponge that is either turtle specific or the largest pored version avaliable for fish.
Bio media= Anything that has a large surface area to size ratio that can grow bacteria. All it is "realestate" for benifitial bacteria. The more suface area you have (created by type of a media and number of media) the more bacteria you can grow which allows more prossessing of waste. Generally the rule is more is better because having too much doesnt cause any problems.
The "Mr Cleaner" I would assume to be a gravel vac which is used to get suction down to the gravel and litterally lift waste out of it being it is much lighter than the gravel. In my opinnion this is a must have as i would use it for evey water change.
on the filtering if i were you i would try to keep it simple as this will allow you to be able to figure out what works and what doesnt. I mean were not purifying uranium here. its just water. I would just use a sponge to take care of the mechanical and if you want follow it up with a slightly smaller pore sponge to caatch anything that passes through the first (this will help to clean more and clog less by doing multi stage) then i would just cap it off with lots of bio media. As far as "not packing to tight" i wouldnt worry to much if your using store bought media as it will always sit in way that allows water to pass by but it is important to enssure water flow throughout. As far as the rest of the stuff like mico pads and fancy named *Expensive* products i would just leave them out in your case because a turtle is much different in needs and waste produced than most fish...other then maybe an oscar
I hope this helped clarify a bit
Mechanical= all types of "media" that work like a strainer, in that they physically run water through them and trap particles that are larger than the pores of the "media" the most common form of this is foam or sponge. What sponge to use? its up to you and no one can give you a real awnser because on one hand the finer pores will catch more particles but the catch is they will clog faster. the bigger pores will not clog as often but only because they catch less. However for a turtle i would reccomend that you would want a sponge that is either turtle specific or the largest pored version avaliable for fish.
Bio media= Anything that has a large surface area to size ratio that can grow bacteria. All it is "realestate" for benifitial bacteria. The more suface area you have (created by type of a media and number of media) the more bacteria you can grow which allows more prossessing of waste. Generally the rule is more is better because having too much doesnt cause any problems.
The "Mr Cleaner" I would assume to be a gravel vac which is used to get suction down to the gravel and litterally lift waste out of it being it is much lighter than the gravel. In my opinnion this is a must have as i would use it for evey water change.
on the filtering if i were you i would try to keep it simple as this will allow you to be able to figure out what works and what doesnt. I mean were not purifying uranium here. its just water. I would just use a sponge to take care of the mechanical and if you want follow it up with a slightly smaller pore sponge to caatch anything that passes through the first (this will help to clean more and clog less by doing multi stage) then i would just cap it off with lots of bio media. As far as "not packing to tight" i wouldnt worry to much if your using store bought media as it will always sit in way that allows water to pass by but it is important to enssure water flow throughout. As far as the rest of the stuff like mico pads and fancy named *Expensive* products i would just leave them out in your case because a turtle is much different in needs and waste produced than most fish...other then maybe an oscar
I hope this helped clarify a bit
