Okay, I will post some info from another site that started this all.
PERSON, Tom why would you cycle a filter for reptiles...this I've got to hear. A fish is a leaky bag of water and whatever is in the water is also in the fish....A reptile on the other hand has a tough leather or shell type skin and can withstand pretty crappy water and doesn't absorb NH3 or NO2. If thier water get too crappy then you simply change 100% of it
Now an amphibian is very close to a fish in that they can and do absorb ''stuff '' through thier skin, so yes they should have a cycled filter.
PERSON...smell and appearance is for you and your senses and not for the turtle or the caiman....change the water They really couldn't care less if there NH3. NO2 or NO3 in thier water. Their biggest problem with water is crud and high bacteria counts, this is were shell rot, etc comes from, not ammonia. You filter thier water to lower crud levels and in turn bacteria levels. Then they have to get out of the water for periods everyday...not something a fish can do.
Reptiles and mammals drink, including us; in cities where chloramines are used, drink NH3 every...it's not a problem....what happens to our fish if they stay in chloramined water? Now if we were to drink stagant polluted water due to left over food and feces such as can be found in swampy turtle tanks, let alone the salmonella, what would happen?
I may not be an expert on reptiles but I can assure you that I have sold literally hundreds of assorted species of turtles and tortises over the years and had to have a good basic knowledge of thier husbandry.
I've seen what comes out the butt end of a good sized caiman and/or a larger turtle and no mechanical section of an aquarium filter is going to help that....let alone the bio. It has to be physically removed. Then, until it is physically removed from either the water or the filter ( this applies to fish tanks also) it's still affecting water quality.
Then most reptiles are only fed 2 or 3 times a week, so you would have low bio-filter bacteria, so you would end up with a NH3 spike shortly there after.... a bio really couldn't the surge.
But as far as the critter is concerned it really doesn't matter...NH3 or NO2 at 3ppm forever would have no affect on a turtle or a caiman as long as the bacteria CFU's were kept low. .
I've seen turtles and caiman, by the dozens, sitting in water that was stagant and they couldn't care less. They'd stay there till the flesh rotted off them or they just get out of it.
.
There is no need, in fact it's a waste of time, even if you're not doing daily water changes, to try and have nitrification taking place.
Fish are a completely different story..as you know
Another user:
Nothing is really worth using, especially when I have a 50 foot python syphon, and I just drain the tanks that way. It literally takes no time or effort to do so.
However it must say that USER NAME comment about water quality not affecting reptiles isn't true. Many reptiles, especially turtles are known to be affect by water quality. Particularly ammonia levels and ph. Mata Mata's and soft shell turtles are very sensitive to both ph and ammonia levels, and often die if the water quality is not correct.
That being said, they aren't going to die in an instant like fish will if water conditions change drastically during a large water change. With
most store bought filtrations not being sufficient to clean up the waste from a reptile, I just can't see the point of spending the money and the power to bother with filters. Just hook up a python and drain them once a week. However if a filter makes things easier for you, then who am I to criticize.
I used PERSON and USERNAME to get rid of the other people's names since I am not sure if they want to be involved or not.
From what I read above, no filter (mechanical or biological) can handle reptiles.
My xp3 is doing a great job in my opinion, but my turtles are not full grown and stunted I believe (2 rescues, one lived in a 10 gallon for 8 years and the other lived in a 10 gallon for 3 years, neither had filtration I believe)
PERSON, Tom why would you cycle a filter for reptiles...this I've got to hear. A fish is a leaky bag of water and whatever is in the water is also in the fish....A reptile on the other hand has a tough leather or shell type skin and can withstand pretty crappy water and doesn't absorb NH3 or NO2. If thier water get too crappy then you simply change 100% of it
Now an amphibian is very close to a fish in that they can and do absorb ''stuff '' through thier skin, so yes they should have a cycled filter.
PERSON...smell and appearance is for you and your senses and not for the turtle or the caiman....change the water They really couldn't care less if there NH3. NO2 or NO3 in thier water. Their biggest problem with water is crud and high bacteria counts, this is were shell rot, etc comes from, not ammonia. You filter thier water to lower crud levels and in turn bacteria levels. Then they have to get out of the water for periods everyday...not something a fish can do.
Reptiles and mammals drink, including us; in cities where chloramines are used, drink NH3 every...it's not a problem....what happens to our fish if they stay in chloramined water? Now if we were to drink stagant polluted water due to left over food and feces such as can be found in swampy turtle tanks, let alone the salmonella, what would happen?
I may not be an expert on reptiles but I can assure you that I have sold literally hundreds of assorted species of turtles and tortises over the years and had to have a good basic knowledge of thier husbandry.
I've seen what comes out the butt end of a good sized caiman and/or a larger turtle and no mechanical section of an aquarium filter is going to help that....let alone the bio. It has to be physically removed. Then, until it is physically removed from either the water or the filter ( this applies to fish tanks also) it's still affecting water quality.
Then most reptiles are only fed 2 or 3 times a week, so you would have low bio-filter bacteria, so you would end up with a NH3 spike shortly there after.... a bio really couldn't the surge.
But as far as the critter is concerned it really doesn't matter...NH3 or NO2 at 3ppm forever would have no affect on a turtle or a caiman as long as the bacteria CFU's were kept low. .
I've seen turtles and caiman, by the dozens, sitting in water that was stagant and they couldn't care less. They'd stay there till the flesh rotted off them or they just get out of it.
.
There is no need, in fact it's a waste of time, even if you're not doing daily water changes, to try and have nitrification taking place.
Fish are a completely different story..as you know
Another user:
Nothing is really worth using, especially when I have a 50 foot python syphon, and I just drain the tanks that way. It literally takes no time or effort to do so.
However it must say that USER NAME comment about water quality not affecting reptiles isn't true. Many reptiles, especially turtles are known to be affect by water quality. Particularly ammonia levels and ph. Mata Mata's and soft shell turtles are very sensitive to both ph and ammonia levels, and often die if the water quality is not correct.
That being said, they aren't going to die in an instant like fish will if water conditions change drastically during a large water change. With
most store bought filtrations not being sufficient to clean up the waste from a reptile, I just can't see the point of spending the money and the power to bother with filters. Just hook up a python and drain them once a week. However if a filter makes things easier for you, then who am I to criticize.
I used PERSON and USERNAME to get rid of the other people's names since I am not sure if they want to be involved or not.
From what I read above, no filter (mechanical or biological) can handle reptiles.
My xp3 is doing a great job in my opinion, but my turtles are not full grown and stunted I believe (2 rescues, one lived in a 10 gallon for 8 years and the other lived in a 10 gallon for 3 years, neither had filtration I believe)
