My friend has a 55 gallon tank with a red ear slider turtle. It has two of the penguin filters with biowheels and the tank is only filled about 2/3s of the way up so the filters have to draw water up and it falls back into the tank. He doesn't do water changes and has never replaced the mechanical filtration cartridges. He even has bright heating lamps for the turtle and only adds water when the level falls below the intake of the filters. The tank has been running for just under a year and there isn't any algae. How is this possible?
Why is there no algae in my friends turtle tank?
- Thread starter brianhellno
- Start date
my brother tank never grew algae and he is using a UVB bulb on his tank.. is ur friend heat lamp on 24/7?
UVB bulbs won't grow algae in fact they will kill off algae (hence UV sterilizers though those use UV-C because it's more deadly than UV-B)q_fish;4050377; said:
Perhaps he is using a UV lamp as well for the turtles this would prevent algae growth.
also it is probably a toxic waste dump (a years worth of turtle poop WOW
) and that's killing off the algae
His tap water could be pristine and not have any phosphates. It still doesn't make sense that he doesn't do water changes though.
I don't know what kind of heating lamp he's using but I know he only turns it on 6 hours a day. Also I know for a fact he doesn't do any water changes. As far as parameters go he doesn't test it but I guess I could get some of it and test it. I don't know if its fully cycled or not but it smells like a nasty reptile smell sort of like at a zoo and I know for a fact if any of this water got on my skin I would start washing and scrubbing like my life depended on it.
did some testing. The water is off the charts in ammonia with no nitrite or nitrate. I guess case closed. I don't know if reptiles respond to ammonia the same way fish do but my friend doesn't seem too concerned.
b
I wish but I doubt it. If you lift the hood and stand next to it the smell in the tank burns your nose and eyes. This can't be good but he keeps insisting the turtle is fine. I guess you just can't get through to some people. He doesn't seem to grasp that a pet is something that has needs instead of something you just own because you want it.
alexmuw;4052390; said:
I wish but I doubt it. If you lift the hood and stand next to it the smell in the tank burns your nose and eyes. This can't be good but he keeps insisting the turtle is fine. I guess you just can't get through to some people. He doesn't seem to grasp that a pet is something that has needs instead of something you just own because you want it.