New with some questions. Water issues!

[Pryme]

Hi all,

So I am in need to some advice on water parameters for my Alligator snapping turtle tank. I know this is a fish forum but I’ve seen a lot of AST discussion on here when googling so I joined.

My set up is a 60gal breeder tank with a Fluval FX2 filter. It’s set up as it came from Fluval except I did add seachem matrix to one of the baskets.
It’s been running 3 weeks now so the ammonia and nitrites are zero, the PH is about 6.8-7 but the nitrates are off the charts.

the reason I know this is because it pegged my api master kit at 160 and I did a 60% water change and it was still pegged so I put into the test tube half tap water(zero nitrates, I tested) and half tank water, after the 60% change and it got down to 80-100ish. So that means it’s still at 160-200ppm.
I use 100% rain water so my tds is very low, like 200ppm when it’s mixed back into my tank with sand substrate and all fake plants and fake wood.

I have two 15mo old AST which are 3 and 4” long.
now for what I think might be the problem.
I stock this tank(which I keep about half full, so about 30 gallons) with usually around 40 shiner minnows at a time which eventually get eaten and I usually add again when there is about a dozen minnows. I also have a few sunfish and crappie fry which are minnow sized. My kids like to put fish flakes in a few times a day for all the minnows. I feel this is the problem, what do you guys think?

Im planning on doing 50% water changes every few days until it’s below 50ppm.
Good idea?

I’m also looking into the best plants to add, I’ve heard hornwart mentioned a lot. Also frogbit. I don’t mind if the turtles eat some as long as they don’t eat it all. Doubtful.

thanks all.

 

[tlindsey]

Hi all,

So I am in need to some advice on water parameters for my Alligator snapping turtle tank. I know this is a fish forum but I’ve seen a lot of AST discussion on here when googling so I joined.

My set up is a 60gal breeder tank with a Fluval FX2 filter. It’s set up as it came from Fluval except I did add seachem matrix to one of the baskets.
It’s been running 3 weeks now so the ammonia and nitrites are zero, the PH is about 6.8-7 but the nitrates are off the charts.

the reason I know this is because it pegged my api master kit at 160 and I did a 60% water change and it was still pegged so I put into the test tube half tap water(zero nitrates, I tested) and half tank water, after the 60% change and it got down to 80-100ish. So that means it’s still at 160-200ppm.
I use 100% rain water so my tds is very low, like 200ppm when it’s mixed back into my tank with sand substrate and all fake plants and fake wood.

I have two 15mo old AST which are 3 and 4” long.
now for what I think might be the problem.
I stock this tank(which I keep about half full, so about 30 gallons) with usually around 40 shiner minnows at a time which eventually get eaten and I usually add again when there is about a dozen minnows. I also have a few sunfish and crappie fry which are minnow sized. My kids like to put fish flakes in a few times a day for all the minnows. I feel this is the problem, what do you guys think?

Im planning on doing 50% water changes every few days until it’s below 50ppm.
Good idea?

I’m also looking into the best plants to add, I’ve heard hornwart mentioned a lot. Also frogbit. I don’t mind if the turtles eat some as long as they don’t eat it all. Doubtful.

thanks all.

I suggest you feed the fish very lightly once a day with your guidance. If you can perform 50% water changes weekly or more that may help reduce the Nitrate. Keep monitoring by testing also wouldn't add anything else but food for the AST.

 

[puffers4puffers]

Keep it simple
Change half the water every day
The turtles don’t breathe in the water
But they do poop in it
Flush their toilet
You can’t do too many water changes

 

[jjohnwm]

You're pretty lucky that your tank cycled in only three weeks. But even so...you have an extremely heavily-stocked 30-gallons of water, and the stock in it is very heavily fed, so crazy nitrate levels are, IMHO, to be expected. Expecting plants to be much help is likely a pipe-dream in this case; the total mass of plant matter needs to exceed that of the animal matter by a huge margin, and that won't be the case in this tank.

Nitrate levels that high can't be doing those fish any favours, and that in turn means that they aren't the healthiest, best food source for your turtles.

If it were my tank, I'd take out all of the fish and just keep the turtles. This would allow you to do 100% water changes without any worries about chlorine, pH, etc as long as the temp is about right, and I'd do at least one of those per week. I always remove aquatic turtles from their tank to be fed in a separate smaller container, then place them back into their main tank after they have eaten and, ideally, also had a big bowel movement. Turtles produce massive amounts of ammonia and other waste, so this practice keeps the main tank much cleaner, much longer. But, of course, everybody wants to watch an Alligator Snapper "fishing" for its prey, so if you insist upon that you will have to feed them in the display tank and accept the extra cleaning that goes with it.

In any case...you will be needing to upgrade that tank size soon. These guys don't grow as fast as something like a Redtail Catfish...but they do grow pretty quickly and will soon outgrow that tank.

 

[Pryme]

I ordered a small 880gph submersible pump which I plan on using for easy water changes. Rather than constantly using five gallon buckets up over the top of my tanks this will be easier and cleaner.

I added a picture of the tank in question. I have a few more tanks too.

 

[Pryme]

You're pretty lucky that your tank cycled in only three weeks. But even so...you have an extremely heavily-stocked 30-gallons of water, and the stock in it is very heavily fed, so crazy nitrate levels are, IMHO, to be expected. Expecting plants to be much help is likely a pipe-dream in this case; the total mass of plant matter needs to exceed that of the animal matter by a huge margin, and that won't be the case in this tank.

Nitrate levels that high can't be doing those fish any favours, and that in turn means that they aren't the healthiest, best food source for your turtles.

If it were my tank, I'd take out all of the fish and just keep the turtles. This would allow you to do 100% water changes without any worries about chlorine, pH, etc as long as the temp is about right, and I'd do at least one of those per week. I always remove aquatic turtles from their tank to be fed in a separate smaller container, then place them back into their main tank after they have eaten and, ideally, also had a big bowel movement. Turtles produce massive amounts of ammonia and other waste, so this practice keeps the main tank much cleaner, much longer. But, of course, everybody wants to watch an Alligator Snapper "fishing" for its prey, so if you insist upon that you will have to feed them in the display tank and accept the extra cleaning that goes with it.

In any case...you will be needing to upgrade that tank size soon. These guys don't grow as fast as something like a Redtail Catfish...but they do grow pretty quickly and will soon outgrow that tank.

I think the fact when I set this tank up in the new filter I used half the old water and also used tank water to fill the fx2 and with all the sand I had in the tank and I only rinsed off all the fake plants in tank water it was able to keep its cycle going easier.

I would love to be able to feed them in a separate container but these guys are sooo shy. They won’t accept dead fish or anything from a long 10” tweezer in their own tank let alone in a foreign feed tank.
I have heard people having to stop feeding them live fish for awhile before they will accept fillets cut up, shrimp etc.

I have already been watching marketplace for 180 or 240 gallon tanks since they seem the two lowest height options. I don’t need a super tall tank.
I happen to live right down the road from custom aquariums but man those tanks are expensive. Yikes.

 

[Pryme]

Here they are btw. I set them on the log, they would never climb up there.

 

[Pryme]

You’re right they are growing fast. Here they are on that same log when I got them only only 5.5mo ago

 

[deeda]

While I don't keep turtles, there are a lot of hiding places in your tank for turtle poop and uneaten fish to be hidden from view. You may have to remove the decor weekly to remove that debris that is also probably contributing to the high nitrate level.

 

[Pryme]

While I don't keep turtles, there are a lot of hiding places in your tank for turtle poop and uneaten fish to be hidden from view. You may have to remove the decor weekly to remove that debris that is also probably contributing to the high nitrate level.

You’re right about that! On occasion I’ll find a partially eaten minnow in that log structure.