controlling smell in turtle tanks

[djb]

alright my sister has 4 red ear sliding turtles and she cleans the water everyother day an the filter just about every day she has an ac filter and the smell gets really bad and she dosnt want to get ride of them because she bought them from a flee market an they all were realy sick an she ended up saveing there lives so she kind of atatched to them so whats the best way for getting ride of the smell

 

[krzr3000]

How big are they/what size tank? Sounds like it might not be big enough if water changes that often aren't fixing the smell. water fouling too fast

 

[HerpHunter77]

my tanks alway smell even though i have a fluval 204 filter. :/ ?

 

[snakeguy101]

With turtles it is best to get a filter that is rated twice the size of the tank per turtle in the tank. For example, if there is one turtle in a 55 gallon tank, get a filter rated around 110 gallons, if you add another turtle in there, get a filter rated for around 220 gallons, etc... This is my rule of thumb and it is a little excessive but trust me it will keep the smell non existent.

 

[HerpHunter77]

With turtles it is best to get a filter that is rated twice the size of the tank per turtle in the tank. For example, if there is one turtle in a 55 gallon tank, get a filter rated around 110 gallons, if you add another turtle in there, get a filter rated for around 220 gallons, etc... This is my rule of thumb and it is a little excessive but trust me it will keep the smell non existent.

my filter is BIG. it was used for a pond before i used it for my turtle tank

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

With turtles it is best to get a filter that is rated twice the size of the tank per turtle in the tank. For example, if there is one turtle in a 55 gallon tank, get a filter rated around 110 gallons, if you add another turtle in there, get a filter rated for around 220 gallons, etc... This is my rule of thumb and it is a little excessive but trust me it will keep the smell non existent.

 

[Citrinellus]

my filter is BIG. it was used for a pond before i used it for my turtle tank

Whats the gallon per hour rating?

 

[knifegill]

If you cycle the turtle tank, the smell ought to go away. Get a test kit and check the water parameters. There should be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrItes, and nitrAtes will vary wildly in a turtle tank.

One HOB will not be enough. I had one painted terrapin in a 210 gallon with minimal filtration and there just wasn't enough media surface area to handle the waste level of him. This was back when I was a n00b, so I ended up giving the turtle away in frustration. These days, I would simply add more filters, try to build a sump, etc. Turtles make so much ammonia that fish calculations will fail you. Think of one turtle as 50 gallons worth of pollution on average.

 

[krzr3000]

my filter is BIG. it was used for a pond before i used it for my turtle tank

But aren't you the one with 10 turtles in the tank? Or was that someone else...?

 

[rrcoolj]

Either way I believe the tank will smell to some extent. Turtles are messy creatures. When I had mine no matter how clear the water was it always had a little smell.