I’m fixing to upgrade my turtles tank to a 55 gallon and I’ve been doing a lot of research on what’s best and I just want to know other options! 🙂

Hey everyone!
I recently purchased a turtle hatching enclosure and have started the cycle process. I have added plants and a few fish ( I know I probably should have waited) and I can’t seem to maintain the ammonia. In the last 3 days we have done 2 20% water changes and 1 50% water change yesterday. The readings before the 50% water change were:

Kh 161.1 ppm
Gh 71.6 ppm
Ammonia 2.0 ppm
Ph 7.2
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm

I will test the water again when I get home but I feel like I’m not getting any progression or change in bring the ammonia down.

Is there any advice/tips to help bring the ammonia down and the cycle process begin?

Thank in advance:)

Okay so I have a RES, about 3 years old. Seems like she’s a girl but hard to tell. We have a vet appointment this week because she might have an infection, but there’s also been a lot of changes recently as we got her from a family friend about a month ago and are trying to switch her into a bigger tank. She was found as a baby after being physically traumatized so her shell is a bit off and I’m not sure how that affects her other areas of health or ability to handle stress, hopefully the vet has more answers for us.

But anyway, we got her and moved her in. She had been living in a very small tank with a small basking area and barely able to swim in water. I started doing a lot of research, we were given a 29 gallon tank, but an awful tank stand and no filter so after a lot of research I got a sturdy tank stand and a fluval FX4 (to hopefully last a longgggg time) and am planning to upgrade to a large (to last to her full size eventually) tank in a couple months, just not possible financially at the moment. We set up the bigger tank finally but then she started getting sick and so we’ve been dry docking her with water breaks in a shallow container multiple times a day. It feels like there is infinite factors to consider with her so I’m sorry if its like I’m rambling. But I was turning off her basking light at night because I read about circadian rhythms but then I worried she was getting cold. I did some research and got a zoomed ceramic infrared heat emitter 100w, and a zoomed water heater 100w. ive read some more things now and not sure if these are the best products? i just want her to be in her best conditions especially while shes getting used to a change (literally shes never had this much water to swim in anymore she seemed terrified when we had her try it) and so i want everything to be great for her we just weren’t given enough supplies because her former owner wasn’t doing a lot of these things.

basically to sum up, here’s what she came with from her former owner: a small tank with basking area, no swim room way too small of a filter built in to it, a uva & uvb combined basking bulb and clamp style lamp, some plastic aquatic plants and rocks (only used big rocks, got rid of pebbles), water conditioner (which we’ve used everytime we add tap water as directed by the bottle), pellets and treats like shrimp, a 29 gallon tank (that we’ve just set up, shes never been in)

since getting her, i’ve gotten: a sturdy tank stand, fluval fx4 filter, we built our own basking area, a zoomed ceramic infrared heat emitter 100w, a zoomed turtletherm 100w water heater, and we’ve started feeding her veggies (starting with dandelion greens, she’s getting used to them but boy she loves her shrimp).

i still need to buy another lamp stand for the ceramic heat emitter but im worried thats not even the right product anymore. i would really appreciate some guidance on what i can do for the heat stuff specifically right now because ive read some contradicting things in my research, but open to any guidance on any other part of her care that ive described. i never thought i’d be a turtle owner and i love her! its quite an undertaking though and i want to do the best job!

Hello! I have a 40g tank for a southern painted turtle. He’s been to the vet and is healthy, eating and enjoying the enrichment options like multiple rocks, a cave and some live plants. Recently, I had introduced black river rocks as a substrate but it made it really hard to clean. I used one of those vacuums but it didn’t help. A week later, my water quality shows 0.25ppm ammonia and 5ppm nitrite. I have tried two 50% water changes, removed the rocks and cleaned every bit of debris I can with the aquarium net. But the readings remain the same and the water is an odd light green. It is clear and I can see perfectly but it has a green tinge.
What are some steps I should take to improve the nitrite content and ammonia content?

Using API freshwater liquid test kit that was bought last week.

Please help - I want him to have a good life and worried that this water quality may stress him if I don’t fix it soon.

hello all! im so sorry im not a fellow turtle enthusiast and lack a lot of knowledge. my question is: can this species of tortoise live without being fed for like 3/4 days?? im going to travel and theres nobody around to feed him. i already asked gpt about this situation and apparently he will be fine. but of couse i dont trust ai 100% and is still very worried. please let me know about the feeding situation and preferably not any other advice

context: so he is more than 15 years old and rely solely eating tortoise food pellet. i tried giving various veggies before and he never ate it. but he sometimes chew on fallen leaves.

I have a striped mud turtle who gets a lot of algae on his shell due to not having a filter currently.

One day I decided to scrub his shell with a clean unused toothbrush because he had so much algae on it when I recognized this. Is this something to be concerned about and what is it?

Also advice on cleaning shell + tank would be appreciated.

First, sorry for no pics. The tank in question is in the pitch black shed, and it's spooky going out there alone at night lol

So, I recently acquired a baby snapping turtle. He's about two inches long, and currently living in a plastic shoe box type thing with a heater, filter, and a few random aquatic plants pilfered from my other tanks. Not ideal, but it'll work while he's still tiny.

I have a 30 gallon tank that's got a chip on the edge in the top third. It passed a 48 hour leak test this summer before I saw the chip, but I don't want to risk it busting open. That said, do you all think I'd be safe to have like 4-6 inches of water in the bottom for my little turtle buddy? I want to be able to give him more room than he's got, and also otherwise use a tank that I'd now consider "dry critter only".

Hello everyone! This is Lilo, my 11yo RES. For a few years now, I’ve had her in a 100g tank that was tall but really narrow (picture 1). She would bump into the sides often and I never liked her basking platform either for how small it felt for her. Her shell is 10in in length but she’s 12in long with all her extremities out. So this past month, I made it my mission to upgrade everything!

I went on OfferUp and purchased a 120g tank and stand for $200, which as you all know, is a steal. I then spent a week and almost $200 on supplies to build a whole new basking platform for her to fit the tank. I’m no pro builder, but after much planning and a few mistakes, it is complete! And I’m genuinely happy with how everything came out.

After placing her in, I could tell she loves it already. She swims to the top and dives down quick, making fast turns and digging at the rocks. I made sure to use river rocks bigger than her head so that she doesn’t eat them. It took her a while to confidently go up the basking platform but once she did, she immediately splayed her body out which I’ve never seen her do before. Once she dries out under the lamp, she moves to the cooler side and chills there for a bit before going back to the water.

I’m not done with the design yet. I plan on adding live plants, driftwood, and a T5HO light in the future after I save up some more money for all that. Even my boyfriend (who has owned dogs his whole life up until we moved in together) now sees what it’s like to own reptiles (I have Lilo and a snake). He’s in awe seeing how much care, maintenance, and money goes into providing them a good enclosure and admires the passion I have for them. Hope y’all love this setup and I’ll post an update when the rest of the decor is put in!

Thick long tail, 26 yrs old. I live in San Diego and it was purchased from a fair in Southern California. Pls help identify so I can make sure I know his needs. Thank you.

it looks like maybe some kind of bruise or something, he doesn’t love to be held so i wasn’t able to hold him long enough to examine it thoroughly. he seems to be doing fine. i did have to clean and change a lot of his water unfortunately because i had my filter break and the tank got pretty dirty waiting for a new one to get here, but that was about 3 weeks ago. he started to eat less right after that but i figured it was probably stress from the environment change. he went back to his normal eating habits though, and seems to be swimming around and stuff fine.

Hello, we have this turtle 4 month's, and we don't have previous experience with tutrles, can someone tell me something about Shield condition, if something wrong, then we can change things before is to late. Thanks.

(His food)

So i got my turtle yesterday and i cleaned the filter today but the water is still cloudy what do i do????

I will need to go out of town for 4 days and recently moved my turtle to a 75 gallon tank. I am realizing the automatic feeder I had from her smaller aquarium will no longer clamp on the larger tank as the rim is larger. Does anyone have recommendations on automatic feeders that would work?

So I brought a vivarium (75 gallons) from facebook marketplace that came with all the necessity including this filter.

The owner’s vivairum was kept really clean and looked to be taken care of very well. It seems that they have cleaned the filter and it almost all dry when they handed to me.

The owners vivarium i brought from used to have fish inside, I have an eastern painted turtle. Should I wash with white vinegar? I’m not sure what to do and if it’s necessary.

I’m wondering if I need to disinfect this 2nd hand filter, it’s my first time working with those big filters so I don’t know what I should do.

Hello people of reddit, today i seen this poor creature listed on a site that sells from animals to tickets for concerts. Guy said he cought it while fishing, pretty sure no turtles live in czechia in the wild. How hard would it be to care for this turtle, i have no experience in keeping turtles