Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading this:

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/filtration.htm

And it mentioned bacterial colonies.. stuff like leave your filter on 24/7 at least for the first 4-6 weeks (I assume if you get a new tank or clean it outside)

What is the big deal about bacterial colonies? I never once thought about this and I just figured it'd do it by itself. I use a Aquaclear 500 so of course I turn it off at night.. I don't want my turtles to go crazy from the splash (even though there it's not that much because theres something underneath the waterfall).

Should I even be concerned about bacteria? I figure I keep doing what I've been doing and that is clean the filter once a week, do a partial water change once a week (partial or full, depending).

I've even started feeding them in their old tank just because it's easier for me... I let them go poo before I put them back in their regular tank.. I wonder does this effect bacteria growth and stuff? Is it even good to have bacteria, that's what I don't understand. I also noticed now it's been a month and there has not been any algae in the tank - so I kind of like feeding them in the old tank.

Bacteria is good to have because it turns harmful waste products into non-harmful waste products. As long as you're not changing out all your water at once, the bacteria ought to adjust themselves to the waste level in the tank after about 6 weeks. This 'biological filter' can get overloaded, though, so feeding and such in a seperate tank isn't a bad idea.

the issue is the deveolping of a strong bacterial colony will allow for bilogical filtration.
that is the bacteria will break down the various waste products and simplify them
ideally the tank should also have live plants to help accomplish this.
much has been made of the necessity of developing a thriving colony of bacteria by the tropical fish hobbyist because with the small waste out pt of fish and witha sufficiently large tank and enough oxygen it IS possible to get a systen that "almost" cleans itself (and requires very samll and infrequent water chnages)
BUT what many turtle keepers do not realize is that the maount of waste (from poop and food) involved with aquatic turtles the water voulme would ned to be enormous to have successful bioloical filtration
in general i juist assume it isn't working evenm in tansk which have been running for more than a year.

BUT
i see no reason to turn off the filter at night or any other time
and turning off the filter does lower the oxygenb levels in the water draticaly . these lowered levels will kill fish and certainly bacterisa (though they seem to have bo effect on turtles)

ALSo
if you clean your filter nad change the water simukltaneously you are likley destrying any developing colony anyway.

I don't know how many turtles you need but i believ a simple calculation was once done which (though it made many approximations) determined that for one 4 inch turtle (gfed some "average" amount daily) approximately 180 gallons of water and say 6 inches of gravel would likely be needed to keep the water as clean as in a 50 gallon tank with 10 one inch fish.
in other words,
forget it just chnage the water.
if you are still skeptical
check your ammonia and nitrate levels often.
but by all means keep your filter on for continued mechanical filtration