Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please help, we are becomming very frustrated. My son Richard has an african side neck turtle and we just cleaned the tank on Friday, by Saturday night it was murky and smells like a swamp. Im not sure what we are doing wrong, we have a "good" filter according to the pet store, we have a small amount of gravel and a basking rock. It seem that a lot of Snipes (the turtle) food sticks go to a corner and produce a nasty odor. I am at my wits end. I don't want to have to get rid of Snipes, but what can I do? I cannot live in the swampy atmosphere. PLEASE HELP IM DEPERATE!!!!!!!!!!
Blessings,
Sherry and Richard

First off, how large is this aquarium? The larger the volume of water, the more stable it is to maintain.
Also, how much are you feeding Snipes? If there is that much food left over, probably too much....AND what are you feeding him?
With any aqautic turtle that eats a lot frequent water changes are a fact of life. Your filter medium may need to be changed as well.
Filters with big eaters really only keep your water quality partially clean no matter what, I think. You have to change the water (or most of it) pretty often.
One other thing, try feeding Snipes in a seperate container of water (like a plastic sweater box)for his messy meals. You will find that he will poop in this after eating and then his home aqaurium will have to handle a lot less organic waste.

I always feed my african sidenecked in a separate container. He usually defecates when he's finished eating. This way it keeps his tank cleaner and I know exactly how much he's eating.
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Adam
http://anraviary.cjb.net
0.0 African Sidenecked, 0.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin, 0.1 Redfoot, 0.1 Sulcatta, 1.0 Western Hognose, 1.0 Crested Gecko, 0.1 Mali Uromastyx