Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently got the fluval 404 for christmas. My turtle is in a 55 gallon tank and she seems to be thriving, but so does the algae! I cleaned it a week and a half ago (i used to clean it every 2 weeks with the weaker filters before the 404) After i got the 404 i didnt' have to clean it for about a month. BUT, the lightbulb over her tank went out so i replaced it with a generic strip light from Home depot about 3-4 weeks ago. Is it the light thats creating this enormous algal bloom? If so, does anyone have any good suggestions of good turtle safe light strips? Also, any way to get rid of some of the algae without harming my turt and having to clean the tank every two weeks!?!? thats why i got the filter! I thought it would help to clean the tank less! soooooo confused, need help. Thanks!

For a turtle safe light just go with one of the repti-sun or zoo-med UVB bulbs, your turtle needs that anyway and probably wont get it fdrom a generic home depot bulb.

Algae feeds off a few things. Light, and extra nutrients in the water. There is not much you can do about the lights, if the tank is near a window, move it away or keep the window blocked off. Also you can try setting your lights on a timer so they go on and off and your tutle gets the necessary amount of light without any extra light (from you maybe not turning the light off manually at the same time every day, or whatever else) getting into the water.

As far as nutrtients. When your turtle is done eating scoop out any left over food, and if you can use a fish net or turkey baster to take out any large chunks of poop too it will help. If you have rocks or some sort of substrate on the bottom try taking those out and having a bare bottomed tank for awhile, that way the algae can't feed off leftover food that gets stuck int he gravel.

Also, check the quality of any turtle pellets you might be using, the higher quality food that goes into the water the less nastiness.

You could also try getting a Pleco, those are spiny, armored algae eaters. They do a pretty good job at routine cleaning, and are probably not going to attract much attention from the turtle. But keep in mind that the water needs to be warm (76-79degrees) for any tropical fish, and your turtle might possibly eat it.

Don't clean your filter media too much, filters work better, especiall the foam part, when its a little clogged up, they trap more that way and keep the tanks cleaner. Over cleaned filters let a lot of stuff pass through.

I hope some of these suggestions help!
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The algae feeds on the final product of the broken down ammonia (Nitrates). SOOO if you reduce the nitrates you can reduce the algae bloom. Plants are one way of doing this but, unfortunately, you turtle will likely eat the plants. The best thing to do is continue with partial weekly water changes and get some nitrate absorbing medium to put in your Fluval (the nitra-sorb will also help eliminate the cloudiness that described in your other post after you do the water change).

The other alternative is a bit more expensive but effective as well. Get a UV sterilizing unit for your aquarium. It is very effective at getting rid of free floating algae but will not eliminate the algae that is growing on the rocks or the side of the glass.

Steve