Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious about the "third stage" of filtration for the Aquarclear 500... I baught it recently and really like it, and today I got the Ammonia Remover stage. I'm wondering is this really needed?

Do turtle tanks get ammonia and stuff? Since I moved them to the bigger tank, I now move them when I feed them to the smaller tank so it cuts down a lot on the bad stuff in the tank.. just curious where does ammonia come from? Will the turtles benefit from this new extra filtration stage I added? It says it removes harmful ammonia, reduces ammonia stress for fish (heh)

Amonnia is produced by the waste in your water, it is really an issue with fish, but it can build up enough to make turtles uncomfortable too. It probably wan't necessary if you feed in a separate container, but it can't hurt either.
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yes, large amounts of amonnia are produced from turtle poop and decaying uneaten food. But very little of this ammonia is absorbed by these amonnia things ina turtle tank as they are made for fish and most any turtle will produce more waste and hence ammonia than a dozen mid sized tropical fish.
I have seceral aquaclear 500 filters and i think they are great.
But don't fool your self; you still need to chnage the water FREQUENTLY (exactly HOW frequently depends on size of tank)and you should periodically removed the filter media (sponge, carbon amrid) and rinse them off.
don't worry about rinsing with chlorinated water as there will be little biological filtration going on in your filter unless your tank is very large.
I have found (by doing water tests) that the carbon and sponge and be rinsed and reused many times by the amrid stuff has a life time of a bout twpo rinses (or maybe one month) and then it fails to work any longer.
In m,y opinion its beter to stuff all your power filters for turtle tanks with lots of sponges as it is mainly mechanical filtration that takes places w hen you have a huge bioload (maount of nitrates and ammonia created by turtles.