I am considering using trickle filter method for turtle tanks.

Can anybody tell me is this feasible? is it better than canister filters i.e less cleaning. Will it pick up all the unmentionables etc etc.

Any assistance would be appreciated thanks Mitch

When we had turtles they were constantly messing up the tank, we resorted to regular water changes in order to keep there living premises clean, That seemed to have the best result, however we were not using any permanent filters, we have a diatom vortex filter that we used to run in the water for a few hours.

I don't know that I have helped much, But i guess any filtration will help keep the living conditions clean

Matt

Trickle filters are usually just for better biological filtration, which is unimportant in a turtle tank.

The concept of using a sump would be an advantage. You can keep the heater out of the tank to avoid the risk of it breaking and cleaning the filter would be easier then a canister but as Ira pointed out the biological filtration of a wet /dry is not needed (same as a canisters biological portion of the filter). The media used in a W/D is for converting ammonia & nitrites to nitrates.

If you where going down this route, don't bother with bio balls etc just use some floss in the w/d to filter out any solids. To clean you just whip out the floss and rinse. Water changes and gravel vacs will still be needed to remove any small organic that escape the floss. Any biological media used won't stop these getting through.

A sump would be a lot of work to set up though. A large internal sponge / floss filter will work just as well and a mesh tube could be used to protect the heater.

Mitch said...

> I am considering using trickle filter method for turtle tanks.

Good mechanical filtration and massive water changes are,

IMHO, the way to go.

Andrew.

You're probably better off using a good sized pleated cartridge filter (used on pools) to removed mechanical waste only. You'll probably still need to clean the filter every week however. About 75 - 100 sq ft should do the job.