More questions from amateurs

In a message dated 4/10/08 5:48:50 AM, kactusgurl@… writes: As always, thanks for your help. Carmen Gee, Carmen, good questions …. but ask 3 and you’ll get 10 answers – and they could all be “right.” Let me share what I do and maybe this will give you some ideas. First, I do mega water changes, like 50-75% My reasoning is simple; if I’m already changing it, why not go all the way? Changing is easy for me. I have a commercial aquarium plastic tube – the largest one I could find. I only use the tube, not the vinyl tubing that came with it. Instead I use a hose I bought from OSH (Orchard Home Supply). The hose is a special “potable” water hose made to be used for trailers and campers for drinking water. You may find this kind of hose elsewhere. Mine is white with blue twisted stripes. I use two 12′ lengths put together. The hose has no toxic or carcinagentic compounds. I cut off the male end and the end of the tube fits right into it tight. I put the female end out the door, use the tube to start the suction and the vacuum is quite strong and cleans the crushed coral well. No buckets to dump! Now comes filling. I make this easy too. My wife bought a dog washing station a while back that supplied a spiffy device – a water regulator caleed “Tropic Shower.”. It would be easy to make one of these if you can’t find it and easy to do. It consists of two “Y”s that go on both of your close washer outlets. One of the ends attaches to your washer hoses, the other goes to another “Y”**************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)

In a message dated 4/10/08 5:48:50 AM, kactusgurl@… writes: As always, thanks for your help. Carmen Sorry about the previous post – it was sent by accident. Gee, Carmen, good questions …. but ask 3 and you’ll get 10 answers – and they could all be “right.” Let me share what I do and maybe this will give you some ideas. First, I do mega water changes, like 50-75% My reasoning is simple; if I’m already changing it, why not go all the way? Changing is easy for me. I have a commercial aquarium plastic tube – the largest one I could find. I only use the tube, not the vinyl tubing that came with it. Instead I use a hose I bought from OSH (Orchard Home Supply). The hose is a special “potable” water hose made to be used for trailers and campers for drinking water. It didn’t cost much more than a regular hose. You may find this kind of hose elsewhere. Mine is white with blue twisted stripes. I use two 12′ lengths put together. The hose has no toxic or carcinogenic compounds. I cut off the male end and the end of the tube fits right into it tight. I put the female end out the front door, use the tube to start the suction and the vacuum is quite strong and cleans the crushed coral substrate well. No buckets to dump! Now comes filling. I make this easy too. My wife bought a dog washing station a while back that supplied a spiffy device – a water regulator called “Tropic Shower.” It would be easy to make one of these if you can’t find it and easy to do. It consists of two “Y”s that go on both of your cloths washer outlets. One of the ends attaches to your washer hoses, the other ends go to another “Y.” The “Tropic Shower” has sealed short hoses, but you can do this with a short hose that has male and females ends. The hot water “Y” has a valve to control the amount of hot water going into the “Y” that feeds the hose to the tank. (Please see bottom of http://www.northcoastmarines.com/booster_bath.htm) The cold has no control. If you make it yourself all the ends of the “Y” will have these valves. This is the way the “new and improved Tropic Showers” is made (please see http://www.doolittlespetproducts.com/tropicshower.html). You can probably make this for under $25 or just buy the assembled type for about $50. This is well worth it to me for the ease and simplicity and the best thing is my wife bought it for the dogs! Anyway, I connect the female end of the hose to the regulator and place the end the suction tube was on into the tank WITH THE TUBE OFF – very important because the tube has a one-way valve and will blow off if water is forced into it. I then turn the hot water valve to about halfway and then turn the valve that connects to the hose. Thus the hot water supplied is about 50% and the cold is full strength. This works for me, but you’ll need to adjust it for your use. The water then flows into the tank at about 80-82F. It’s a good idea to make sure the hose going into the tank is stationary! Using this system I can drain out 50-70% and refill a 55 gallon tank in 20 minutes and keep the temp where it was. I then put the end of the hose outside, disconnect the end from the regulator and drain the hose as I roll it up and I store it in the laundry room. Water changing made easy! Remember to unplug your filter and heater before draining. Remember to plug them back in after – this is the easy part. Speaking of the filter, I use the Tetra Whisper with “Bio Bags.” I change the filter pads during the draining. I don’t do this once a week – I do it 2 or three times a week. That means water changes too. 2 or three times a week. I also use cichlid salts to buffer the water – a cheap type that works well is Top Fins “Conditioning Salt.” Cleaning everything in the tank is really up to you to decide when it is needed. Water quality is what I consider most important and well-filtered, “clean-looking” dirty water is still dirty and unhealthy. That’s why I change the water out 2 or three times a week. Dimitri**************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)

OK, maybe it’s just me, but it seems that some folks are creating more work for themselves than necessary??? IMO, as long as you are properly OVER-filtering your tank and keeping up with your weekly partial water changes, I don’t see any reason to do TOTAL tank “break downs” or HUGE 80 to 90% water changes??? And by partial water changes, most people do anywhere from 10 to 25%………….meaning they take out 25% of the tank water and replace it with clean/fresh water (plus a little extra for evaporation). Anything over that is just over-kill in my opinion and just extra work that isn’t necessary. Don’t make this fun hobby any harder on yourself then it already is. Run a 10 to 20% bleach/water solution thru your dirty water line and that should clean it up for you. Rinse well afterwards and then rinse well with real hot water EVERY time you use it and that should keep it clean from then on. Most people use External Canister filters on their Turtle Tanks, so your Emperor may not be cutting the mustard anymore???? What size tank do you have?