turtle tank filter

"Far Thunder" wrote in
:

hau kolas..got a bit of a quandary here..I've acquired a small
painted turtle who has been living in a 20G L
tank with about 5 gallons of water and "land" areas at either end
of the tank. Anyway, being as the water area
is pretty small, threw a fluval 1 plus internal filter in there.
Long story short, turtle has grown and IMO
needs a new tank. Looking at a 40G long in the near future. Never
really happy with the internal filter, I've decided to
put a small canister for the new tank. Looking at either a fluval
104 or AP rena filstar xp1, which seem to be smallest
canisters I can find w/o a whole lot of effort looking into it.
Fluval 104 or 105? 5 series seems to have about a $20.00 jump
in price from 4 series models. Is it really worth it?


I've been using a Rena XP3 for Momma's 75 gal turtle habitat for nearly
two years. I tried the game with various internal filters, none of
which did much good.




At most I'm looking at 15 gallons of actual water in
this tank & what's in the filter and pipes. is the fistar going to
have too much flow for the turtle in such a small volume of water?
Can I add a valve or spraybar to disperse this w/o too much back
pressure on the filter?
I've been a fluval loyalist on my fish tanks, but not so sure on
this turle project.
Relatively uncharted territory for me..any suggestions on setups
people here may have? Turtle is relatively small, shell
circumference is 6.5" cross shell, won't cooperate enough to
measure lengthwise.


That's a fairly middle size turtle. Your idea of 15 gallons in a 40
gallon habitat seems to me to be a bit small. Painted Turtles are great
baskers and would relish a floating dock or a flat slate basking perch.
The 75g habitat that we have has a sloped slate perch that is
illuminated with a 75w lamp for heat, I use a 35w CF for simulated
daylight and Vit D production. Water depth is about 6-10 inches
depending on evaporation.

The spraybar that will come with a Rena/Filstar works without any
problems. The only problem that I've had has been circulation which was
addressed with the addition of another circulation pump/powwerhead.
Well, that's not the only problem. My son tossed some snails into the
habitat to feed the turtles. Snails have colonized the Rena cannister
and are happily living there.

--
Cheers,
Kurt