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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/1/2008 12:13:45 PM
Posts: 2,
Visits: 4
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| Hi! I am new to the "turtle world"... My daughter found an adorable painted turtle back in May... Talked me into bringing it home & keeping it. We have done some research & have the set up as follows: 40 gallon tank large "rock" like filter that holds 2 carbon filter bags 1 submursible heater 1 lamp that is currently using a 60 watt regular light bulb floating dock sand & gravel bottom We feed dried creel, shrimp & repile pellets/logs 4" - 6" water level "Dot" seems to be growing & doing very well & has a very healthy appetite. My current problem is the tank cleaning... The tank was starting to get a very musty smell so obviously a cleaning was in order. I also noticed small gnats were accumulating in the tank. As I syphend the water out & went to change the filters the gnats seemed to be migrating towards the filter. As I lifted the top of the rock filter - that's when I found the gnats home!  Ugh! Apparently the inside of the filter was breeding ground. I immediately took out the entire filter & hosed it down & removed the filter bags. At a closer look of the bags I found small new gnats just in the "wormy" stage...  I didn't know if this was a common finding or what I can do about it. Since the weekend cleaning, we have monitored the gnats (and trying to kill the very few we have found since) and monitoring the level of food as well. We don't know much about taking care of a turtle & want to give the best possible care to our new little friend. I've also found that the small live plants that I have purchased in pet stores do not survive long and am thinking of trying plastic or silk that I have seen mentioned in my research. Any help & suggestions that anyone can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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Moderator
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Yesterday @ 3:01:07 PM
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If the filter and filter floss are easily reached with a spray bottle, you can periodically mist the floss and gnat maggots with a 10% Chlorox to 90% water mix sprayed directly on the floss and maggots while the filter is temporarily turned off for 15 minutes. If you only hit it with a few spritzes, it won't be enough to tox the water in the whole tank as it disperses as the filter runs later, but it should discourage the bugs.
*********************Bill Love / BLUE CHAMELEON VENTURES
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/1/2008 12:13:45 PM
Posts: 2,
Visits: 4
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| Thanks so much! I will try this... I checked again today & see only very few larva - nothing like this past weekend. I can actually pull out the carbon bags with the filter I have so I hope this will work. Please - anyone have any ideas how this is even happening? And how, if at all I can completely get rid of these nasty things? They cannot be good for our turtle, can they?
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