"Pond" algae and update

Paschendale52

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The outdoor tanks are now fully setup and have been for about a week. As @Toddrickfl1 anticipated there is a bit of algae growth turning the water green. I went out and added a canna and water iris to each tank along with some hyacinth to help compete and added ~50 mosquito fish. Some of them came from the pond garden store in Hayward, some came from the mosquito abatement place for free off a suggestion I saw from @Markw84.
It is definitely looking much better with the plants and I've been spending a good amount of time just sitting and watching the turtles chase after the mosquito fish and bask in amongst the plants.
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Full tank/pond/water garden thing.
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Granny out exploring. She had been transferred into this tank for ~30 minutes at this point. The others have been in ~1 week.

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Blackbeard out chasing fishies.

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Fatty staying very shy hiding in the caves made from leftover counter tops.
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Slim swimming around. She (? I think) has never been shy. She has also been in these enclosures the longest by ~1 week.
 

newCH

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Maybe a couple of pleycos .......
 
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You can try duck weed or frog bit if you haven’t already.
They will quickly cover the top and limit sun light and takes nitrogen.

it might be a bit too late but you could paint some sides of the glass tank to cut down light as well.

I like how they have pergola looking thing above tank :D
 

turtlesailor

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I would head down to your local pond nursery store and get some water hyacinth.
I have a hard time keeping them thrive in my pond. But they are thriving well in my spotted turtle pond.
 

Paschendale52

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I'm not sure what snails are legal in your area, but some larger snails might keep some of the algea off of your glass without becoming an immediate snack for your turtle

I just got a small colony of snails set up inside. My hope is they will start breeding like crazy and then I can toss enough into the tanks that they will establish before the turtles eat them all. Worst case scenario they get a biiig shelled snack. : )
 

Paschendale52

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You can try duck weed or frog bit if you haven’t already.
They will quickly cover the top and limit sun light and takes nitrogen.

it might be a bit too late but you could paint some sides of the glass tank to cut down light as well.

I like how they have pergola looking thing above tank :D

I'm interested in the top coverings, but havn't found any frogbit/duckweed around here for a reasonable price. I guess I ought to look up that its legal in CA.
 

Paschendale52

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Get a pond UV sterilizer . That’ll take care of 80% algae problem

I think thats the "going nuclear" option if I can't get it under control. I'm just trying to avoid running more power over there right now. Do you have any that you like?
 

Paschendale52

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I would head down to your local pond nursery store and get some water hyacinth.
I have a hard time keeping them thrive in my pond. But they are thriving well in my spotted turtle pond.

I put 5 or so hyacinth plants in there, they all got eaten pretty quick, so I set up some water lettuce inside and when/if it starts multiplying I'll move some more outside.
 

Paschendale52

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Yeah.
They are armor plated.
But not turtle proof

I thought for sure at 9" long and armor plated (compared to the 3" turtles) he would be fine. About 4 days after I put them in the tank I woke up to a milky white tank and a skeleton of a Pleco. The turtles got a pretty decent snack, but I would have preferred they not eat the $35 pleco. : O
 

ZEROPILOT

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I thought for sure at 9" long and armor plated (compared to the 3" turtles) he would be fine. About 4 days after I put them in the tank I woke up to a milky white tank and a skeleton of a Pleco. The turtles got a pretty decent snack, but I would have preferred they not eat the $35 pleco. : O
Yikes!
Here Plecos swim wild in the waterways. Free for the taking.
 

Paschendale52

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Get a pond UV sterilizer . That’ll take care of 80% algae problem


Well I ended up having to go nuclear on it. I swapped out the little canister filter for a 100 gallon plastic stock tank. The stock tank is gravity fed by two 1.5" feed lines (one in each tank) towards the bottom of each tank. You can see the pipes in the pictures below. The return pump is sitting on the gravel in the stock tank and goes through a 15W UV sterilizer. I was pretty amazed at how well the water cleared up within about 2 days. The surface of the acrylic still has some algae that I havn't scrubbed off yet, but the water is clean and clear.

I also learned a valuable lesson in gravity fed pumps. When I first plumbed the tanks I had the lines in more of an overflow configuration, with only about 3" water above the feed lines. With so little water above the lines, the pressure differential was super low and my pump (2110 GPH) had to be set for its lowest setting to not over fill the tanks. I had to plug those holes and redrill for the feed lines near the bottom of the tank. That way my water return was way faster. I still can't run the pump full out, but I can run it closer to 75%. For a system that is only ~300 gallons total, that should be more than plenty.

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The right tank is much cleaner since Slim (southern painted turtle on the left) eats all of the water lettuce. The right tank below has much more surface coverage and less algae. I thought the pleco's had gotten eaten since I didn't see them for almost a month after putting them in, but they were apparently just hiding somewhere. Blackbeard (razorback musk on the left) loves to hang out under that little cave, but at the very edge so hes still totally visible. he spends most of his time there and only gets out to walk around every now and again.

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Granny on the other hand (razorback musk on the right tank) is constantly out moving about walking around. Its funny how crazy different their personalities are. Slim (SPT left tank) basks most of the day and is active and eating every plant, while Fatty (SPT right tank) rarely basks and stays much more hidden in the floating logs or behind plants.

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This is the stock tank. There is probably a ~4 or 5" differential in water levels between this tank and the main acrylic tanks. It is planted with 2 iris, 2 rush, and 2 canna I believe. There are a couple dozen mosquito fish that live in there to keep any larvae down.

Thanks for reading. I'm hoping the fires out here don't put to much ash in the water. It was raining a fairly large amount last week, but the turtles didn't seem to mind too much. We'll see how "winter" as much as northern california gets it works out here.
 

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