Taking care of a turtle doesn’t require too much equipment, you just need a tank to keep the turtle and a basking area for the turtle to get its vitamins. But what about the filter, do turtles really need a filter?
Do turtles need a filter? Turtles don’t really need a filter. The role of the filter is to keep the water clean for longer, so you don’t have to change it too often.
So the filter’s role isn’t really to help the turtles, it’s their role to help us help the turtle. Turtles can’t lead a healthy life if they live in dirty water, so it’s up to them to change the water. But changing the water every day can become very tedious, and so we use a filter to make things easier for us.
Now that we established why we need a filter, you have to know that not every filter is the same. So let’s see how to choose a good filter for your turtle tank.
What to look for in a good filter
The first thing you should look for in a filter is power. When you choose a filter you have to make sure that is able to filter all the water in your tank. You can buy a filter that is built for a 50 gallons tank even if you have a 25 gallons tank, but you should never use a filter that is not able to filter all the water in the tank.
A good filter will also allow you to change the filtration medium. There are a lot of things that you can use in a filter to address certain needs, some of them are better at getting rid of the smell, others are better at getting rid of excessive ammonia ( you can identify your needs by using a kit that I will explain in the rest of this article ). So a good filter will allow you to easily change the filtration medium.
The noise done by a filter can sometimes be disturbing, so you can also take this into consideration when choosing a filter. The noise level of a filter is not necessarily equal to its performance, but most filters will usually make some noise.
One last thing that is essential to a good filter is clog proof. This one is mostly self-explanatory, if your filter gets clogged it won’t be able to filter.
The filters that I am using
I am personally a long-time fan of the Fluval Filters Series. I tried a lot of filters and I had mixed results with them but after I discovered these filters I’ve only used them. I’ve recently purchased a more powerful model for my new tank because the old one was too small for the new tank ( I changed my 45 gallons tank with an 80 gallons tank ). I had the previous one for almost 2 years and I had no problems with it. The noise levels are not that bad, don’t get me wrong you will definitely hear it if you are in the same room but it’s not as bad as other filters.
One great thing about those filters is that the producer also offers a great variety of filtration mediums so there won’t be any compatibility issues or anything like that.
While I used it never broke down or anything similar to that. But if you have any problem like that the seller also offers a 3-year warranty.
Overall the Fluval filters are the best filters I’ve used and I am very pleased with them. So I will recommend you to give them a try. If you want to get one here is a link to Amazon.
Note: In general try to stay away from undergravel filters. They are usually not very efficient, not necessarily all of them, but the ones that I’ve tried were not very good.
Conclusion
So while turtles don’t need a filter, you, as a turtle owner will definitely need it.
I hope this article was helpful and answered all of your questions. But in case you still have some questions, you can leave them in the comment section and I will answer them as soon as possible.
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