Turtle's tank.

Soooo after pressure from two other members of this blog to post soon, paired with many non inspiring topic recommendations (cats, police museum, etc). I have decided to talk about something that I am an expert at and happens every month here at 654. That something happens to be… CLEANING TURTLES TANK. I feel this is a relevant topic to understand how much work is involved in owning a turtle, and also to educate potential friends that may need to clean turtle’s tank at a future time if Mr Pinto and I are on an extended vacation.

SO……………………………HOW TO CLEAN TURTLES TANK

STEP 1, Wear short sleeve shirt and remove any watch, rings, bracelet or anything that may be on your arm that you don’t want contaminated.

STEP 2, Remove turtle, dry him off with a towel, and then place him in a spare bedroom CLOSE DOOR TO ROOM so he can’t escape.

STEP 3, Turn off power to filter, heater, remove heater from tank and place in safe spot (I hide it on the carpet near the shoe rack).

STEP 4, Take large size aquarium siphon and submerge in turtle tank, slowly lift one end out and allow air bubbles to escape. Once siphon is filled with water, place finger over small end of siphon then

quickly remove small end part of siphon with approx half of the hose (leaving the other half still in water) and put small end into a bucket, or like me, out the window to pour into the eaves troughs. This may take a few tries to get the water going if you are not experienced.

STEP 5, Remove filter, let water pour out into tank and place in bucket 1. Remove turtle ramp and all really large rocks, place in shower. Remove all medium rocks and place in bucket 2. Remove all small rocks and place in bucket 3

STEP 6, By this time the siphon should have got almost all of the water out except a tiny little bit. So remove the siphon and either use multiple old towels to mop up the water, or if you are really strong, tip tank so you are balancing it one its front edge with tank leaning towards you and with your other hand use old juice jug to scope last of water into bucket 4.

STEP 7, Spray Windex on the inside and outside and wipe well with rag. Then use new rag and dampen with water and wipe inside of tank. Allow tank to dry as you go on to further steps.

STEP 8, Take bucket 1 with filter, put filter in sink, remove motor/ spout section of filter, wipe with rag and run clean hot water through. Then remove pads from filter and replace with clean filter pads, or if you forgot to buy new ones spend the next 5-10 minutes rinsing and wringing old filter pads with hot water. Put filter back together and place back in tank.

STEP 9, Put an old sock on your dominate hand. And fill bucket 2 half full with water and 1 TBS of generic liquid hand soap. With dominate sock hand swish rocks around in bucket for about 30 seconds (like a rock tumbler). Then pour out old water and replace with new water (do not replace soap) and repeat until water pours out clear and with no bubbles (usually about 3-4 tries). Then pour rocks onto old towel near turtle tank to dry.

STEP 10, Repeat step 9 with bucket 3.

STEP 11, Use either bucket 1,2 or 3 that is now empty and fill with warm water and 1 TBS of generic liquid hand soap. Make sure sock is still on dominate hand. Place bucket with water in shower and begin to scrub all large rocks and turtle ramp using sock hand. Once ramp and rocks are clean, close shower curtain and turn on shower and allow them to rinse for 1- 2 minutes.

STEP 12, Turn shower off and replace all large rocks and ramp into tank, then replace me

medium rocks and heater. Do not pour in small rocks yet.

STEP 13, Pour “turtle clean” solution into tank as per instructions on bottle.

STEP 14, Use other 2 buckets not used in cleaning large rocks and ramp and alternately fill buckets with luke warm water at sink. Pour water into tank until it reaches just below platform of ramp.

STEP 15, Pour small rocks back into tank.

STEP 16, Turn on power to filter and heater.

STEP 17, THOROUGHLY clean bathroom with CLR, with special attention to shower and sink.

STEP 18, Wash hands thoroughly and make a cup of tea, place by chair in front of turtle tank

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STEP 19, Capture turtle from second bedroom and replace in tank

STEP 20, Quickly re-wash hands and sit in chair, enjoy cup of tea and watch turtle get acquainted with clean tank (IT’S A SURPRISE TO HIM EVERYTIME!!!)

TOTAL TIME 1 ½ HOURS. I ALSO HAVE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CLEAN TURTLES TANK WITH ONE BROKEN HAND TOO.