Cleaning doesn’t have to be challenging, especially if you keep on top of it every day. Turtles are easy pets for beginners because they only require deep-cleaning every few weeks, and spot-cleaning their tanks daily only takes a few minutes.
Cleaning your turtle’s tanks is simple, but there are a few things you need to know to keep yourself and your turtle safe: wear gloves, remove your turtle from the tank, and rinse all solutions before re-introducing your turtle.
Before Cleaning
Unplug all electrical devices, such as filtration and lighting systems, before cleaning your tank to prevent electrocution or equipment malfunction. Move your turtle to a separate container while you clean to keep them safe and stress-free.
Protect Yourself While Cleaning
Always wear rubber gloves when cleaning, and NEVER clean your filter or other tank components around places where food is stored, prepared, or eaten. Turtle habitats can harbor harmful germs and bacteria.
Unfortunately, turtles can harbor illnesses like salmonella, even when kept as a pet or in a zoo.
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) explains why it’s essential to handle your turtles with caution at all times:
“Turtles might have Salmonella germs on their bodies even when they appear healthy and clean. When people touch turtles, the germs can get on hands or clothing… The germs can also be in the water turtles live or swim in and can get on cages, aquariums, terrariums, and other containers that house turtles. This is why it’s important to clean turtle habitats outside of the home, when possible.
Surfaces such as countertops, tabletops, bare floors, and carpeting can also become contaminated with Salmonella if the turtle is placed on them. Don’t let turtles roam freely throughout the house or in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored, such as kitchens, pantries, or outdoor patios.”
Those at most risk of contracting an illness from their turtle are infants and children under five, adults over 65, and those with compromised immune systems.
Symptoms of salmonella include vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), abdominal cramps, and fever.
Don’t let the fear of salmonella prevent you from getting your turtle, though. Turtles make excellent pets; you just need to take certain precautions — like wearing gloves — to keep yourself healthy when interacting with your turtle.
Plus, salmonella is most common in smaller turtles, and turtles with a shell length of less than 4 in (10.2 cm) have been banned in the United States.
Daily Cleaning
To keep your turtle’s tank clean, you should remove waste and old food daily. You can use a small net to remove debris from the water. For tortoises, refresh the water bowl as well.
Using a filter in an aquatic turtle’s tank is also essential to keeping the water clean on a daily basis.
Every two to three days, you need to test the pH of your turtle’s water. The ideal pH depends on your turtle’s species, but most do well with a pH between seven and eight.
Weekly Cleaning
Perform a 25-30% water change every week to replace some of the old water with fresh.
Deep Cleaning The Tank
How often you need to clean your turtle’s tank depends on the size of your turtle, the size of its tank, and how dirty it is. Professionals recommend deep cleaning a turtle’s tank once or twice a month.
Between deep cleans, make sure you spot-clean every day to remove old food and waste.
PetMD explains how you should clean your turtle’s tank:
“When you start cleaning your turtle tank, first remove everything from inside of it. Once you’ve taken it out, clean the tank with a very dilute warm water bleach solution to kill any bacteria, let the tank to sit for ten minutes, then wash off the cleaning solution with water and let it dry for a few hours.”
Allow the tank to dry completely when using a bleach solution. When the tank dries out, it eliminates any residual bleach you may have missed. You never want to put your turtle back in its tank if there’s a chance there may be leftover bleach.
You can rinse the rocks and decorations with warm water and turtle-safe cleaner. Never use soap to clean the tank because even a trace amount can harm your turtle.
You’ll also want to scrub the filter of your aquatic turtle’s tank to remove debris and algae. The filter media needs replacing at least once a month, but avoid changing it while deep-cleaning the rest of the tank; instead, do it on a day you’re doing simple spot-cleaning.
Cleaning the filter, decorations, and substrate kills much of the beneficial bacteria in the tank that keeps the water healthy. Replacing the filter media at the same time almost guarantees that you’ll kill all the bacteria in the tank, causing the nitrogen cycle to restart, potentially making the water unsafe for your turtle.
Cleaning the filter, but not the filter media, and vice versa, leaves some of the beneficial bacteria. Doing so gives the bacteria population time to reestablish itself and maintain the health of the water.
Once the tank is dry, put clean, fresh substrate back into the enclosure if you use substrate. Then, if your turtle is aquatic, you can fill the tank with water and replace all the decorations. For tortoises, simply replace the decorations along with the substrate.
Conclusion
Turtles are relatively simple to care for, and it’s not difficult to clean their tank. Spot clean their aquarium every day to keep up with their mess, and deep clean their tank every few weeks.
FAQs
Live plants are a great addition to your turtle’s tank because they help purify the water, provide your turtle with a constant snack, and make the tank look nicer.
Some of the best plants to add to your turtle’s tank include hornwort, Anubias barteri, java fern, Amazon sword, anacharis, java moss, and moneywort.
Using bleach can be intimidating, so if you don’t want to use it, you can use vinegar instead. Vinegar is safer than bleach, but it is acidic and will alter the pH of the water if you don’t rinse all of it out. So, if you use vinegar, rinse your tank and the decorations several times before refilling the tank.
To create a vinegar solution, you’ll use equal parts warm water and white vinegar. Then, use a sponge to scrub your tank clean. Let the vinegar soak for up to 30 minutes if the tank has any tough dirt or stains. You can use the leftover vinegar solution to soak and clean the decorations, and remember to rinse everything afterward.
To clean the outside of a glass aquarium. Do not use commercial or household glass cleaners. You can use a vinegar solution or turtle-safe cleaning product because they likely contain chemicals harmful to your turtle.
