Turtles are cute pets, but they, like all aquarium animals, need a safe living environment in order to survive. Turtles need more attention than fish, necessitating a bigger tank, cleaner water, and constant circulating of the water.
Fortunately, a decent filter built especially for turtle tanks is more than capable of meeting these demands.
It can be difficult to choose the right filter for your turtle tank, particularly if you don’t know what to look for.
That’s why we’ve put together an in-depth look at turtle tank filters. We’ll go over everything you need to know about choosing a turtle tank filter, as well as five of the best canister filters for turtle tank to keep your aquatic reptiles safe.
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Top 5 Best Canister Filter For Turtle Tank
Top 1: Penn Plax Aquarium Canister Filter
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Outstanding features:
Penn Plax’s Cascade 1000 (CCF3UL) is one of the more cost-effective filters on the list, but it also has a lot of power. On a reasonable-sized tank (100 gallons), it can process 265 gallons per hour (GPH) per hour. This is certainly a filter to consider if you’re holding a turtle in a tank this size. Besides, its unit is 11.5 x 17 x 10 inches and weighs 12 pounds. It comes with 3 large media baskets that can be customized to suit the needs of any aquarist.
Filtration is identical to that of other types of power canister filters. Water flows through the media trays and out the other end clean thanks to the upright build. It’s airtight, but even when pumping vast amounts of water into fully stocked trays, the flow rate remains high. The trays can be customized with different media pouches to achieve the delicate balance that your turtles need.
The directional water flows from the pump head is one of the features we like about this device. This is all fully flexible, but it also feels strong. This makes it simple to adjust the flow in your tank without worrying about the pump head weakening over time.
It also provides efficient mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration in both fresh and marine aquariums, resulting in crystal clear water. The floss pad extracts small particulate matter, while the activated carbon media removes chemicals and impurities from the water, leaving your fish and other marine organisms in a safer and healthier environment. The coarse sponge promotes bacterial growth, which efficiently removes waste, surplus food, and toxic ammonia, and nitrates to provide a large surface area for biological filtration.
Pros:
- 360-degree rotating valves
- Directional water flow and can be adjusted and 265 gallons per hour flow rate
- Very reasonably priced
- Filter media cartridges that are well-made and customized
- Simple setup
- Work quickly
Cons:
- Noisy
- Filter media customization expertise is needed.
Top 2: MarineLand Penguin 350 Power Filter
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Outstanding features:
This is one of the most widely used tank filters. It was developed by MarineLand, an organization with a stellar reputation and track record for producing high-quality aquarist products.
This turtle tank filter differs from the others on our list in a few ways. This is due to the fact that it employs a spinning bio-wheel that produces exceptionally high-quality filtration. Both three stages of filtration can be handled by the overall filter (chemical, biological, and mechanical). It can pump up to 350 gallons per hour and is suitable for aquariums of up to 75 gallons.
It’s also worth noting that, based on the number of turtles you have and the configuration of their tank, this filter would actually challenge at full capacity. This means that this filter will encounter difficulties for a 75-gallon tank with a lot of dirty water. However, if you’re on a budget and your aquarium setup is compatible with this product, we strongly suggest it.
Pros:
- Reasonable price
- Good filtration rate
- It does an excellent job of keeping the water clean.
Cons:
- It’s a little difficult to limit the tank size.
Top 3: Marineland Magniflow Canister Filter
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Outstanding features:
The Marineland Magniflow canister filter is a product that can be used by almost any turtle owner because of its simplicity and tank size capabilities. This filter has a three-stage filtration. Each of the media stacks has excellent flow, which effectively cleans and filters out any unnecessary anything.
Bio-filter balls and ceramic in the Magniflow have a wide surface area for bacteria that neutralize ammonia to expand and flourish. There’s even an activated carbon bag for odor and discoloration removal.
Finally, there’s some excellent mechanical filtration in operation. Foam filter pads that are well-made will catch a lot of debris.
When it comes to enhancing the clarity of the water, this is one of the better turtle tank filters. It comes with a high-quality polishing filter pad that prevents fine particles from crystal-clear water.
Pros:
- Filtration in three stages is extremely effective
- Significantly increases the clarity of the water
- Reasonable price
Cons:
- The setting up is a bit more difficult than it seems.
Top 4: Polar Aurora Free Media Aquarium Filter
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Outstanding features:
It is good for up to 100-gallon fish tanks. The maximum flow rate of 370GPH is built-in pump water of 35 W. There are three media trays available to handle filtration media. It also has a spray bar that can be adjusted. This is a useful function if you want to change the filter’s output flow.
There is a handy self-priming pump instead of a manual siphoning. To make regular maintenance easier, you should disconnect a single valve and priming pump.
Pros:
- There is a handy self-priming pump instead of a manual siphoning
- Spray bar that can be adjusted to change the filter’s output flow.
Cons:
- The configuration is complex.
Top 5: SunSun External Canister Filter 793gph
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Outstanding features:
For both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, the HW-300 is a breeze to use. It has an LCD monitor, which would undoubtedly improve the user’s experience with the canister. Users can control the flow of the pump using an LCD monitor. A controllable built-in 9W UV sterilizer is also included in the HW-3000, which is ideal for keeping algae away from your aquarium.
To get started, the latest HW-3000 needs no priming. Fill both the intake and outtake tubes with tank water, turn on the power, and the water will begin to flow. The HW-3000 mechanism employs a multi-stage filtration system. Through four internal layered baskets, filtering aquarium tank water with assorted filter media material deliveries completely biological, mechanical, and chemical filtration. It also has an inlet tube that draws water into the filter and an outlet tube that returns crystal clear water (both supplied). A spray bar is mounted on the outlet tube to further raise oxygen aeration levels in your tank. These filters are good for freeing up space in your tank and have a large internal filter media size, making them suitable for larger volume tanks.
Pros:
- Canister filter with a large capacity and high flow speeds
- Excellent value for spending
- There are four big media baskets in total.
- UV sterilizer
- Flow speeds can be adjusted
- Not noisy
Cons:
- When full of water, it’s very heavy.
- Since there is no way to pump water with a bottom valve, the top must be removed to do it.
- There are few replacement parts available.
Important to features
What will you look for when choosing a filter for your turtle tanks?
The sheer amount of aquarium filters on the market can be daunting if you’re a first-time turtle user. Let’s look at some below features to help you find the right filter for your turtle tank.
Size and GPH
If your tank just had only fish, you could get a marginally underpowered filtration device while also maintaining a safe living environment. Turtles, on the other hand, are larger and contain more waste. This results in living conditions becoming quickly deteriorated if the water isn’t actively flowing into the filter.
Another factor to consider is the filtration system’s flow rate, which is usually expressed in gallons per hour (GPH). At least once an hour, your filter should be able to filter the full volume of your tank.
Type of filtration (mechanical, biological, chemical filtration)
Every turtle tank filter system should provide at least 3 stages (mechanical and biological and chemical filtration stage). Each of these filtration stages has a specific function, and they all work together to ensure that you’re not only extracting waste from the tank but also preserving water chemistry.
Mechanical filtration is the most basic form of filtration. The mechanical filtration level, in essence, strains out any particulate gunk floating about in your tank’s water, such as turtle waste, uneaten food, and algae.
Mechanical filtration alone will make the tank water seem clearer, but it will not serve the critical function of water chemistry maintenance. Ammonia is released into the water as the turtle pees, and this ammonia cannot be strained out with a mesh filter. This is the reason why the biological filtration stage is necessary. Biological filtration facilitates the increase of beneficial bacteria. These bacteria are ammonia oxidizers, meaning they turn ammonia released into the water by your turtle into nitrate, which is then eaten up by plants in your tank and extracted from the water. Keep in mind that even nitrate can be dangerous to turtles if enough of it builds up in the tank water, which is why, even if you have a high-quality filtration device, you can adjust the water from time to time.
Chemical filtration isn’t as essential as mechanical or biological filtration, but it will help the filtration device work more efficiently and prolong the time between water changes. Chemical filtration can use a variety of media, each of which can remove a separate aspect that mechanical and biological filtration sometimes lacks. For example, activated carbon is effective at breaking down dissolved organic matter in the tank water, while ammonia removers can help break down ammonia that slipped through the biological filtration stage.
Maintenance
You’ll need to clean or replace the filter media in your turtle tank filter regularly, regardless of how fine it is. So, choosing a filter that makes maintenance simple takes some advantages. A filtration system that’s easy to maintain is that it has a simple cabinet system for filtration media. That way, you can easily remove the filter, discard the old media, and replace it with new media.
FAQs about Best Canister Filters For Turtle Tank
Is it essential to have a filter in a turtle tank?
It wouldn’t take long for your turtle tank to turn into a slimy green mess if you didn’t have a good filter. For sure, not only is it not a good look for a clean tank but also it is not a safe place for your turtle. It’s important to vacuum out litter and waste from your turtle tank on a regular basis, just as it is with fish, and to keep the water chemistry balanced.
Turtles, in particular, your tanks need extra cleaning since turtles produce more waste than other fish. Turtles consume more food and produce more poop and urine, which, if not separated from the tank, will create complications for them.
While adding plants and fish to your tank will help hold the water quality high, when it comes to turtle tanks, the filtration system is compulsory to equip.
Are aquarists able to use a fish filter as an alternative instead of a turtle-specific filter?
Turtle-specific filters were created for turtles as producers take into account that they excrete more waste than fish. However, you can also use a normal fish filter within your tank as long as it filters more water every hour than the size of your tank.
For example, a standard turtle tank with 40 gallons would need to have a fish filter of 80 to 120 gallons because a 40-gallon fish filter would actually not be enough to rid the water of all the turtle waste.
Why should we choose to purchase canister filters?
Canister filters may be the best investment you can make for indoor aquariums that house aquatic turtles. There are 3 benefits as following:
- First, indoor aquatic turtles need the largest aquarium, and canister filters are the only kind of filter capable of handling this volume of water.
- Second, canister filters are usually placed under or next to your aquarium, allowing you to save space.
- Last but not least, Canister filters have multi-level filtration systems that are needed to clean up the massive amount of waste generated by your turtle.