Product Description

Keep your turtles habitat sparkling with Zoo Meds Turtle Clean 501.

Clean water is essential to the health of all aquatic and semi-aquatic turtle species, and the 501 traps suspended particulate waste, removes odor and chemicals with activated carbon, and breaks down organic toxins with a biological filtration section.

The Turtle Clean 501 filter is also great for vivariums, box turtle pools, and aquariums up to 30 gallons.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30027 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: ZooMed
• Dimensions: 4.00" h x 4.00" w x 8.00" l, 4.50 pounds

Features

• Promotes Healthy Turtles in Tanks
• Filters the Water

Customer Reviews

Keeps my 75 gallon tank clean!
Praise the Lord! Someone has finally made a suitable turtle filter. My 6" western painted turtle has clean water because of this filter. This filter was simple to set-up, and hangs right on the side of my tank, not taking up any extra space (I purchased the filter hanger seperatly). As with any filter, you will need to replace the charcoal inserts, and they run around $3. This is a small price to pay to keep your pet's water clean. I find I need to replace them every 3-4 weeks. My turtle loves the optional spray bar (included) but it can be a pain to clean. Buy a cheap, small pipe-cleaner (or use pipe-cleaners like me)brush to get the grime off. I believe it's a small price to pay for a filter that WORKS! The small fish we have in the water as food aren't harmed by the powerful suction created near the water intake, either.

Overall best filter for the money (see update 2). Do your shopping - I found one at my local pet store for $50.00 and found one online for $25 with free shipping! With the one-year warranty, what do you have to lose?

*Beware if you have smaller turtles - it does create a 'suction' area just like other canister filters - and small turtles may become trapped.

UPDATE: 6 months later, this filter is still working like a charm! We had a small problem with the fliter not priming after a cleaning once, but it turned out that I had mixed up the way something went on, so it was my fault. After reading more, the ceramic blocks never need to be replaced, just rinsed, and the foam part doesn't need to be replaced unless it's showing wear. If the foam does need to be replaced, the replacement foam is around $4. After 6 months, we still haven't replaced the foam! We are pleased with how well this filter works.

UPDATE2: My husband went to clean our fantastic turtle filter and dropped one of the pieces down the sink drain! I thought for sure I'd need to buy an entire new filter. I was excited to learn that ZooMed has a an assortment of replacement items for 501 filters! I didn't need to buy a new filter, just a small $4 part! Also, the ceramic pieces are sold (if you hate cleaning yours) for around $6. Mine are on a year and show little wear. I'm so pleased with this purchase and quality of customer service from ZooMed!

I found the secret for this filter.
This product has had strangely mixed reviews, from exuberant to downright hate mail. I bought it because I thought that the other canister filter I was considering would be too powerful and would churn up the water too much for my small turtles.

When you test a filter, you can't just look at the water and say it works great; you have to test the water. Believe me, the turtles can tell the difference when there is a high ammonia content. You would too, if you were swimming in your own pee!

I've had this filter for 4 weeks. The first three weeks I could get no bio filtration at all, and the ammonia stayed at a high level. Then for the last week the filter has worked great and my ammonia is down at zero.

So I can highly recommend this product for a small tank normally used for baby turtles. What I do NOT recommend is the carbon inserts that go with the product! The insert is basically a disposable bag of activated carbon that is machined into smooth pellets. These pellets do a horrible job of absorbing the organics that they are supposed to control.

In the third week, I went to the aquarium store, bought a nylon bag, and filled it with over-the-counter activated carbon. These are basically raw chips of coal. The rough sides of the coal provide ample porous surface area for absorption. Also the activated carbon at the pet store comes a lot cheaper than the 501 carbon inserts.

You don't know clean water until you see the difference between the pellets and the activated carbon chips; you'll see the difference in just one day. But what's more important is that one week later, my ammonia is down to zero.

Turtles create a LOT of ammonia. With the right carbon, this filter will do the job. The proof is in the testing.

great for turtles
I have a red-eared slider and have tried many other filters at reasonable prices for a 20 gallon tank. It is a good buy for the money. This one so far is the best because all of the algae is in the tubes or in the filter kept on the outside of the tank. It is less stuff to clean. You will definitely need a small brush to clean the tubes and change the carbon once every two weeks. I tried cleaning the carbon filter and using it again but the tank does not stay as clean.