res turtle

Question
hello,
sorry i know that you do not major in turtles but...here we go i have a silver dollar sized red-eared slider and i have him in a aquarium and i was wondering what ph level he should be in?Also are Aponogeton plant o-kay for him

Answer
Hi Sophia, I don't have a lot of first hand experience with aquatic turtles but I went to my favourite reference sites about them (which I have linked) to see what they might say about pH. They actually contradicted each other!  The World Chelonian Trust article suggests slightly alkaline while the very thorough RES site suggests slightly acidic. Both had the same rationale, which was the inhibition of bacterial and fungal growth.
It sounds like the 6 - 8 range is fine for them and indicates good water quality.

The Austin turtle page had an extensive article on planted turtle tanks which mentioned that Aponogeton is fine for them and had info on many other aquatic plant species as well.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/plantedturtletanks.htm

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/waterchemistry.htm

http://redearslider.com/water_quality_issues.html