Water care and filterung
Whether large or small amounts of water - they become stale and unhealthy with an increasing germ count. Consequently drinking bowls need fresh water on a daily basis. As tap water often contains substances, such as heavy metals or chlorine, a special water conditioner, like JBL Biotopol T , will help you to make your tap water drinkable for your terrarium animals.
Unfortunately crawling food animals often drown in the drinking bowl, leading to a high organic load in the water. JBL has therefore integrated a "rescue ladder" for feeder animals in the JBL ReptilBar GREY drinking bowls.
The situation is very different for larger bathing bowls or water sections, as needed for turtles or large lizards. Here a separate water filtration is not only useful, but absolutely necessary. You have the choice between internal and external filters. With internal filters the entire filter (e.g. JBL CRISTALPROFI i100 greenline ) is situated inside the water container - only the power cable needs to be fed out of the terrarium. For external filters, (e.g. JBL CRISTALPROFI e402 greenline ) the filter container is outside the terrarium. However, a water inlet and an outlet hose need to be fed from the filter to the terrarium. The advantage is the better accessibility of the filter for cleaning. The disadvantages are the water-carrying hoses in the terrarium.
Specifying exact cleaning intervals is difficult because a lot of factors, such as filter size (not pump performance!), dirt accumulation etc., can influence the need to clean greatly. A rough guide is 2-4x weekly in internal filters and 8x in external filters. Since the filter materials inside break down pollutants biologically, an inoculation with a bacterial starter ( JBL FilterStart ) is advised. If it comes to unpleasant odours in the water sections of the terrarium, a special bacterial preparation ( JBL EasyTurtle ) can help.
