Every couple of months we have the joy of cleaning out our turtle tanks. I say “tanks,” because they started biting each other a few years ago so I had to separate them. Now I have two of everything, so it’s double the work to clean the tanks. What a fun way to spend Friday night, right? P.S. If you’ve never seen my turtles before, check out the April 2010 archive.

Photo 1: I begin by scraping the algae off the basking ledges.
Photo 2: Next I get to clean out their water filters.
Photo 3: Last night we had a little accident. We had the water heaters laying on the floor with the power strip off, but someone (ahem, a turtle or cat) walked over the switch and turned it on. A few minutes later I smelled something burning and ran into the room to find the carpet burned all the way to the mat. Anyone know how to repair this? If not…there goes our deposit.
Photo 4: About 2 hours later, we finally finish filling the tanks. (And of course we have to thoroughly clean the bathroom.)