Thanks for the intel MFF. He’ll polish off the entirety of the Val plants.
When he was younger we had a tank with a variety of plants (Val, moneywort, elodea, java fern, java moss, anubias on driftwood, hornwort). We were feeding him a higher amount of protein but a little too much, along with a small range of fruit and veg.
After getting some advice from ‘turtle guru’ Craig Latta, we reduced his protein and he started going ballistic on plants. All plants apart from hornwort (sometimes he’ll even shred just for fun) became fair game. No more planting.
Val and Elodea go in now, simply weighted down, plus hornwort, and watercress once a week or so. He gets turtle pudding 1-2 times a week, plus has a supply of shrimp and gudgeons which he’ll hunt when needed. He gets along well with the boesmanis and rainbow shark.
The Val is the favourite - its natural turtle food. I was scoring oodles of it for free from local rivers & creeks but even with proper treatment of aluminium potassium sulfate you get a snail outbreak due to some eggs surviving, so hassles get created.
Instead of another tank, I figured a reasonable sized tub would work, especially to produce alot and least amount of added extras. Interesting/good that you said no filter worked and thanks for the suggestion on fertilizer. Thoughts on a pump for circulation at least and reduce water changes?
Cheers, Adam