General Care Discussion :: brown tar like substance

[emurf]

I was away for the weekend and when I came back the sides and bottom of my tank was covered in a brown tar like substance. I rubed it off with a cloth but I'm worried.

[scripta_elegans]

Can you describe this substance a bit more? was it a liquid layer at the bottom of the tank? Or was it coating the sides and bottom until you wiped it off? Algae can be brown and sticky, but I am not sure I would call it tar like.

[emurf]

it coated the sides and the bottom it was oiley

[marisa]

It sounds like some type of algae.

What's your turtle's set-up like? Where is it? What kind of filtration is used in the tank?

[imderanged]

When I was in the hospital, My husband and father took care of my turtle, but they didn't know how it clean the tank. Then the turtle knocked the intake off the wall of the tank and somehow broke the suction cups. I got a paniced phone call from my father while I was lying in my hospital bed telling me "the filter fell in the tank". They never added water let alone changed the water. I came home to an 1 1/2 of the grossest water I had ever seen! I felt so bad for the little guy. Between the build up of wastes in the water and the fact that for alteast a week my father left the room lights on for 24 hours a day the algae had taken over. It was dark green/brown slime on everything. I had to break down the whole tank and clean everything the day after I came home. Your filter may not be powerful enough, or it might just be time to change the media if this occured in a week. I also find that making sure the light is focused on the basking area not into the water helps reduce algae. There are mixed feeling on plecos with turtles, but I got a few and that seems to help too.