General Care Discussion :: is it bad if moss is...

[leopard167]

naturally growing in your turtle habitat? i have som flat rocks from outside that i made into a basking area for my turtles and theres moss growing on them and by the filter where the UVB light shines. is this a bad thing?
i cleaned it out completely and scrubbed the moss away a cpl days ago and its already back ?

[VeipaCray]

It's probably green algae growing at that rate and by the light source. Moss only grows on damp places out of the water. In either case both would occur in a turtles natural habitat. It's more of an eyesore and nuisance than a problem.

The algae needs light (which you are supplying) and a food source... could be excess food or phosphates in the water.

Excess food particles in the water column can feed the algae. Is your filter big enough for your tank? Has it been cleaned recently?

If you are using tap water then phosphates can be a problem. You can test your water for phosphates with a kit or take a sample of your water to a local fish store and have them test it for phosphates. Any decent fish store that sells salt water / reef stuff should be able to test for phosphates.

How to remove phosphates:
RO or distilled water is phosphate free, but too soft for turtles. You'd need to add something like Kent's RO right or Brightwell's Remineraliz to RO water. I use RO water + RO right for my turtle. His environment is phosphate & algae free.

You can add phosphate removing media to your filter. A little grannular ferric oxide or it's brand name Phosban in a media bag in your filter would help. This is available at most any fish / petstore.

[leopard167]

yeah i cleaned my tank and filter and it hasnt come back, well i cleaned it once a week but this time i actually took everything apart and outside and went a little crazy and scrubbed everything
thanks for breaking it down for me,
you can buy water like that? where do you buy the water for your turtles?

[steve]

Once you have some algae, it's hard to completely get rid of it. I do get a lot of it growing on the cork bark basking area... it looks nice and is not harmful.

For RO water, you'd need a kit installed. I don't think there is an easy way to distill water at home, so you'd have to buy that at a store. Tap water should be fine in most situations.

[marisa]

Don't use distilled water---it lacks minerals that your turtle needs. If there's algae growing on objects and the water is clear (not green), I'd just leave it.