General Care Discussion :: "Soapy" scum on water surface

[Allusion5275]

Hiya folks,
I moved my turtles back into their 75 gallon tank and I keep having a problem of a soapy scum forming on the top of the water. It is fairly viscous and sticks to itself almost like slime. I am running a Fluval 405 filter and a fluval 4+ under the water, neither one seems to work. This stuff forms within a day or two and is bad enough at the end of the week I have to do a complete water change.


This seems a bit extreme for two small turtles in a 75 gallon tank. Anyone have any ideas on what it is and how to stop it? I saw the one similar post but mine does not seem to be caused by food, I feed mine in a different tank so they don't get food in their water in this one.


Thanks!

[Pokey's Grandpa]

Well how big are the "small" turtles? After all, just about any turtle can be classified as small compared to other animals, other turtles or even others of it's own species.

Look at this:



Note near the largest turtle's head is the smallest hatchling barely visible.

So first of all you must determine the size of the two turtles. They need a certain amount of water per inch and you will need to multiply that by 2 since there are 2 turtles. The formula I do not remember but it is around here somewhere and surely a member who knows it will tell you soon.

If they don't have an adequate water to turtle length ratio, this may be contributing to the problem.

As for the foamy/soapy substance, perhaps it's left from the last tank cleaning?

Or if not, what did you do, if anything, differently than the last time you cleaned the tank?

Sorry this is not much help at all, but I am new to this too and just trying to absorb alot of info as fast as I can.

Good luck!

[Allusion5275]

One of my turtles is about silver dollar size and the other about half dollar size...so they have plenty of water.


I am certain it is nothing from the cleaning. The scum doesn't appear right away and it appears even when I drain all the water from the tank.

[missibsu]

What kinds of products are you adding to the water? Water conditioners etc? Sometimes if too much gets added it can leave bubbles in the tank.

[marisa]

Did you rinse the media well before putting it in the filters? Are you using any other products (Turtle Clean, Biotize, for example)?

[CountryGirl68]

You might have to rinse out everything in the tank and the tank itself. As Marisa said, rinse out all the media from the filter. The tank and any decorations you may have as well as the basking area may need to be rinsed thoroughly in hot water.

[jridge]

I have the same issues......I have a white film on the water......I've tried cleaning the tank and everything else......I THINK it comes from the cuttlebone I drop in there once in a while.......It certainly doesn't seem to bother Sam, and when it gets what I consider to be BAD, I do a complete water change.......I'm going to try adding an airstone to see if that might help.....

[marisa]

I've found that some cuttlebone tends to leave a film on the top of the water, others don't. The film isn't the same as the bubbles that were initially described. For the film try agitating the surface of the water more. (You can angle the output of the filter to do this.)

[Allusion5275]

Pretty sure I have solved the problem. The film seems to have been algae and Algae Fix has taken care of it.


Luke