General Care Discussion :: Water Deposite on Shell bad ?

[jn]

I was wondering if water deposits that soaks thru the shell is bad and it leaves kind of a white stain to it ? because my turtle rasco has that hhe is like 1.3 inches

[marisa]

Do you mean mineral deposits on the shell from hard water? They aren't harmful but don't look nice. The minerals remain on the outer layer of the shell and don't sink through. They'll come off when your turtle sheds, but the new layer of scutes will also develop mineral stains in time.

Does the white residue come off if you rub at it gently? Softening the water would lessen the mineral residue on your turtle.

[cam722]

My turtles have the same thing and I've had them for nearly 2 yrs now and they've never been sick at all. It just doesn't look the best but it doesn't harm their health.

marisa, how do you soften the water?

[marisa]

I think this was in a thread somewhere---using peat moss, commercially available water softening pillows (I think you can get them for different size tanks, they go by number of gallons), a water softener (but this takes out calcium and manganese ions, which your turtle uses), mixing tap water with water that's gone through reverse osmosis.

I don't have this to contend with, so I don't know, but, can the deposits be removed with a little diluted vinegar and some gentle rubbing? At any rate, like you said, it doesn't harm their health. I recently read that harder water is even better for turtles.