General Care Discussion :: film on the water

[kiwigerman]

Lately I've noticed a white oily looking film on top of the water in Georges tank. Does anyone else have this? Its not solid or anything, its just a very fine film of stuff that you only really see on certain angles.

[DavidY]

There's been a few posts recently by others who have had similar problems. Most likely it's an oil or protein slick. usually caused by overfeeding and leftover/uneaten food. You should raise the output from your filter so that it splashes the surface of the water. That turbulence will prevent any buildup on the surface and allow the filter to remove them from the water instead. But while you have that scum conveniently settled on the surface, why not scoop it all out with a cup? You can also take a dry paper towel and gently dab the water surface to pull the scum onto it. You'll be removing a lot of waste from the water that would otherwise be turned to nitrates by your filter.

It's important to not allow this kind of buildup to continue since it prevents proper gas exchange between the water and the air. You want the water to be well oxygenated since the beneficial bacteria require lots of oxygen in the water in order to convert the ammonia and nitrites over to the less harmfull nitrates.

[kiwigerman]

Thanks david. We actually feed in a separate tank, and have a air bubble maker thing too. We have a huge filter going 24/7. I think I'll try scooping it out though.

[DavidY]

hmmm, could there be something generating dust or possibly someone spraying something near the tank? Also does your filter cause turbulence on the water's surface?

[luv4sun]

I have the same thing. if i get donw low and look up at the water, i can see this thin, oily looking stuff at the top of the water. i just noticed it and it might be because of my filter-i've been turning it off at night time for the last night or two because the water has gotten low and i havn't had time to put more in, so it makes a lot of noise and keeps me up. i don't feed in a feding tank, so it might be the food for me, i put them on this new food that is kinda oily. you siad hat you had a feeding tank; im thinking about getting one to feed my turtles in. do you have any likes or dislikes about it? also, how do your trutles react to being handled so much?

[kiwigerman]

I have the same thing. if i get donw low and look up at the water, i can see this thin, oily looking stuff at the top of the water. i just noticed it and it might be because of my filter-i've been turning it off at night time for the last night or two because the water has gotten low and i havn't had time to put more in, so it makes a lot of noise and keeps me up. i don't feed in a feding tank, so it might be the food for me, i put them on this new food that is kinda oily. you siad hat you had a feeding tank; im thinking about getting one to feed my turtles in. do you have any likes or dislikes about it? also, how do your trutles react to being handled so much?

At first George hated it. He didn't eat for 3 days. But once he realised that he was only going to get fed in the feeder tank he was fine. Now, after 3 weeks or so, he doesn't even try to hide when I go to get him out of his tank! I think it was the best change I made. Now I think he recognises us as his feeders.

[Hoooneylynn]

I set up a temp tank for karlyn when I was moving... After I moved her into her tank at my new place, I left the old tank for a week and a half. It developed a nasty film on the top .. it sounds like what you are describing.... hmmm

[steve]

How often are you doing water changes?

[kiwigerman]

How often are you doing water changes?

every 2 weeks we change all the water, every month we clean entire tank and filter. I've had the air-stone bubble thingy on all day today (only usually have it on for an hour or 2 per day) and the film appears to have gone. maybe the surface just needed agitating?

[industrial_girl_2000]

How often are you doing water changes?

every 2 weeks we change all the water, every month we clean entire tank and filter. I've had the air-stone bubble thingy on all day today (only usually have it on for an hour or 2 per day) and the film appears to have gone. maybe the surface just needed agitating?

It sounds like you have good water quality if you are doing that many water/filter changes so I wouldn't worry. I notice the oily surface on my tank as well, especially the day after I give Sheba a protein/meaty treat (they poop it out & it is a bit oily sometimes).

[DavidY]

Yea, surface agitation will break up the surface tension of the water causing whatever particles that had built up on the surface to sink into the water. The filter should remove most of it.

Usually if you let water sit stagnate for a few days, you will begin to see a film develop on the surface. This is caused by the surface tension formed between the interface of water and air, formed by the bonding properties of the hydrogen in water molecules. This is where tiny organic materials and even micro-organisms (like bacteria) will accumulate. How often do you dust your furniture? I know in my house you can see a film of dust reaccumulate after a week. I suspect that's mostly what we see on the surface of a bucket of water after it's been sitting still for several days. However, in your turtle's tank, there's more than just dust that's accumulating.

That's how the protein skimmers that were previously mentioned operate. They force millions of almost microscopic air bubbles through a column of swirling water. Each air bubble is like a tiny ball of fly paper, catching any proteinaceous waste particles in the water column. As the bubble reaches the top of the column, it is pushed up into a narrower neck at the top of the column. This causes the bubbles to merge together into larger bubbles complete with all of the crud that they were able to catch on the way up. These larger bubbles rise up to the top of the neck which opens vertically into a collection cup. As the bubble is pushed up by the smaller bubbles underneath, it expands and eventually pops, spraying all the crud into the collection cup.

This works great in saltwater because the surface tension of saltwater is greather than that of freshwater. A protein skimmer will still work in freshwater but it will probably produce a wetter skimmate in the collection cup resulting in an increased need to add fresh water to the tank to make up for the water that is pulled out.

Hmmm, kind of like a continuous water change...I kind of like that idea! I could take one of my old protein skimmers and hook it up to the turtle's tank. Then I could place a tub full of fresh water and hook it up to a float valve in the turtle's tank so as the level drops, fresh water is automatically added. This is what I do for my saltwater system to replace evaporated water (otherwise the saltwater would just keep getting "saltier" as the H2O evaporated. Well, I recently began modifying my old protein skimmer to turn it into a reverse flow phosphate reactor (to remove phosphates from the water) for the saltwater system. Maybe I'll put it back to its original configuration to try this expirement.

I'll post a new thread if/when i get this expirement started and let you know the results.