# Red-eared slider tank constantly has white film



## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

I have two red eared sliders which don't appear to be in bad health. The six month old "touqey" has very bright coloured skin, and clearly visible whorls oh its shell still. The year-old "Lucy" has a surprisingly bright coloured shell with some whorls still perfectly visible. Her colouring is very bright for her age as well- the red hasn't faded at all, but the green is slightly darker and less detailed. She isn't shedding either. 

Neither of them have signs of shell rot, and I've only had one case where one flake came off of a scute, but after that she seemed fine and hasn't had a case of it since. 

I have an ExoTerra power filter with a carbon/charcoal cartridge in a 65 gallon tank. The coarse sponge inserts get changed every day. I have UVB lights and heat lamp on the mesh top, with basking rocks underneath them. I use big al's bio support/clean/water conditioner trio whenever I do a water change, and I RARELY feed them inside the tank. I feed them nutrafin floating turtle gammarus pellets out of a seperate dish while they bask, and fresh veggies when I let them roam the backyard on warm enough days. They also eat trapdoor snails every once in a while, the snails aren't store bought. They're home raised and healthy.

Their vitamin D intake is normal, they get plenty of light, and its cycled normally. The pH is 7.3 (which is excellent considering the murky film), undetected ammonia in the water (could be bad results from the strip test, theyre not very trusty and that's all I had on hand), the nitrites are 61.1ppm. The temperature is about 21 celcius (72 farenheit) so room temperature.

Is there something I'm missing here? I've bred turtles before, these are two of the offspring from the last year's eggs, and haven't had any problems before.  Any suggestions?


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## shark (Jan 28, 2009)

everything sounds good i like that you have both uvb and basking alot of people forsake that and just have basking its important for them grow proper bones and nutrition etc. As for the flakes you see on the scoutes its perfectly normal it means your turtle is shedding and growing its a good sign. As lucy gets older she will lose the bright green colour on her shell that she had when she was a baby and the red on her ear will become brighter.

I like that you carry your turtles outside on warm days they get more vitamins and nutrients from natural sunlight than they do from the basking and uvb. Is the white film you see on the glass above the water line? if so its normal. If the film is on the surface of the water it could be lack of water flow since you rarely feed them inside the tank it wont be excess food debris. Would love to see some pics of your turtles.


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

I will post them later tonight, my boyfriend has them on his phone so I have to wait to upload them. Thanks for helping, I was terrified she had shell rot. I noticed today that the white film in the water was gone. It formed like algae on the front rock and brick supporting a smaller basking area, you were right though! that one part of the tank wasn't getting enough water flow because it was directly infront of the filter output, so i lowered the water to about half until i get them a step-up basking area. They're getting too big for this tank already!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I get that thick white film a lot when my filter clogs up. Takes no time at all. I have one of those internal fluvals on its side so it's always pushing the upper parts of the water around. Seems to help.

With the spring you could always place some surface water plants in the tank. Keep in mind, my two guys eat them up in no time. LOL


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

It's the filtration, that's no where near enough for turtles as they are bio machines. When I had my 2 turtle tanks, I had 2 canisters on each tank, like big Eheim Pro 3 monster canisters just to keep the water clean.

Now I have the 2 turtles in a 120gal tank with a 20gal sump that pumps about 1000gph through the sump just to keep the water clean.

Turtles are messy. lol.


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

Thanks to everyone, its seems to be the consensus that my turtles will always be messy -_- It's fine with me, I have spare time in the day to clean around the edges, but thanks to everyone who helped!! I'm having trouble posting a picture, I know how to attach it finally, but my computer has been a little rascal ever since the power went out a few days ago. PICTURES TO COME AS SOON AS I BECOME MORE TECHNILOGICALLY INCLINED.. I think it's the low-end public mobile knock off blackberry to be quite honest.. rest assured.. they will be posted. I also just put some feeder goldfish in there that seem to be swimming along quite nicely with them.. surprisingly Lucy hasn't touched them-- she's already eaten a full grown platy, and a few danios-- with me feeding them to her of course.


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

I only started noticing it when they started basking more frequently, but they've definitely outgrown my filter for sure. The white film started recently, but after reading all of your responses I'm convinced I need another filter (or a more powerful one) and move my basking area from infront of the filter's output.. I realized it was getting caught underneath the basking rocks


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Next time get red rosy feeder minnows. Goldfish aren't the best for turtles as they contain thiamine (I think that's it) that not good for turtles. A few of them isn't bad, just next time get minnows instead for them. Plus goldfish can get big eventually.


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

I was debating between minnows and goldfish, we decided since our turtles were used to eating bigger fish that we should try the goldfish. I will move them to a goldfish community or maybe my pond. Thank you!


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

ONE MORE THING:

If ANYONE knows how to sync the pictures on a ZTE phone to your computer, I'd appreciate it if you try and walk me through this. The only pictures that sync to the computer are the ones from my first time hooking up the USB cord.


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## whytebred (May 10, 2012)

whytebred said:


> ONE MORE THING:
> 
> If ANYONE knows how to sync the pictures on a ZTE phone to your computer, I'd appreciate it if you try and walk me through this. The only pictures that sync to the computer are the ones from my first time hooking up the USB cord.


I'm only asking because I need to post a picture of Lucy!!


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

You might want to try getting some pond snails, if you don't already have them, and see if they like those. Mine sure did, when I had them, back in school. I had 3 RES, a Painted turtle and 2 Yellow Spotted Amazon side necks, which are now very endangered, thanks to the pet trade and no longer available. Just as well, considering how large they can get. Since the pond snails breed like mad, keeping a supply is easy. When I was no longer able to look after all my turtles, which really upset me at the time, I was lucky to find them a great home. They went to live with an architect who'd built his own office, with a huge indoor/outdoor pond. Had a big glass wall/door that came down in the winter to seal off the cold weather and he was over run by pond snails. So he was pleased to get my guys, who loved to eat them. At the time I was not aware they'd become vegetarian with age, but he had plenty of plants in there too. While I still had them, I used to put the turtles in my community tank while I cleaned theirs and they would eat every snail they could find. They were either too slow, or too small to catch my fish, or perhaps they just liked the snails better, but in any case they never bothered a fish. But eating snails, they sounded like someone eating thick potato chips ! They loved them and they provide some decent nutrition so long as they've been kept in reasonably clean water before they become turtle snacks. Sure took care of my snail problem !


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