Habitat - Indoor :: What the heck?

Turtle tank setups and other indoor configurations.

Post Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 9:31 pm   What the heck?

I've got a new 75 gal tank. I've had it about two weeks or so. I've had my RES's in a 30 gal for a number of months with no issues, but I've made some changes to their habitat since upsizing their tank, with many more planned. So far, I've learned about tannins and have already done a complete clean, boiled my Malaysian wood and replaced it back in the tank with much better results. I've added some rocks after doing research to determine their safety, and have dealt with cloudiness. I treated the water, and did a 25% water change yesterday, and other than a slight tannin color things were looking good. Then today, some weird whit cloudy floated, along with some little white dots that move when I agitate the water around it appeared. Keeping in mind that I did a 100% clean last week, have treated for chlorine and added a water conditioner, should I be seeing algae already? Now here's the really weird part. It's on one side of a rock, but not the other. See pics below. I'm getting a canister filter Thursday, so hopefully that will help. Right now I have a 50 gal underwater filter and a 30 gal filter that came with my original tank. Is all this weirdness just a result of being a new tank, or being under filtered, or is it actually something to worry about?
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Lori Kelso
 
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 3:20 am   Re: What the heck?

Could it be leftover food crumbs? That would be my initial thought. Even the best filter out there won't grab everything that might be in the tank.
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steve
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 6:05 pm   Re: What the heck?

The weird white stuff just sort of disappeared on it's own, so maybe it was food crumbs, but none of their food was actually white. I did some more research into the algae and realized it's pretty normal and while I did a clean and removed everything and gave it a scrub, I did leave one rock in particular completely alone, just to help establish the tank. While it's coming back in places, it's not nearly as quickly as it appeared before. I really like the tank lit up. I mean really lit up. I'm using an LED bar, of course the basking and UVB lamp, and also the (I'm guessing here) florescent light that came with the tank.

What I didn't realize was that the amount of time I was leaving the lights on during the day was A) mean to my turtles and B) more likely to increase the algae. I've since cut back on the amount of time I'm using the tank lights full blast. I use the blue LED's in the morning for about an hour by themselves, starting at 9 am, before the white lights come on at 10 am, and again in the evening for an hour after the other timer cuts out the white lighting, basking lamps, etc. I'm sort of hoping that it's like daylight and dusk for my little guys and girl.

We shall see if that continues to affect the algae control. So far, it's pretty good, and realizing that algae is actually helping the tank establish a healthy atmosphere makes it much less concerning to look at.

Thanks so much to all who have taken so much time to write up care instructions, especially the stickies. When I'm looking for an answer to something, I'll admit that I've often failed to read all the important information someone has painstakingly written up and dedicated to helping us newbies out. I'll do better, I hope.
Lori Kelso
 
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:36 pm   Re: What the heck?

Lori,
If you want crystal clear water get an underwater UV sterilizer. It will take care of algae and bacterial blooms. In addition, it kills free floating pathogens. A decent model is a Sun Sun CUP 613. I have been using one for two years and it is great.
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