water film suggestions

[Kurt O. Reinhart]

Hi, So I’ve started one rubbermaid (ca. 24″*18″*8″ [l*d*h]) in preparation for 2 terrapin babies. I also started a small rubbermaid for breeding guppies and snails (no filter just lots of hornwort). I currently have guppies and snails in both tanks and thus fishfood in both. Only the turtle tank develops a skim of protein &/or oil (both freshwater). I’ve read that freshwater tanks shouldn’t have protein build-ups. When I remove the cork islands from the terrapin tank the skim is broken up by the waterflow and the water surface looks great. However, the turtles are going to need the basking areas. The basking areas take up enough of the water surface area that they create areas along the surface that are relatively stagnant. There was a thread about this on Turtletimes (Sept. 2002 http://www.turtletimes.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3173&SearchTerms=film,oil,protein) which suggested the skim is oil, and the oil can be soaked up with sheets of paper. I’ve attempted this and haven’t been too successful. I’ve raised the height of my sump which increases the flow of the pumped water into the tank and increases the surface disturbance. At some point there is going to be a trade-off between water flow rates and surface skim. I don’t want to increase the flow to an extent the terrapins become exhausted trying to swim. Here are two specific questions: Is this skim potentially dangerous to terrapins (babies, juveniles, adults)? I’m mostly worried about their skin/shell while basking with this film… Any idea why the one tank is accumulating the skim and the other isn’t? Differences between the two tanks: turtle tank guppy tank filter (wet/dry) no filtration cork no cork less hornwort lots of hornwort high evaporation low evaporation-tank mostly covered (I live in MT-very dry) greater volume of water small volume of water larger tank + sump water currents no currents divider no divider The tank divider is to keep the two terrapins apart to prevent nipping. The divider is made of plastic light diffuser (purchased at home depot). The diffuser has 1cm*1cm cells that allow relatively high water flow but are small enough to keep turtles from passing through. two pieces of PVC were vertically siliconed in the center of the tank about 3/4″ a part. The diffuser was cut to fit the width of the rubbermaid. Thus, the diffuser can slide into place between the PVC. 2 pvc 2 pvc

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