Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My the tank with my RES, it looks like the rocks are turning green! and slimy!
WHAT CAN BE WRONG???
Please help!

it is just algae. This will not hurt your turtle but does
make a mess of things.

Linda

ok, so I dont do anything..
It just started, I have had them about 2 months and everything was ok until the past week..

well i wouldnt say "not do anything" because the more algea grows the harder it is too clean up and it just gets out of hand. what i recomend is to take everything out of the tank and scrub it good then replace the water. the more water changes you do the less chance of algea.

ok, thank you
once I clean and re-fill the tank, is there anything that I can do prevent this from happening??

this will help but it will still happen. The lighting is
the culprit. How many hours/day do you have it on and what
size tank do you have?

Do not use any products for algae. They can be toxic
to your turtles.

Linda

Ok, I have a uvb/a florescent tube light, and also the clip light for basking, the are hatchtlings and currently in a 10 gallon tank.
The lights are on from about 7am-10pm.
Any advice welcomed
: )

You can cut back on your lighting. Have them on for 10-12
hours/day. Follow the natural day/night cycles. I have mine
on from about 7am to 7pm. This will help with the algae
also.

Hope this helps
Linda

I had a slight algae problem too 3 months after I got my tank. At first I scrubbed my tank and everything in the tank with water and removed most of the algae. Within a week, the algae returned. You can imagine how frustrated I felt. Then I tried scrubbing the tank with distilled vinegar (the cheapest one I could find in the supermarket) and soaking stuff in it as well. I didn't realize it at first, but it simply worked wonders. There was a narrow slot in my basking platform that I couldn't clean very well, and even after extensive soaking in vinegar the green still remained. But the next day, the platform is completely free of algae. The vinegar must have killed it off completely. It's been 3 weeks since, and I haven't seen any algae in my tank. Scrubbing your stuff with vinegar has the added advantage of removing water stain and slime. Therefore killing multiple birds with one stone. Just remember to rinse off the vinegar thoroughly at the end.

Look on the bright side...as someone on this forum told me, having algae growing in the tank means that you're doing something right to the tank! Hope this helps.

Thank you!
Tonight, Vinegar bath for the tank!
And doing something right, well, that is encouraging at least. My husband wanted to know everything was green, I didnt know what to say...lol

If you have your tank in front of a window, it (the light) will also encourage algae growth. You could also cut down the amount of time your lights are on a bit (14 hours max.). BTW, I swear by the use of vinegar and use a vinegar solution (rinsing well) whenever I clean my turtles tank. It`s great stuff and is totally safe for turtles. I`ve never had an algae problem.

There is no need to worry about it growing on the surfaces in the tank. It is feeding off the nitrates in the water and coupled with your light it will grow. I will clean it off of the glass but aside from that I leave it alone.