Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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The neighbour has turtles and the relatively clear water seems to have a clear "OIL" floating on top..

there are micro bubbles trapped in the film, and if you blow on the surface, the slick will clear and then "flow" back

The only thing that might have changed is that the level had gone down and it was topped up from the tap.. BUT.. it was forgotten for a time, meaning that far more water was added and lost to overflow..
Fearing the worst from water treatments, water-ager was added to kill the likely excess of chlorine..



Any thought on need for concern or suggested action..

AND

My YABBIE is shedding her brood of offspring.. What do you feed them, prior to dumping into the ST..



PS - I just had an idea, and using a hose with fine "FLAT" spray, moved the film to one courner of the tank and using a bucket, it film cascaded into it and now all gone.. BUT - what was it..

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Whilst I thought that I had solved the issue of this film, by simply skimming it off, I notice that 24hrs later, it is building up again..

Can anyone think what it might be..?

(This is in the neighbour's turtle pond and they return from holidays thursday, and I would like to have identified the issue by then.. )
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Could it be from there food?

Anything is possible, because I am not doing the feeding.. another neighbour is doing that..

But I don't think they were fed in that 24hrs, as one is clearly hungry, as he came to me, whereas they normally hide.. (Stupid Animals - useless pets )
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Again - answering my own post.. as no one has made a suggestion...

I wonder if it is the old "Protein" that I went to so much trouble, skimming from the Marine Systems....?

The fact that the OUT-flow for the tanks is at the bottom, and the IN-flow is a constant bubbling cascade, I wonder if it is just the simple case of these bubbles are picking up "Protein" ..

I collected a few layers of the material and let it settle
The first layer kinda just dissolved after 48hrs, so I got some more:


So it's likely all a storm in a tea cup, and as my AP water is always moving so much, it never sees this effect, of the protein ??? gathering like an oily film..
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I had a similar stuff on my FT I thought is may be fish sperm? could it be something from the turtles.

The more that I think of it, the more I can convince myself that it is classic "Protein" film.. the tank is one big SKIMMER.. :-)

It is the same consistency as I had in the marine systems, MINUS the countless critters...

I suspect that it has more to do with the rising water temperature, whereas, the tank was started in the winter... and there was no obvious effect.. I had to change 400L of water because the nitrates were SOOooo high (Pumped it to MY BYAP to feed my plants - replaced with RainWater )

Unfortunately the owner has not got into AP, which I will have to convince them about..
All that nutrient going to waste..
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Couple of things:

Not sure if I've read it correctly, but be careful pumping turtle waste water into your AP, as turtles can, and usually do, carry salmonella. This can be taken up by many plants without killing the bug. i.e. you can get very sick eating lettuces and tomatoes fed with turtle waste.

The film looks like protein film and might be stress-related due to all the changes over that 24 hrs. Keep an eye on it for a few days. The water ager will hopefully help restore things sooner than later if everything else looks good.

Doing favours for people is always stressful isn't it

Indeed I did do that and I do NOW recall reading that "Problem"..

I can but hope that the salt that I added, might do some good there..

It comes under the heading "Seemed like a good idea at the time"

and that thought limits what I might suggest as an AP system for that setup.. I suppose that root vegies would be OK and the likes of LUTTUCE could suffer from splashing contamination.. Curious about Tomatoes.. surely the bug does not get in under the skin..?
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Supposedly tomatoes were one of the fruits that took up the bug into the fruits. Give it a google and see what you come up with. At the very least it would be a great way to grow greens to supplement the turtles' diets maybe?


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