My Turtles water keeps foaming

Question
I have a 3 year old painter turtle. he's the size of the palm of my hand. i got him right out of his shell pretty much at a local pet shop. He has a set up of Half wood chips and fake logs and half water. He has 2 filtration systems. One is an underwater bubbler and one is a waterfall type deal. I am not very knowledgeable on their exact names for I no longer have the box they came in. Recently I cleaned his tank like i have done every 3 months since Ive had him. After I cleaned his tank I turned on his heat lamp to warm him and the water back up, however I had forgotten i left it on and went to work. I came home and immediately turned off his lamp and cleaned his tank again for it had become very stinky in a short amount of time. After about a week I noticed the top of his water is foamy. So i cleaned it again, thought it must of had to do with the heat lamp incident. My turtle is still in full health and eating and pooping just fine. However the foam keeps returning and it scares me cuz I love my turtle named Turd. Please give me some suggestions on how i may get rid of the evil white foam.

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

You didn't give me any specifics on your tank, but the likelihood is that the tank is too small and the filter is inadequate.  The other issue may be the amount of land area and what you're using for substrate (wood chips).  Turtles need large tanks and really excellent filtration (a bubbler isn't a filter, BTW).  An adult painted turtle needs about a 75 gallon tank with an external canister rated for larger than the tank capacity.  This is vitally important for the health of your turtle.  Since your turtle is 3 years old, it would be best to upgrade him to an adult size tank now.  You don't really need a land area as long as you're providing a fairly large basking area/platform.  Aquatic turtles don't spend much time on land other than to bask.  

You should also make sure that your basking temperatures are correct, and that you're providing a good source of UVB.  The best way for me to help you is to link some information on general care, housing, and water quality.  Read them over carefully and if you have any more questions, please post back.

http://chelonia.org/Articles/chrysemyscare.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-eastern_painted.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/waterquality.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/housing.htm