I have a heavily planted 90g that I dose with pressurized CO2 and the full flourish line and I have what looks like an oil slick at the surface of my tank. The fish and plants seem really healthy, but the oil spill motif is still bothering me. Any ideas?
Film at top of tank
- Thread starter mhathy77
- Start date
That's pretty normal with a heavily planted tank. What stock do you have and what are you feeding? Sometimes you can actually get an oily film on the surface of tank water if you're feeding a large predatory fish something like tilapia filet. But in a planted setting it's usually just a build up of nutrients and stuff.
Are you running anything the breaks the surface of the water? Since you have co2 you obviously don't want to do that much during the day, but do you run an airstone or anything at night?
Are you running anything the breaks the surface of the water? Since you have co2 you obviously don't want to do that much during the day, but do you run an airstone or anything at night?
I have 7 assorted rainbows, 6 roselines, 8 rasboras, 1 clown and 1 bristlenose pleco. I feed nls small fish food and blood worms. I have one power head running the CO2 into a diffuser column and a fluval 405 output way below water level. Like I said the tank looks good and the fish seem happy, so I just want to make sure that this is normal.
My suggestion would be to run a powerful airstone or sponge filter on a timer at night. The bubbles will break the surface of the water and should eliminate the problem. Also, you should keep clown loaches in groups of 6+ as they're very social.
Edit: oh, you probably meant clown pleco. My bad.
Edit: oh, you probably meant clown pleco. My bad.
Get a surface skimmer
Some hobbyist might disagree since the "mini sump" in the skimmer would cause some CO2 loss, But i think its ridiculous since its like a very small agitation to the water. Furthermore, most of the models have a knob or something like that to control the amount of surface water skimmed. Turn it full blast, and when the film is skimmed, reduce it. Reducing the film on top means that more light would be able to reach your plants, a good thing
Some hobbyist might disagree since the "mini sump" in the skimmer would cause some CO2 loss, But i think its ridiculous since its like a very small agitation to the water. Furthermore, most of the models have a knob or something like that to control the amount of surface water skimmed. Turn it full blast, and when the film is skimmed, reduce it. Reducing the film on top means that more light would be able to reach your plants, a good thing
aclockworkorange;4977365; said:I think an airstone is a lot easier... But that's just me.
THAT
or From time to time change the direction of your spraybar.
I have my spraybar BARELY touching the surface, so there are very tiny ripples at the top of my water. BUT from time to time I change it to break up that film.
Most tanks get it from time to time. Most foods we feed contain oils from the fish in them, and it ends up on the surface of the water. I just siphon it out every week by holding the siphon upside down and letting the water run down the siphon. Takes a couple of minutes to clean it all up.