Film on water

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HokieFish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2011
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Norf Cackalacky
I was doing a water change today and noticed that i had a large amout of film on the top of my water. I do twice a week changes (Sunday and Thursday) but missed Sundays because of being out of town. Water Params are good.
Should the film be cause for concern. I've seen a small amount of film in the past, but not as much as there was today. I skimmed it off.
Does anyone else deal with this, is there anything that can be done to prevent/control it? I'm running a Mag 350 with biowheels and two Hot Mags on the tank as well as a powerhead at the bottom of the tank for circulation.
Thanks for your help!
 
Many fish foods contain oils that cause film on the water surface. Film can also be caused by contaminants in the air (cooking smoke, aerosols, etc.). Film can be removed by turning off filters and laying a sheet of newspaper on the water surface. Lift up the newspaper and the film comes with it. May have to repeat a few times to remove it all. You can also get a surface skimmer that attaches to your filter intake, but it really isn't necessary.
 
I had actually looked at a surface skimmer as an intake.
Thanks for the info. I figured this was all it was, but wanted some reassurance. The trick with the newspaper sounds like a good idea.
 
film on the surface of the water typically is a sign your filtration isn't keeping up or your tank is cycling, unless you only fed them like 30 minutes prior to noticing. If you are getting bubbles that form in the film they you definitely don't have adequate filtration in the tank or your bio media has crashed and isn't keeping up with demand. When every I see film on a tank it means in my experience ammonia over 1 ppm for sure and potentially other issues. Easiest remedy is to add a seasoned filter to the tank. Beware a film can also slow oxygen absorption look for heavy breathing in your fish.

Edit saw you missed a water change, your tank should be able to go several water changes without film forming. Unless you fed prior to noticing this only reinforces my notion that you need more filtration. I've never known a skimmer to make a dramatic difference in a freshwater tank where the filter is not keeping up already
 
I am running two HOT Mags and one Mag 350. All are seasoned filters (when i noticed the film one of the HOT mags was off the tank because of a leaking return but is back in place now).
I do feed the Flower Horn several times per day, and i did feed him before doing the water change and noticing the film, but i don't believe this is the actual cause.
I'm looking at adding another Mag 350 to increase the filtration.
Thanks for the help.
 
just drop your water level down a bit to make the filters splash more upon tank return. this increased surface disruption should solve the film problem.
 
Hello; Film sounds like a typical result of little or no surface aggitation. Add a bubbler run with an air pump, this will break up the film and it will be picked up by the filters. If you for some reason do not want to add air bubblers, then try to adjust the flow from your filters to aggitate the surface as mentioned in an earlier post.
 
Not crazy about bubbles in my tank, but thanks for the suggestions.
 
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