Oil film on surface and debris on bottom of sump?

[Regeneration]

There’s a thick film of oil or some kind of debris on the opposite end of the return pump of my 300G, and in the past week noticed some sort of debris or gunk settling on the bottom glass of the 75g sump, also just had a planaria boom out of nowhere, i feed cut shrimp once a day and 70% wc every week, tank is home to a silver arowana and 3 rays.

water params are good.

 

[LBDave]

Anything else? Do you do any water additives?

 

[esoxlucius]

The film is a protein layer, unsurprising since you feed shrimp everyday. A planaria outbreak is just a sign of overfeeding really. You'll always get a certain level of gunk at the very bottom of your sump, even with good mechanical filtration.

Simple answers to your questions really are, don't feed as much protein based foods, or if you have to, I have found you can syphon the top layer of protein film from your tank water if you carefully place the syphon tube so it's basically sucking air and water at same time (there's a real knack to mastering it but it's very effective). Don't feed as much to help with the planaria (they'll soon disappear). And syphon the gunk out of the bottom of your sump once in a while.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

The oily film is called biofilm. Its nothing to worry about. I get it every now and then in some of my tanks im feeding heavily. And the debris in the sump is nothing tp wprry about to. I have it in all of my sumps. I clean it out every three months when i clean my sumps.

 

[krichardson]

Agreed with all above and also what kind of filtration system are you running on that tank? A prefilter surface skimmer should cut down on the film as long as you stay on top of rinsing out the sponges.Your mechanical fiilter media could probably stand to be replaced as it could be broken down enough to where it is allowing a good amount of waste matter to make its way down to the sump.

 

[duanes]

I agree with Exolucius, proteins building up from too heavy feeding, and the planeria are an obvious symptom and result of overfeeding with meaty foods. The problem with excess proteins is they tend to degrade water quality very quickly, hinder gas exchange on the waters surface, and become a medium for pathogenic bacteria.
And as Krichardson said, a surface skimmer would help, with more than1 large scale water change per week, and where the surface water is removed, along with vacuuming.
You might be a candidate for a strong protein skimmer if you keep the same feeding routine up, below a video of one I built for a 500 gal pond. It removes the proteins from the water before they get a chance degrade.
The foam billowing out is excess proteins, free floating algae, and DOC being removed from the water, and falling on the ground..
koi pond fractionation