I started a planted community tank and for some reason I have what appears to be an oil slick on the the top of my water. Anyone know what it is and why? Thanks
Oil Slick on my water
- Thread starter TankBuster
- Start date
Most commonly that is a film of bacteria and protiens, you can get rid of a lot of it by just flating a paper towel on it for a couple minute but to keep it from comong back you need to get some surface agitation going, a small powerhead angled to break the surface should do it.
Thaks for the info but everyone tells me that in a planted tank you dont want top water motion because of the gas exchanges. Is this true ya think?
If you dont want too much surface agitation another way to prevent it is to add some form of surface skimming, usually an overflow box of some kind. This is dependant on your filtration method though.
In a planted tank you dont want to much surface agitation, but i cant see a small amount makiing a big difference especially if you are running some sort of CO2 system in the tank to replace what is lost
if your using a declorinater with aloe in it thats usally the cause of oil film and what guppy said also..
