Strange film on water surface.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

SteveR

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2008
1,359
10
38
Scotland
As title. It's always there, goes away after a 50percent water change, but its always back by the next day. Looks sort of like dust, but the tank lid is on so impossible. I guess it is just decaying matter, I know I cannot get rid of it and I don't want my bubble wall running as it is broken right now anyway.

Worried it could be a problem. Will that limit o2 through it?
Fx5 breaks the surface at the left of the tank, and the film isn't there.

Probably not related but my plec has a weird white/grayish patch over the top of its head. (quite large area.) It was going a bit "weird" today - like coming out in daylight for a start and like eratically hitting off of the tank walls and gravel like it had an itch or was mentally insane!

Extremely confused here. All water parameters 0 and nitrate is 20ppm
 
it can very definitely interrupt O2 exchange depending on what it is and how thick it is. It sounds like decaying material that has formed an organic film on the surface. This is what protein skimmers remove in salt water tanks. Sounds to me like you have dirty water. As for the patch on the pleco, he might have a bacterial infection. More information is needed. His behavior might also be result of poor water quality. At the moment, you can remove the film simply by putting newspaper on the water's surface and allowing it to suck up the film. In the long run, regular water changes and keeping the tank free of food/poop is the key.

All of this is, of course, if your film is indeed caused by dirty water. Hope I helped :)
 
How much water movement is the tank getting? I notice a film on one of empty tanks that the water had become stagnant.
 
I've seen this "film" on the surface of my 90. I have a Emperor 400 filter running with no fish in the tank. I think it has something to do with bacteria? :confused:
 
I had the same problem as well. What I found out is that the oil came from food that I was feeding my fish, silversides. After I stopped feeding that to my fishes, that film wasn't as thick(concentrated). So what are you feeding them? But before I stopped feeding the fish this food, I did the following:

One solution is to put paper towel on the surface and discard the towel.
Or (if you weren't doing this already) when you are doing your WC, try pointing the siphone at the surface. The siphoning method worked for several days. The siphoning method is a lot better IMO. Lastly, I got tired of manually removing the film, so I did a diy surface skimmer. (I just took a HOB filter and melted the platic of the intake until I bent it into a U shape) I really don't recommend this method unless you have a spare intake tube, money to buy a new one,, skilled at melting plastic and bending it, or if the plastic your HOB filter is made out of is impossible to melt with a lighter.
 
It could be floating fat from a greasy food.

I have springtails in my 55. They look like dust. Watch a speck and see if it jumps...
 
Gets plenty of water movement, film is over about half of the tank the fx5 outlet breaks it up at the other side. I doubt it's food - and it if is, nothing I can do about it. I feed a variety of stuff, high quality flake, cat pellets, algae wafers for plec, courgette, sweet potatoe lettuce etc etc and the water is is regularly changed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom