Surface haze with Ken's food?

[DaveB]

I ordered a whole bunch of Ken's fish food about a week ago and the fish love it so far. I love it too, due to the amount, price, and speed with which it arrived.

But I'm noticing a white-ish haze at the top of the water now that wasn't there before. In the african cichlid tank that gets only the veggie sticks and flake there's even some tiny white particles that don't sink at all even with tons of surface agitation. (The water below the surface is still crystal clear.) This seems to irritate some of the fish a bit.

I can't think of any reason why this might happen, and I know it's good food - otherwise it wouldn't be so highly recommended - but it definitely didn't start until I switched foods.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas why or how to stop it? Do I need to get a protein skimmer or something now?

 

[Cohazard]

The food must be very high in protein, especially fish protein which may also contribute oils to the food.

I feed tilapia fillets and massivore, so this surface haze was a big problem for me, blocking the light for my plants, and looks nasty.

What I did is bought a surface skimmer from Jebo aquarium and hooked it up to one of my canisters. You can think of it as a protein skimmer for freshwater tanks.

It keeps the surface crystal clear, and if you adjust it correctly, can also act as an aerator by drawing in just the right ammount of air into your filter which gets diffused by the impeller.

HTH