Water Problem

[Alaine]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can help.

I set up my first ever aquarium last week, and added water dechlorinator to it last night. I have not added any starter fish yet, but I have noticed a scum substance on the surface of the water. It seems to be brown in colour, and I have no idea what it is.

Can someone tell me if I should get rid of it or not?

Thanks

Alaine

 

[ncjharris]

Hi, welcome.

Could be a number of things -
Brown Algea would be my initial guess, but probably not if there aren't any fish in the tank, so i would say perhaps an airborne pollutant that has gotten into the water.
IS you tank covered?

Could there be anything in the air that could affect your tanks, cigarrette smoke, paint vapours, cooking vapours etc?

Its probably nothing that a water change wouldn't cure.

While on that, ordinarily the water dechlorinator is added to the water before or while its going into the aquarium. If its left in there for a while, the chlorine will do its stuff and kill the bacteria you need.

HTH

 

[@ombomb]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can help.

I set up my first ever aquarium last week, and added water dechlorinator to it last night. I have not added any starter fish yet, but I have noticed a scum substance on the surface of the water. It seems to be brown in colour, and I have no idea what it is.

Can someone tell me if I should get rid of it or not?

Thanks

Alaine

How well did you clean the gravel / sand?

Sounds to me like muck from the substrate.

Are you adding a source of Amonia?

If not, I'd just empty all the water out, clean the gravel / sand properly and start a fishless cycle from scratch.

 

[Alaine]

Hi there,

thanks for your replies. I cleaned the gravel out thoroughly when I first set up the tank and my tank has a hood. None of us smoke.

I have just realised that I have put a some tannin wood into the tank, it makes me think it might be the tannin that is causing the brown colour, but will that contribute to the scum? Also, the scum only appeared after I added the dechlorinator.

I'll do a water change anyway

 

[rdd1952]

Some water is prone to developing a film on the top. Mine does that. I can run a bucket of straight tap water and leave it sitting for 48 hours and it will be completely filmed over. It's a clear film though so I don't know if that is your case or not. The brown color to the film could be related to the tannins as you said. Try running a bucket or plain water and letting it sit to ssee if it does the same thing.

 

[Alaine]

Thanks, I'll try that. It is just a clear film with some brown tinges. The brown tinges are accountable as I got told that's what would happen because of the tannins.

Thanks again