About Surface Skin Again

[coolie]

Sorry to bring this up again, but I haven't successfully removed the skin on my aquarium,
and I'm just wondering if I'm just looking at dust.

You can't see it from looking at the tank from front-on nor when looking down into the tank with the lid open. You have to kneel down,
put your cheeck up against the glass and look right up at the lights.

You also can't see it in the day time, only when the room is dark and the aquarium lights are on.

What I see is a patch in the down draft of the filter where the water is moving which looks completely clear, and then beyond that a dusty skin,
which seems to act like oil where it is disturbed by floating leaves.

 

[elmo666]

Try Accu-clear, or if your set-up allows, create a little more surface agitation. I have it myself and read the previous posts with interest. The accu-clear is definitely helping, and yeah I too think it is dust like particles. The additive coagulates these very fine particles together allowing the filter to take them out. I have also noticed it ppears worse shortly after feeding.

 

[MBOU]

Its a protein film pain in the butt, its harmless enough but does mean there is too much protein in the tank and is worth considering why.

You can generally get rid of it via a surface skimmer on an external filter or with surface agitation (from the filter or airstone) and if it gets really bad... you can apparently get rid of it with kitchen roll (though dont ask me, i just got into a right mess doing that!).

How much/how often are you feeding and are you feeding much in the way of frozen foods? And how often are you changing the water?

A great product is called PolyFilter, its generally sold for marines but works well in fresh or salt water and it absorbs excess proteins etc. Its really not cheap but you can get away with cutting it into little bits and using it bit at a time in the filter.

 

[coolie]

elmo666, this might sound like I'm being stubborn, or skint, or both, but I don't use chemicals unless absolutely necessary and I like to analyse
what anything is that goes into the tank, but I appreciate your suggestion.
MBOU, the thing is, in the other thread someone says the skin DOES affect the exchange of gases at the surface, which means it is harmful to trying to run
a planted tank without CO2. With the skin, my plants could be starved.
Now, when it comes to changing water, my priority has always been to take waste water from the gravel, or just a few mm below the gravel surface. Now I've noticed the skin, I'll switch for a few water changes from the surface, but it's more difficult with curious fish, and at the moment I've only removed 1 complete bucket from the surface to no avail.

 

[Tizer]

force your filter to ripple the surface more, sometimes helps or go buy a skimmer if you are that bothered

 

[MBOU]

Do you have an external filter? If so, fitting one of these will massively help!

http/www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=surface+skimmer+for+freshwater&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1084&bih=635&tbm=isch&tbnid=XW_6ghFu4UlWyM:&imgrefurl=http/www.thefind.com/pets/info-protein-skimmer-freshwater-aquarium&docid=gwC6iu0v4cw0aM&imgurl=http/i.tfcdn.com/img2/JfgxVjwAY9rMxsRQkFpSzJBRUlJgpa9fbJ5iqlecnJqXaq6XnJ-rn1msn5mbmJ6qHwBUFJqXWZKaoh9ibmRgYmEKAA**/fyVMtP8A&w=180&h=180&ei=mRR0UK2nMMbJ0QX4i4G4BA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=365&vpy=172&dur=122&hovh=144&hovw=144&tx=150&ty=64&sig=103349512573384008980&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:74

The pipe from the external filter fits to the crinkled pipe on the surface skimmer so that it not only sucks water in from the bottom but from the surface too. I never thought they would be all that worth the hassel of fitting it... but when you have big messy fish or anything that creates lots of surface protein... they are the best cure.

Yeah surface protein isnt great long term but its no emergency and fairly easily fixed, just change to flow of the water... or if your tank is that heavily planted, get a powerhead and angle it upwards to move the surface. Heavily planted tanks usually need extra powerheads as the plants themselves block the flow!

 

[coolie]

Has anyone had these oily surface problems after using very cheap King British flake which is like the cheapest flake money can buy>?

Also just to say I did remove a bit more last night, but it's suprisingly difficult to syphon the skin of water.

 

[Livewire88]

I have a film on the surface of my Arc tank, its a nightmare to keep in check because I am running pressurized Co2 through an inline diffuser so the spray bar is pointing down and not creating much surface agitation.

I have been using a plastic cup to remove the film daily, is becoming a bit of a pain and also my Rams are starting to gasp so I will have to work something out pronto.

ps; I did use a JBL novo tab recently and for a few days after the film was noticeably worse.

 

[raptorrex]

filter dependent, I'd fit a surface skimmer.
as MBOU linked.

you could try to skim the water with a fish net.
sounds odd, its true, but it works.