Bubbles/film At Surface

[Ruthc1985]

Looking for a bit of help here please!

My tank is about 2 months old, and was an upgrade from a smaller tank. The last week or so I have noticed a film on the surface of my tank water, with bubbles forming at the edges next to the glass. I have turned my bubbles back on at the pump (I had had them turned off while I went away for a weekend) to try to disperse the film.

So what is causing it? And how do I combat it?

My tank is a 64 litre fish box 60, with 6 cardinal tetras, 6 ghost cat fish, and two ghost shrimp.
Ammonia is 0ppm
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is 20.

I do weekly water changes of approx 15%.

I have also noticed an increase in algae recently, particularly over my plants which and it is brown in colour....not sure if this is related!

 

[Ruthc1985]

Oh and feeding is done once a day, only enough for them to eat in a few minutes

 

[BerryAttack]

hmm well algae isn't really good. remove it from the tank. if you have live plants then do some trimming. fake plants take them out and scrub.
algae is probably from too much light.. but then again i'm not a huge expert on this because i never get algae in my tanks 0.o only that stuff that grows on the glass and you can scrub off.. soo its really nothing i get.

well the foam or film what ever you wanna call it is probably from the surface of the water being not disturbed.. have a bubblier in there and that'll help fix that. the bubbles on the side of the tank.. if you washed the tank with soap then that could be the left overs... but you probably didn't wash it with soap and it is from the water not being disturbed.



so you have like a 16 gallon tank..
for the ghost catfish.. way too small for that number.. they grow up to 4 inches.. each!
and the neons get to around an inch..
and the ghost shrimp.. i forget.. -.-


well anyways in my opinion your tank is over stocked.. i do mine by every adult fish 1 inch to one gallon. or 3.3 liters.. something like that. it helps keep the stress down and less maintenance to an over stocked tank.

so to amount of fish you have this is probably the amount of gallons you'll need for them. 32 gallons.. i did the adult size blah blah blah..

hope that helped

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Film and bubbles are usually caused by not enough surface agitation. Have you checked your filter lately?

As for the bubbles im not sure as i know in saltwater they are common for the first few days, but in freshwater i have no clue.


Hope this helps!

CFC

 

[Ruskull]

To remove the film from the top you can drag a clean paper towel across the top of the water. Other fishkeepers have recommended dragging newspaper but I don't trust the ink. It's fairly common actually & that trick works for me.

As for the bubbles at the edges of the glass, I have gotten this from time to time but I have no idea except that for some reason the bubbles are building up there & there isn't enough current to disperse them. Maybe try moving your filter's outlet a bit?

 

[Ruthc1985]

To remove the film from the top you can drag a clean paper towel across the top of the water. Other fishkeepers have recommended dragging newspaper but I don't trust the ink. It's fairly common actually & that trick works for me.

As for the bubbles at the edges of the glass, I have gotten this from time to time but I have no idea except that for some reason the bubbles are building up there & there isn't enough current to disperse them. Maybe try moving your filter's outlet a bit?

Ah yes, I think I heard of that tip before might need to invest in some more upmarket kitchen roll....tesco value has suddenly got shockingly bad!

To other replies - not sure I have too much light, tank gets around 6 hours a day on a timer, and the type of algae it is, well some people say its too much light, others say its too little light! It's kind of a browny green, comes off quite easily. I've been scrubbing the algae off the glass, and off the plants too with a soft tooth brush as this was recommended!

 

[Aquascaper]

I would say the large stocking in your tank is possibly contributing to the algae buildup, the filter in these tanks are not the best (require frequent impeller cleaning to run at max efficiency).

As for the film, this is organic compounds sitting at the surface, agitating the surface with the filter output or bubblestone will stop it forming.

The bubbles.....do they form mainly after water changes? If so, it's just the water releasing trapped o2 as it changes temp to match the tank water.

 

[Ruskull]

Are you planning to upgrade your tank size anytime soon? The Glass Catfish grow to 4 inches and they're fast swimmers that really need some length to "spread their fins out a bit." I was given (2) that are currently in a 20 gallon, but I'll be increasing their numbers & moving them to my 36 gallon very soon. The usual rule of thumb for Glass Cats is a 36 inch long tank, a minimum number of 8 and a very planted tank so they can feel secure.