Co2 And Oily Film

[dingweding]

I know when a new tank cycling, it is very easy to get a slim oily film on the water surface. some said it is kinda extra protein etc, once the tank mature, it will gone.

I am using CO2 for my planted tank, i notice this film never disappear, even after 6 weeks. It normally appears the following day of water change, and become more and more terrible.

However, i noticed, if i stop the CO2, it will immeidately disappear.

so wot is it? is it normal for planted tank, what should i do?

many thanks!

 

[fatheadminnow]

I know when a new tank cycling, it is very easy to get a slim oily film on the water surface. some said it is kinda extra protein etc, once the tank mature, it will gone.

I am using CO2 for my planted tank, i notice this film never disappear, even after 6 weeks. It normally appears the following day of water change, and become more and more terrible.

However, i noticed, if i stop the CO2, it will immeidately disappear.

so wot is it? is it normal for planted tank, what should i do?

many thanks!

Do you have any kind of cement(glue) holding any parts of your Co2 lines together.

I dont know if this is possible, but it could be that some of that cement is getting carried away through your Co2 lines and into your tank?

-FHM

 

[kcharley]

DW,

I am noticing the same thing with the CO2 I added two weeks ago. I don't know exactly what it is but I found on another website, barrreport.com, reports of the same thing. My research is incomplete but there appear to be two recommendations. One is to add an airstone that comes on when the lights and CO2 go off. The second is to position the water return so that a slight surface ripple is created. I tried the second approach and it seemed to help but didn't eliminate the problem. I'm going to try the airstone approach as I repositioned my reactor and water return losing my surface ripple in the process. There was a third approach but I'm trying to avoid it as it labor intensive. Basically papertowels were laid on the surface and quickly removed to pick up the film. Sorry I'm not more help but maybe this helps you some.

Greg

 

[SuperColey1]

Plants are the same as fish. They produce waste. when you add CO2 they use more food (nutrients) and produce more waste (carbohydrate)

You are linking the film to CO2 which indirectly it is a result of.


It is actually a combination of wastes in the tank and the CO2 injection speeding up the plant's growth means they produce more wastes.

Therefore a little surface turbulence breaks the film up and you don't see it. This is the ide behind the airstones.

When plants are completely healthy then there is less of this waste because when there are even the slightest problems in the tank the plants will also 'leech' some waste

AC

 

[kcharley]

Hi Andy and thank you for clarifying why the film develops.

So as I get my CO2 level and dosing sorted out, the film will decrease, right? The film does appear less this week than it did last week.

PS. I did as you suggested and stripped the tank, added substrate (I chose ADA AS) and pressurized CO2 with macro and micro dosing with heavier planting. Plants are doing much better, my sword and my c. lucens have double in size, the jave fern is sprouting new leaves, the rotala is heading for the water surface and when I run out of other tanks to move the excess water sprite, I'll have to eat the excess. The c. wendtii melted but is sprouting new leaves. The c. balansae mostly melted but I think it may be about to start growing. Thanks for the guidance.

Greg

 

[SuperColey1]

It will decrease but more than likely not go away. A little surface disturbance at night (or 24 hours like me) does the job.

AC