Film On The Surface Of The Water

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chiara

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Hi there,
I have a quite new tank (couple of months old). It has a capacity of 30 L and contains a total of 4 fish.
Recently a sort of oily film started to appear on the surface of the water, what is it? I do 30% water changes and I vacuum the gravel weekly.
What am I doing wrong?
The water is also a bit cloudy at the moment, could it be a bacteria bloom? Please help!
 
It could be a bacteria bloom, although film on top of the water is usually caused by protein from fish food. It's nothing to worry about, just cut back feeding a bit and increase surface agitation and it should clear up no probs.

Alternatively, if it is a bacteria bloom, it will clear up on its own also. :good:
 
Recently 'researched' this myself in response to a similar question in another thread:

Oily film on surface:-
Caused by:
Dust accumulation
Oil from oily skin on hands (accumulated from other areas of the body).
Certain kinds of dechlorinator.
Bacterial / other organic film.
Fish food.

Remove via
Kitchen roll
vac the surface
Increased surface agitation using an airstone, spray bar etc.

NOTE: in all instances, not one mention is made that an oily film is an indication of something bad going on. The film is oily, then it's atoms thick only on the surface. Use kitchen towel (aka Bounty) to remove it - lay it flat on the surface should work.

Regards,

Andy
 
wow ok I will try clean it with kitchen roll and adjust the water agitation on the surface thank you for the advice! I shouldn't be alrmed then as it doesn't harm fish isn't it?
 
All I can say is, that after a thourough search of this forum, I could find no link between the presence of an oily film on surface of the water being a danger to fish.

Andy
 
Do u have any filteration or aeration as this should stop this problem.

I've also found that if a fish die's and you dont know about it they can leach oils into the water as well.
 
Yes I have a filtration system it is an under gravel filter plate. And regarding the possibility of a dead fish not removed: this is possible as I had about a month ago 2 little shrimps in the acquarium (believed to be cherry shrimps but i am not too sure..) that one after the other disappeared! Never found the bodies and blamed the fighting fish, thought he might have ate them as I have found out on the forum that bettas do it sometimes (obviously I didn't know it when I purchased them hehe wasn't trying to give the betta a live snack!).
Anyway thinking about it, the film on the water has started roughly a month ago, which matches the period when the shrimps disappeared...
 
I'll put a tenner on them having jumped out of the tank. They can crawl quite far once out as well. I caught one IN MY KITCHEN, 7 meters away from the tank which is in my dining room. I looked at the floor & thought 'what the hell is that.....'. He is still alive today!

I have since learnt that they do this because they are very VERY sensitive to water conditions. I bet you'll find it somewhere! (Cats permitting etc).

Andy
 

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