Film On Wtaer Surface

[Norwich keeper]

This is the first post I've put on this site so apologies if in wrong area or anything.

I've had my tank ( 4ft ) now for around 13yrs and have in the past couple of weeks noticed a strange film on the water surface.

Lots of tiny bubbles are trapped below it ( from Co2 being put in tank + from the plants ) and the only clearing is where the water is disturbed by filters.

I've never come across this before and just wondering what it is and if anyone has an explanation for it. The fish all seem OK. I've done some large water changes but this hasn't helped!!

Any ideas?? would be appreciated.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi and welcome to TFF.

The film on the surface of your water is a common problem and is usually caused by overfeeding or feeding oily protein filled foods.

I suggest that you increase surface agitation and cut down feeding slightly and the problem should clear up. If it persists, consider changing the fishfood for a different brand.

Hope this helps.

BTT

 

[Gremily]

The film on the surface of your water is a common problem and is usually caused by overfeeding or feeding oily protein filled foods.

I agree with this, the Aquarian flakes seemed to make my tank very oily.

 

[chr15_8]

Hi and welcome to TFF.

The film on the surface of your water is a common problem and is usually caused by overfeeding or feeding oily protein filled foods.

I suggest that you increase surface agitation and cut down feeding slightly and the problem should clear up. If it persists, consider changing the fishfood for a different brand.

Hope this helps.

BTT

the only problem with that is it will release the co2 form the water making it pointless injecting it in the first place

sorry not much help on the oily surface


chris

 

[Norwich keeper]

Thanks for replies.

I feed 1 block of frozen Bloodworm & 1 block of either Krill or Artemia every 3 days which I have been doing for as long as I can remember, which all gets eaten up ( Fire eel loves the Bloodworms! ). Don't think its overfeeding but not saying its not. Dont really want to feed less than that. I don't feed aquarium flake foods.

Maybe this will go in time on its own, just curious to what was / is causing it.

I'll let you know of any changes, mean time I'll try and get read of it. Looking at it now the whole surface is full of tiny bubbles as the plants are bubbling away!!

Thanks.

 

[backtotropical]

Another short-term solution is to lay tissue paper on the surface of the water, then remove it. Most of the oily substance will stick to the tissue.

 

[Norwich keeper]

Hi and welcome to TFF.

The film on the surface of your water is a common problem and is usually caused by overfeeding or feeding oily protein filled foods.

I suggest that you increase surface agitation and cut down feeding slightly and the problem should clear up. If it persists, consider changing the fishfood for a different brand.

Hope this helps.

BTT

the only problem with that is it will release the co2 form the water making it pointless injecting it in the first place

sorry not much help on the oily surface


chris

The Co2 that I'm putting in the tank gets fairly well distributed. I have put the tube going into the tank into the outlet of an internal filter. It gets blasted out into tiny bubbles and not just up to the surface.

Hope this little tip helps anyone else putting Co2 into their tank.

Thanks

 

[chr15_8]

all i was saying is that you dont want to adjust spraybar/output of the filter

as surface agitation will drive of co2 from the water.


chris

 

[eschaton]

I've been having this problem in my tank lately as well. I've noticed recently that all the baby Malaysian Trumpet Snails, along with scattered other snails, like to float on the surface of the water and eat the stuff. In addition, I have some sort of "jumping pods" which stay on the water's surface, occasionally climbing up onto the one emergent bit of bogwood. I think they're probably a form of springtail. I'm hoping this "biological" control helps to cut down somewhat. I'm also thinking the scum is probably good for any fry in the tank, along with the pods giving live food to the surface-dwelling killies and rainbows.

The bad part is this cuts down on oxygen absorption. However, this isn't too awful given in a planted tank there is a lot of oxygen being generated during the day. If it doesn't cover the vast majority of your water surface, I'm not sure it's a critical issue.