Foam Bubbles On Surface

[Adri]

Hi,

I've recently done a fishless cycle with ammonia. It took me two weeks to get the parameters down to zero. I added my fish in exactly a week ago and almost immediately noticed small white bubbles on the surface. I don;t think it was the ammonia that I added (I did the shake test - no bubbles appeared). Also, there were no bubbles at all throughout the whole 2 weeks of the fishless cycle - they only started appearing after I added the fish. I've got a common plec, 6 tiger barbs and 3 albino cory's. The tank has live plants, a piece of hard-wood and a few rocks (I checked to make sure they're ok). I tested my water parameters (Ammonia and Nitrite = 0, Nitrate 25).

I tried to scoop some out initially but it just seemed to reappear. It's not a lot, but it's visible and a little worrying.

Any clue as what this could be?

 

[Liamm]

What chemicals do you put in your tank?

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I get this sometimes after my monthly "deep-clean". It has never done any damage to my tank, filter or fish, but would be interesting to find out exactly what it is.
Also, 2 weeks seems an awfully quick time to fully cycle a tank, did you have a mature media donation?

Terry.

 

[Adri]

Prime and Stability initially as well as with water changes, as well as Flourish excel and comprehensive for the plants about twice a week each. Other than that I initially added some KH Booster but haven't done that since I've added the fish, (pH is stable at 7, not sure what my kH is though).

 

[Adri]

Yeah I had loads of mature media from my other tank and I've checked the Ammonia and Nitrites daily with no spikes so the tank's definitely cycled fully!

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Yeah I had loads of mature media from my other tank and I've checked the Ammonia and Nitrites daily with no spikes so the tank's definitely cycled fully!

So you should have a healthy tank.
I've never worked out what the bubbles are, they seem to dissappear on their own accord after a few hours though.

Terry.

 

[Adri]

OK thanks! These don't seem to go away unless I put my filter off, but my fish seem healthy so I won't worry too much then

 

[OldMan47]

If you have a film on the surface, you can often remove it by simply laying a paper towel on the surface and carefully lifting it off. The oiliness that forms a typical film will be in the paper towel and no longer on the water.