Great Looking New Cave

[ellena]

So I had this idea for a betta cave made from a christmas bauble. I spent ages trying to find the right one, then got a guy at work to make a hole in it for me and it looks awesome

Unfortunately after being in there a day, the surface of the water is oily and irridescent. I thought it would be OK as the plastic is just plain matt white, no pearliness or glitter etc. Do you think I should take it out?
I thought maybe I could soak it like bogwood and see if it stopped giving off the oiliness, what do you reckon?

 

[Loops]

Yeah perhaps soak it first.

Sorry to change the subject but I love your tank, what plant is that in the middle (looks a bit like little lily pads)?

 

[StrontiumDog]

I would have washed it and soaked first before putting it in. You should use some thick paper kitchen towel on the surface of the water to try and get rid of the oil, and do a water change.

Echo what Loops said "I love your tank".

 

[Zenandra]

I agree, take it out and soak it for a bit, and do a water change on the tank, it should be fine Love the tank, I never have any luck with live plants! What size/brand is the tank? I love it!

 

[ellena]

Thanks guys, I'll give the soaking a go. Glad you like the tank No idea what that plant is;I asked for all the others by name, but that one caught my eye and slipped in somehow
The tank is an aqua 40, older model. It's 25l, although I only got about 20 in with substrate etc.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Beautiful tank!

 

[Rezatii]

The tank is absolutely fantastic! Any chance of getting the names of those plants?

-Rezz

 

[ellena]

Yes, the stuff back left is twisted vallis, back right, amazon sword. Feathery stuff is water sprite (I think) and the other stuff I don't know, sorry.

The water was all iridescent again today despite having removed it all with a paper towel and doing a water change. And no sign of oiliness in the bowl where I'm soaking the ball

 

[Rezatii]

Cheers for the plant names,


And I don't wanna say something stupidly obvious, but the oiliness couldn't have been caused by hand-lotion or something as you put the ball in/out could it? I had that once, felt like such an idiot XD

If not, maybe try putting an air brick or something in with the ball where you're soaking it, the water movement may get the oil stuff to show itself.

 

[aly_starh]

@Ellena=- your really good at tank scaping! Well done

 

[ellena]

Thanks betta 246
Rezatii, I don't use any hand lotions or anything so don't think it's that. It was there again tonight. It started when I put the bauble in, but has continued now I've taken it out. H thinks it might be the shells, but why would it start when I put the bauble in?
I'm going to try some carbon in the filter, see if that gets rid of it

 

[loraxchick]

are you certain its not oil from the fishfood? seems a silly question but most times the "oi9ly layer" that folks ask about is down to natural oils of the fishfood.
just a thought.
cheers

 

[ellena]

Thanks for the thought loraxchick. I'm just feeding him hikari betta pellets which is all I've ever fed and I've never seen this film before though. It's back again already

 

[loraxchick]

any new airfrsheners? sprays? candles lit in the room? any recent smokers around? incense? these can also leave a film. kinda oily, iridescent film, as can hand lotions, fishfood, certain meds including melafix/bettafix/pimafix.
if not one of these things or something similar that you can think of, might be either a lacquer on the shells or ornament degrading in the water.in which case, id remove them.
CHEERS

 

[ellena]

Thanks loraxchick. Out of that list, I've only used some melafix, but I've never seen it do this before. I get a film on most of the tanks due to the low flow and water surface movement, but it's the bright iridescence of this which is wierd. I noticed today you can only see it with the light on,so maybe it's the light? Either way, I'm going to put the cave back in as it's clearly not that.