oily/dirty water surface of aquarium

[ancelmo59]

hi! im just new in this hobby. i have a 20 gallon tank with a flowerhorn in it and i am using a sunsun 302 canister filter on it. i have tw

o questions/problems. 1st i notice that the water surface of my aquarium is kind of oily/dirty eventhough i made already a water change after a few hours its back again. everytime i feed my flowerhorn and he disrupt the surface it creates a lot of dirty white object floating on the aquarium. 2nd is about my flowerhorn i notice that my flowerhorn is kind of getting bald before its just a small white dot now its kind of getting all over his head. ive attached some pix for you guys to see. any advice will be greatful. tnx! happy fishing!

 

[Toney]

My sunsun came with a surface skimmer.

My tanks get the same thing from oscar to my shrimp tanks

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Mine also except my 10 gallon doesn't but my other tank does.

 

[StevenF]

Biofilm on the surface of the water is quite common in aquarium. I have never heard of it ever causing any health problems. A filter with a skimmer can dress it. Another option is to increase surface agitation to break it up. In my aquarium I have positioned the spray bare so that the water has to fall through air for about 1 inch to the surface. This pushes the film below the surface and breaks it up. It also increases aeration of the water which is generally good.

 

[DutchMuch]

skimmer

 

[Toney]

I've got one of the $7 sunsun skimmers from eBay that works good.

I'm not using it now, to lazy to mess with it during feeding, it does suck in a lot of food.

 

[Jrw]

It could be from your dechlorinator. I've used stress coat for years and have always had a film on top of the water. I swapped to prime and I no longer have a film on any of my tanks

 

[DutchMuch]

stress coat

Just wanted to say that this product is worthless, good thing you made a switch. The oily surface is just natural it isn't caused by products.

 

[Toney]

did I say it was only 7 bucks shipped

 

[DutchMuch]

oh wow nice