Surface Skimmer W/ A Planted Tank

[Canada_Andy]

hey,

I am in the proccess of setting up a 55 gallon planted tank, I have a few plants in there right now and i will be getting more very soon. I noticed that my water was getting cloudy, but i assumed that the filter would take care of it, but after a few days it hasn't. Upon closer inspection I found that the water looked cloudy because of the cloudy slime that build up on the surface, I have had few tanks before this, but I have never noticed this ammount. I know you are not supposed to aggitate the surface of a planted tank because of the CO2, but the slime is not going away. I found this http/www.aquariumguys.com/fluvalskimmer.html skimmer at my LFS, but I am hesitant about using it in a planted tank due to CO2 loss (I am not injecting it). Has anybody had any experiance with these, or can somebody suggest another way to get rid of the slime?

Thanks alot
ph-7.5
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
Running a RENA Filstar XP 2

 

[Themuleous]

It seems strange that the oily film is entering the water column, Ive not heard of it clouding the water before, even when present on the surface. As for skimming, if you're not adding CO2 then there is no problem. However if you start people dont tend to skim planted tanks for the CO2 loss reason, but Ive not heard of the water getting cloudy.

Im temped to think its something else clouding the water.

Sam

 

[Canada_Andy]

Thanks,

I just added 8 more plants and the film seems to have died down significantly, but the water is still cloudy. So you are probably right that it is something else. I think it might just be some kind of mild new tank syndrom, since I didn't have enough plants before to effeectivly remove filter the water. I am going to leave it for a few days with the new plants and see what happens.