While Oily Substance On The Top Of The Water.

[dave_gray2077]

Just came in from work today and my Rio 125 has an oily type film all across the surface of the water. Appears to be a whitish/pink colour.

What can cause this?

The tank is currently cycling.

Ammonia at 0ppm
NO2 – lost the colour card but the solution turned from blue to purple. It’s an aqua pharmaceutical test kit
NO3 – 10ppm

This happened a few days ago to and skimming the water and doing a 50% water change did resolve it but I would like to get to the bottom of what is causing it.

The tank is planted with about 25 plants and has CO2 injection. With 72w of lighting.

 

[iairj84]

Just came in from work today and my Rio 125 has an oily type film all across the surface of the water. Appears to be a whitish/pink colour.

What can cause this?

The tank is currently cycling.

Ammonia at 0ppm
NO2 – lost the colour card but the solution turned from blue to purple. It’s an aqua pharmaceutical test kit
NO3 – 10ppm

This happened a few days ago to and skimming the water and doing a 50% water change did resolve it but I would like to get to the bottom of what is causing it.

The tank is planted with about 25 plants and has CO2 injection. With 72w of lighting.

I've seen that before but I too dont know what caused it... When adding melafix to my tank it gave off an oily look to the water though

 

[dave_gray2077]

Just came in from work today and my Rio 125 has an oily type film all across the surface of the water. Appears to be a whitish/pink colour.

What can cause this?

The tank is currently cycling.

Ammonia at 0ppm
NO2 – lost the colour card but the solution turned from blue to purple. It’s an aqua pharmaceutical test kit
NO3 – 10ppm

This happened a few days ago to and skimming the water and doing a 50% water change did resolve it but I would like to get to the bottom of what is causing it.

The tank is planted with about 25 plants and has CO2 injection. With 72w of lighting.

I've seen that before but I too dont know what caused it... When adding melafix to my tank it gave off an oily look to the water though

Well im not medicating the tank. All i am adding is Flourish "plant suppliment" to the tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

during cycling all sorts of funny things happen to your water, it might go cloudy as well so don't worry too much about it. however there's a few things to check

could something be getting into the water? for example if the tanks in your bedroom and you spray an aerosol near it with the tank lid up. or if the lid isn't a tight fit and it's near the kitchen cooking fumes could get in. also watch out for air freshners near the tank, i've heard horror stories about these!

what your tinkering with the tank, have you washed your hand/arm first? you do need to however you should make sure you've no soap left on your hands and no recently applied products like moistorisers

 

[dave_gray2077]

during cycling all sorts of funny things happen to your water, it might go cloudy as well so don't worry too much about it. however there's a few things to check

could something be getting into the water? for example if the tanks in your bedroom and you spray an aerosol near it with the tank lid up. or if the lid isn't a tight fit and it's near the kitchen cooking fumes could get in. also watch out for air freshners near the tank, i've heard horror stories about these!

what your tinkering with the tank, have you washed your hand/arm first? you do need to however you should make sure you've no soap left on your hands and no recently applied products like moistorisers

That might be it. The tank is in my bedroom and I do use aerosols. Before I put my hands in the tank I usually wash them with anti bacterial soap, so ill watch them two things.

Thank you for the help.

 

[celaeno]

what kind of filter do you have? the oily film on the surface of the water can result from a lack of surface disturbance.

 

[dave_gray2077]

what kind of filter do you have? the oily film on the surface of the water can result from a lack of surface disturbance.

It’s the standard internal canister filter that comes with all the jewel range.

Ill have a go at altering the outlet pipe to get some more surface irrigation.

 

[vinylman]

Don't use any aerosols or air fresheners near a tank. Also, don't use soap of any kind to wash your hands before you put them in the tank, just use water as hot as you can bear. Use plenty of anti-bac soap to wash your hands when you've finished in the tank though, just to be on the safe side.

 

[redlogger1954]

Hi
I have got the same problem. tank is a7*2 *2 working on the dennerlee system .Lighting is 4 250 watt mercury vapour lamps at 12" above water surface
The system had been running for 5 years without any problems .In january 2007 I got a dose of white spot which did not respond to treatment and wiped out my fish ,including 5 10" clown loaches .
I took the opportunity to start again by draining the tank ,replacing the substrate,cleaning the gravel etc
The tank is now running again with about 6 fish to keep the filter running and replanted and i am now getting the film on the water which in the previous 5years i did not have
I am baffled as everthing is the same as before the wipe out

 

[Lynz781]

Quickly floating a bit of bounty on the surface should get rid of it.

 

[rdd1952]

Some water is prone to having the film. My tap water is that way. I run a small airstone on my betta tanks to create a surface disturbance to keep it broken up. On my 75 gallon, I am running dual canister filters with surface skimmers to draw it off. I try to keep the water level on my 29 gallon tank down just a little so the HOB filters create a little splash to break it up. Since you have canister filters, the surface skimmers would be a possibility for you.

One thing you mentioned that is of concern though. You said that you had lost the color chart for the nitrite test but it turned from blue to purple. Purple on an API test kit is an indicator of at least .25 ppm of nitrite. You need to get it back to a pale blue color for 0 nitrite. How long has the tank been running? Could be that you haven't developed the bacteria needed to process the nitrite yet.