White Skin On The Surface Of My Water

[pinkdolphin_113]

i have had a tank set up for quite some time now but only yesterday has a white skin formed on the surface of my water.
does anyone know what this is? i was thinking about a protien skin but i can't find anything on it anywhere!
i've put a piece of tubing on my filter so bubbles come from the outlet which causes enough surface tension to keep it away but how do i prevent this skin forming? i don't particularly like the bubbles as they are pretty noisey and prefer the look when they aren't there lol

thanks

 

[idlefingers]

How often and what do you feed the fish? How often do you do waterchanges and how large?

Doing more water changes and increasing bio filtration should clear it up.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

How often and what do you feed the fish? How often do you do waterchanges and how large?

Doing more water changes and increasing bio filtration should clear it up.

I do atleast one 20% water change a week but it's usually more like two 30%.

i feed my fish flakes, bloodworm pellets and blood worms. never all at the same time. it's like a square of bloodworms in the morning and a small pinch of flakes and a few pellets in the evening.

i don't have any "bio filtration" at the moment. what is it? and how do i get it?
i have a pictus catfish too, will this limit my options on what i can do or not so much?

 

[idlefingers]

Your water change routine sounds good. You could probably get away feeding a little less to help reduce the film.. perhaps just once a day until it clears up.

Bio filtration uses media with a really high surface area to allow the largest possible colony of ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria to grow on. What kind of filter are you using?

The pictus cats won't be a problem.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

Your water change routine sounds good. You could probably get away feeding a little less to help reduce the film.. perhaps just once a day until it clears up.

Bio filtration uses media with a really high surface area to allow the largest possible colony of ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria to grow on. What kind of filter are you using?

The pictus cats won't be a problem.

The filter i'm using is an AquaFlow 3 (800 l/h) for my 30 gallon so it's abit over the normal flow rate.
would this bio filtration include activated carbon media by any chance?

I shall feed the fish just the once a day for a week or two and see what happens.

 

[idlefingers]

I'm not familiar with that filter, but if you have the space in it, try to get some bio balls or one of the many, many alternatives (I like eheim's substrat pro). Although if left in long enough carbon can become a home for the bacteria, it's classed as chemical filtration. A google search on bio filtration will explain it better than I can.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

okay i think i'll try the bio balls first. how much are they though?
there are two compartments in the filter and at the moment they're filled with sponges.
do these bio balls needs to go on a bag or anything?

 

[idlefingers]

Bio balls are really cheap (much cheaper than the eheim media) - they're just little blobs of plastic shaped to have the largest surface area as possible and they needn't be kept in a bag. Sponges do house the bacteria but are primarily for mechanical filtration (getting bigger bits out of the water) so putting some bio balls in should help create more space for them.

 

[backtotropical]

Flake food is rich in proteins and this is probably what causes the film on the top of the water. Cut down feeding a bit and increase surface agitation and it should clear up easy enough.