Eeeek!!! Oil in my water?!?! Help!

[azonic]

Ok, I just went over and took a look into my tank from above and it looks like there are little bits of oil on the surface!! It kinda looks like oil but it doesn't have a rainbow of colors to it like oil usually has when it's mixed with water..I have no idea what this is, could it be something from the argonite? Please help. If it is in fact oil, can someone tell me a way of soaking it up without having to waste $50 worth of salt?

 

[azonic]

Nope, no rio's. There is nothing running, im trying to get all the sand to settle. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

 

[azonic]

There's nothing in the tank, it's only been setup for a little over 24 hours.
P.S. I think something is gone screwy with your browser or the BB... hehe

 

[justin_ny]

whats wrong with rio pump in the tank.
i have a cpr backpack in my tank with rio 600 and water is no oil.

 

[azonic]

So I shouldn't worry about it? I won't be able to circulate the water much at all until all the sand settles to the bottom, plus my powerheads aren't here yet, I won them on auction from ---- so I got about a week to wait on them. Anyone else? I want to know if I have to scrap this water before I get far into the cycle and then have to do it.

 

[azonic]

Forget about frickin rio pumps, does anyone know for certain what this stuff is? ie. has it happened to anyone else?

 

[justin_ny]

what is a good submerge pump? how about eheim?
i like submerge because it doesnt need so much plumbing, does inline better than submerge, please tell me more

 

[azonic]

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[azonic]

Thank you golfish, that's all I needed to hear, I hope your right, draining 38 gallons of water was the last thing i wanted to do.

 

[azonic]

No im not running a sump, but ill be sure to direct my powerheads at the surface for a while, until it's resolved. Thanks a lot, your advice is much appreciated.

 

[m1rodrig]

You put in dead shrimp to cycle. you can probably take them out now it's probably the protein or waste coming from the dead shrimp.

 

[wrassecal]

I had the same thing and I just let it go until I got powerheads and then made sure to keep the top water moving....don't worry about it right now, just get through you cycle and see if goes away. Mine did.

 

[drew_tt]

trust me on this one...
a build up of organic compounds (that are usually removed by skimmers) will sit on the water surface and give it an oily-film look...
I dont know if you have a skimmer, if you do, make sure its working all right...
its easy to siphon off as well... just hold the siphon just below the water line and with practise you can suck most of it out pretty fast...
Drew

 

[wrassecal]

Trust Drew on this one, he's right, but I couldn't afford a skimmer until about my 3rd fish and about 3 months everything was fine.