Film on top of water!

[jamie907]

I have a weird film on the top of my water that you can see from underneath, looking up. I know it's not just the reflection of the light because it's broken where my waterflow from the pump from the sump hits the surface. I JUST did a 15 percent waterchange to get rid of it and it's still there. What is it?! Thanks

 

[twinclan]

I would love to know too. I have this and cannot get rid of it. My LFS sold me some kind of skimmer that you hook onto a powerhead but I can't fit it on my tank to skim this film off. I can't get rid of it either.

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by jamie907
I have a weird film on the top of my water that you can see from underneath, looking up. I know it's not just the reflection of the light because it's broken where my waterflow from the pump from the sump hits the surface. I JUST did a 15 percent waterchange to get rid of it and it's still there. What is it?! Thanks

What type of filtration do you have? Do you have a skimmer?

 

[steve24]

you don`t have a protein skimmer, do you ?

 

[wwfstyle]

Is your over flow box running at full capacity? It might have an air bubble and slowing the flow down. This happen to me about a year ago. Might have to had some more PH angled towards the surface to help push this film towards the over flow box. Also try ajusting the return line to a different area of the tank. Maybe this will help push the unwanted debry to the box as well. And you do need a skimmer.

 

[drewsta]

It could be protein skum so a skimmer would clear that up or if you have an overflow box check the prefilter in the overflow. If you have a sponge in there clean it then problem solved

 

[mrdc]

I have gotten that film from time to time and it has always been to an obstuction to my overflowbox.

 

[twinclan]

I have a protein skimmer but no overflow box, I still get it and can't get rid of it

 

[wwfstyle]

Disconnect the skimmer and give it a good cleaning then rehook it up. Or maybe you just need to upgrade.

 

[poniegirl]

Also be sure that your lighting fixture, hood, what-have-you is clean. I had a horrible problem and discovered my hood was "shedding". I had to replace it.
Could also be low water movement at surface level.
A skimmer, IME, skims the body of water, itself, not the top? If that top 2,3 inches of water doesn't circulate, would any filtration system be effective?
Old fashioned it may be, but that is one reason I use my bubble bar. It does turn over the top. I believe it helps the LR do its job, as well.

 

[iiinadav]

Which protein skimmer do you have? Does it have a surface skimmer?

 

[promisetbg]

Surface agitation.

 

[puffer32]

Its surface flow. I have a huge skimmer and had the white film also until I put a power head toward the surface that helps push the film to the overflow, then it disappeared, so it has nothing to do with skimming, but has to do with getting enough surface movement. It also helped raise my low PH.

 

[pyro]

I have a mid sized rio thats strong enough to push water all the way to the far side of my 30g (forget the gph) aimed at the surface of my tank... Also have my emperor 400 for what its worth surface agitation wise. I still have the film.
Should be getting a remora in from Engineer (board member) though; we'll see if that helps (currently no skimmer).

 

[theappe]

I would suggest a skimmer. I had a skimmer that sucked up water from the middle and it came with a surface attachment that I never put in. When I put it in, it took the film off. I would say to try that.

 

[jamie907]

Do you know what kind of skimmer you had? Because I've been having such problems with the whole skimmer thing. My return pump in my wetdry is way too big, which means that I have no room in there for the skimmer that's the right size for my tank (125), and I have a smaller one but it leaks. So I bought a Prizm but the way that it sets on the back of my tank, it always leaks through that way. I just don't have luck with skimmers. Aslo I had problems keeping the Prizm primed so right now it's off. I realize I need a protein skimmer but I've been doing water changes and I just tested everything and all parameteres are normal.

 

[iiinadav]

I have a Prizm Pro with the surface skimmer attachment on it. That skimmer works fine for my 29 gallon tank. You can also try the Remora with the surface skimmer attachment. Either one should take care or you needs. Unless you have a overflow box, the surface skimmer attachment for your skimmer is the only solution.

 

[theappe]

Originally Posted by IIINADAV
I have a Prizm Pro with the surface skimmer attachment on it. That skimmer works fine for my 29 gallon tank. You can also try the Remora with the surface skimmer attachment. Either one should take care or you needs. Unless you have a overflow box, the surface skimmer attachment for your skimmer is the only solution.

In have the exact same thing and like I said it works great to remove that film on the surface!

 

[murph]

Its dissolved organics. Without getting into a bunch of detail the attraction of these organics to the surface is how a skimmer works except the organics are attracted to the surface of the fine bubbles that are produced in the skimmers reaction chamber.
In other words a well functioning skimmer being fed unfiltered water into the skimmer compartment of a sump will eliminate this problem not to mention remove these dissovled organics from the system which are the leading contributer to problems like cyano growth.
The surface skimmer attachment for a hang on skimmer will function in much the same manner as delivering unfiltered water to a skimmer compartment in a sump. Only problem is skimmers without a consistent water level to operate in are less efficient so with evapoartion loss and top offs it tends to upset hang on skimmers.