Film on Top

[alexin]

My tank (75 gal) is cycled and going well. I have had it set up about 5 weeks, and I have a clean up crew, 120 gal live rock, 40 lbs live sand and another 60 lbs ov substrate. My protein skimmer is a Red Sea Prizm, which has been doing well. I havve 2 powerheads going on a wavemaker. My problem, for the past couple of days I have been getting a film on the top, almost kind of oily looking. Any ideas why ???

 

[twoods71]

Try aiming one of those power heads at the surface of the water, that should help.

 

[mithrax]

Hi, I had exactly the same problem mine maybe worse because it covered the entire surface and even if I aimed my powerhead on the surface it just break a portion and never went away. So, I finally decided to construct my own sump and bought an overflow box and it did the trick. My water surface is sparkling! This is just one way of doing it. Another way is to just skim the surface manually, it's tedious and it's not going to solve the problem for good. I suggest get an overflow box and sump. HTH

 

[b_ball12_99]

I have always recemmended the power head method. A spray bar also works well.

 

[beth]

Dead bacteria waste floating to top of tank. Its probably better not to have this as it is a sure sign that there is excess organics or die-off going on, but its not going crash your tank either. Unsightly. The easist way not have this stuff where you can see it, is to cause enought surface water movement [as mentioned above with spray bar, etc.].

 

[scy]

Hello,If you are using a canister filter you could buy surface extractor to remove the protein from the surface of the water.This would increase gas exchange to.

 

[burnnspy]

Washing your hands before entry everytime, works. It could prevent it all together if your additives or foods don't contain oils also.
BurnNSpy

 

[sangysc]

I had similar "surface problems" and read where you can make your own surface skimmer with a run-of-the-mill, plastic box like the ones that LFS's use to bag fish when you buy one to take home (yeah, the boxes they hang on the front of the tank, fill with water, then use to pour the fishy into the take-home bag!). I drilled several holes about 1/3" in diameter about 1" from the top edge of the box, hung the box on the INSIDE of the back of the tank, placed the uplift tube from my skimmer into the box and, voila!... no more "surface problems." Hope this simple but very effective DIY project will help you and many others with the same problem!
SangySC

 

[sangysc]

I had similar "surface problems" and read where you can make your own surface skimmer with a run-of-the-mill, plastic box like the ones that LFS's use to bag fish when you buy one to take home (yeah, the boxes they hang on the front of the tank, fill with water, then use to pour the fishy into the take-home bag!). I drilled several holes about 1/3" in diameter about 1" from the top edge of the box, hung the box on the INSIDE of the back of the tank, placed the uplift tube from my skimmer into the box and, voila!... no more "surface problems." Hope this simple but very effective DIY project will help you and many others with the same problem!
SangySC