Film on water

[jumpnjack]

I have a 46 gallon bow front that I have set up with salt water, I have about 40 to 50 pounds of live rock, 40 pounds of live sand, various critters and for a filter I am running a Skilter supreme 400 and a powerhead with a spinning difuser thing..
I have a film building up on the top of the water, it looks to me like protein, I can lay a paper towel on the water and soak up most of it, and I do this ever couple of days with about 6 paper towels each time. I haven't been able to figure out what is going on with it and no one seems to know what is causing it or how to stop it from happening.
Any ideas would help.
Thank you
Jack

 

[scsinet]

It happens when your filtration system doesn't have a skimming intake, that is one that skims water from the surface. A skilter draws water in from well below the waterline.
You can probably stop this by adding a powerhead that aims upward to disturb the water on the surface; that should break it up.

 

[jumpnjack]

I have a powerhead that breaks up the water surface, i put a slowly spinning directional difuser thing on it and when it's not pointing at the surface the film comes back and then is broken up by the power head and then comes back. the longer I wait to clean it off of the water the more there is and I want to figure a way to not have to remove it by hand every other day.
Thank you for you input and quick response.

 

[jkcrumb]

u may want to look into a protien skimmer..........coralife makes one that can hang right on the tank (no sump needed). can u post a picture of your tank???? everyone will have a better ideas if we can see what your workin with........

 

[maxalmon]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
It happens when your filtration system doesn't have a skimming intake, that is one that skims water from the surface. A skilter draws water in from well below the waterline.
You can probably stop this by adding a powerhead that aims upward to disturb the water on the surface; that should break it up.

Simple advice and perfect.......you'll have to play around with flow direction to keep it as random as possible.

 

[scorpiojkd]

I used a spray bar at the end of my filter return. It sits about 4 inches below the surface then aimed up at a 45 degree angle. Disturbs a large area of the surface. No more film on the surface.

 

[mrinelfrlz]

try one of these i know you dont have a canaster filter but this should be able to attach to your intake to your hangon one

before my upgrade i had a canaster filter with this connected to it and a powerhead pointed @ the surafce
WORKED LIKE A CHARM

and they are cheap!!!
google search " surface skimmers"