Oil Slick

[shrade]

Hello All,
I have what appears to be an oil slick skimming the top of my water.
What is this?
What can I do to get rid of this? (besides not looking at the top of the water )
Thanks in advance.

 

[almarktool]

u need to get some water movement on the surface so that water goes thru your over flow and then thru the filters do u have a return pump? trying adjusting it or taking one of your powerheads mount it sideways so u can aim the water stream towards the surface

 

[twoods71]

Agitation at the surface via a power head or 2 will help.

 

[cap'n pete]

This is built up organics. Organics are attracted to air/water surfaces (same principle as a protein skimmer), and therefore collect on the surface of the water. This can be eliminated in two ways. The first, as already mentioned, is to to increase surface agitatation. This will force the organics back into the water. The second is to skim the surface of the water via a skimmer box. Most overflows take water form the surface. Skimmer devices are also available to attach on some filters. What kind of filtration/circulation do you have now? Are you running a protein skimmer?

 

[scubamedic]

You can get the surface skimmer for your BakPak skimmer. I have one for my Prizm Pro and it works great. It takes a very short time to remove the film.

 

[slick]

Like said above just increase your surface water movement.

 

[shrade]

Thanks for the help. I will give it a try.

 

[broomer5]

If I had the choice of blowing the crud back down into the water with a powerhead, or doing as ScubaMedic mentioned, and running it through your Bak-Pak with the optional surface skimmer ... I would choose the surface skimmer for sure.
Getting most of it out of there is better than keeping it in there - IMO.

 

[twoods71]

If there was no "slick" on the surface due to the surface being aggitated then other filtration, be it a power filter, wet/dry, skimmer, whatever, would have the chance to remove the organics before a "slick" had a chance to form. Its the same thing a surface skimmer would be doing with the "slick".
IMO there are 2 methods that will work equally effective as Cap'n Pete has mentioned.
Choose a method that best fits your needs and good luck. I had this problem in the past and increasing the surface aggitation cleared it up in less then a day. Results may vary.