Rusty color "pond scum"

[karl2jack]

Hi Guys -- I'm so proud, we did our first water change and no one got hurt! Our local store suggested we switch from the charcol to another product, chem pure I think. After this first water change and change in filter we seem to get this rusty scum that floats on top of the water. The fish seem great, they eat well and seem pretty feisty. We do not have a protein skimmer yet, but plan to this week. Thanks for your help. - Karl2jack

 

[mr . salty]

Sounds like protien deposits on the surface.You can carfully skim it out of the tank with a small cup till you get your skimmer installed.But the skimmer will do the trick(get one ASAP).You should also have a powerhead aggitating the water surface.This will help to disperce the "slime" till you get a skimmer.If left alone this "slime" will eventually block the exchange of oxegen in your tank,and you could have problems.

 

[nickbuol]

Do I dare disagree with Mr. Salty?!?!
Awe heck, I'll throw in my 2 cents.
We experienced this same type of problem, and we already had a skimmer up and running. While the skimmer is a very valuable part of our filtration, the inlet of the skimmer is below the surface of the water, so it does not grab any of the gunk on top of the water... At least for the stuff that we had on our water (a brown film) and with our skimmer (Prism). Mr. Salty is a great source of knowledge, and he may be thinking about something here that I am missing...
What DID help, was more water movement on the srface of the water. A power head (in our case) was pointed more upward to move the surface of the water. A day or so later, it was clear again...
Good luck!

 

[dugan]

You could also run a small Whisper or something similar on the tank to increase surface agitation.
Katie