skum on water surface?

[Ayesha97]

I've noticed a film on the surface of my water. Is this because I need more water movement? Or does my skimmer need to be adjusted???

The tank is a 20 gal, with a cpr bak bak, and running a 214 powersweep powerhead. I have a 402 aquaclear that I tried hooking up, but even at its lowest setting, it looked like it was too much water movement for my tank. I have 2 false percs, some shrimp, an urchin, some crabs and snails.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Atari]

You need more surface agitation or a surface skimming attachment.

 

[BillyZ]

agreed, if you can direct one of your power heads, perhaps your powersweep, towards up towards the surface of the tank it will help break up that film. Your best solution would be a surface skimmer as atari suggested. What you would do is get a pre-filter box and set the intake pump for your bak pak inside the pre-filter box. This way, all the water entering the skimmer is coming from the surface of the water and the skimmer will remove that film (protien) from the water.

 

[Bearfan]

I use to get these in the corners where the flow got trapped. A couple of PH adjustments and they were gone.

 

[Ayesha97]

agreed, if you can direct one of your power heads, perhaps your powersweep, towards up towards the surface of the tank it will help break up that film.

What's the best way to do this? I have suction cup clips for my powerheads that anchor it to the side of the glass. There doesn't seem to be be a way to tilt them. Would placing them on the bottome and pointing them up do the trick?

I'm going to check the LFS and check their prices on a prefilter skum sucking box and see if it's a purchase now, or a purchase soon item. (any excuse to go and drool over the fish!)

Thanks for your input!