Filmy Water?

[MicroFish]

Feeding my fish earlier this evening and I noticed that the top of the water in the 50gal was "filmy" looking... any ideas what's causing this?? Fish seem fine and my water tests are showing results in the range of normal for this tank, but it still worries me. I've never seen this before... this is the tank we "inherited" and we're still working on completing the gravel vaccuuming, etc. Doing it in stages...

Anyway, any help would be great. I rinsed out the filter media, which I usually do weekly anyway, but I haven't added water or done a water change in about a week. Is this something I should be concerned about?? Or do you think rinsing out the cartridges might solve it? The tank has live plants in it and a rock and of course the fish... plastic plant too, and gravel. No air stones, no UGF... Penguin 330 HOB filter.
Just for some info...

Sheila

 

[MicroFish]

Oh, and we have really great well water, no chlorine etc. I do treat the water w/ coditioner before doing changes though... maybe I shouldn't??

Sheila

 

[Allivymar]

A film on the surface of the tank is usually comprised of proteins. Not dangerous, but unsightly. Can't remember off the top of my head what the cause is, but I do remember reading mollys will eat it...

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

Could just be also that you had something oily on your hand before you stuck it in the tank (i've done this before... ).

 

[Terry]

Allivymar is spot on again, it is the proteins. but also check on how much you are feeding because it can also be the oils out of the food. By putting a little bit of movement on the surfice where the slick is will break it up. It is not harmful to your fish it just don't look nice.

 

[targaboy78]

Hi MicroFish,

I had a similar problem.

I have a 35G swim-thru tank. (Imagine 2 x 27G tanks up on end, 7" apart, connected by 2 5" diameter tubes). I have a Fluval 304 canister filter with the output in one tank and the intake in the other. The output side had plent of flow, but the intake side always had a film.

I attached a surface skimmer to my intake side and it fixed the problem.

A surface skimmer connects to the intake of your power filter and is positioned on the surface of the water. As your filter draws in water it draws it from the surface. (You can adjust it so it draws from the bottom/top or a combination of both).
Basically, they remove organic film on the water's surface and help to improve oxygen exchange.
Here's what they look like...
http://www.geocities.com/myfishtank2001/skimmer.htm

I've had it for over 10 months and I love it. A+++

HTH

 

[madasafish]

Y'all beat me to it. I was going to ask what you're feeding the fish. I find that tubifex worms, if fed too often to fish, will cause an oily slime. Other protein- or fat-rich foods can do this, too. I've had this problem before, and simply varied up my feeding regime. I now feed tubifex only once every 4-6 days.

 

[William]

Hi MicroFish,

I had a similar problem.

I have a 35G swim-thru tank. (Imagine 2 x 27G tanks up on end, 7" apart, connected by 2 5" diameter tubes). I have a Fluval 304 canister filter with the output in one tank and the intake in the other. The output side had plent of flow, but the intake side always had a film.

I attached a surface skimmer to my intake side and it fixed the problem.

A surface skimmer connects to the intake of your power filter and is positioned on the surface of the water. As your filter draws in water it draws it from the surface. (You can adjust it so it draws from the bottom/top or a combination of both).
Basically, they remove organic film on the water's surface and help to improve oxygen exchange.
Here's what they look like...
http://www.geocities.com/myfishtank2001/skimmer.htm

I've had it for over 10 months and I love it. A+++

HTH

Could you post pics of that setup?

It sounds awesome

 

[TankGirl]

I had this problem and simply directed my filter spray bar to disturb the surface a bit more and that solved that, but the HOB makes that kinda tricky, LOL! I have found that Stress Coat water conditioner can contribute to this problem as well, so it is possible it is the water conditioner in your case. I was just more careful about how much I added.

 

[targaboy78]

Hi William,

You asked if I could post some pics of my setup. Sure thing...

The picture isn't that great since I had to back up far enough to show the entire tank. Near the center of the right tank - (if that makes sense?) , you can see my surface skimmer.