What is this oily looking film on my water?

[Lohoyan]

I had this oily looking film on top of my 45G previously. I didn't go away with water changes. Finally I took sheets of paper towel and dropped then down flat on the surface and scooped them away, doing this repeatedly till most of it was gone. Now it seems to be coming back? Its a fairly new tank. I try to be careful, if I have to put my arm in I make sure I haven't handled anything even remotely smelly or noxious for several hours. I did reseal the tank with black silicone 2, could it be leaching coloring into the water? It looks nasty but doesn't seem to bother the fish.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Is there smoke near the tank at all? I find that burning a lot of incense in the same room as some of my tanks gets me a similar looking film that I have to skim off.

 

[smkooq]

it usually starts building up like that when your not getting enough surface agitation.

And when i say surface agitation i mean actually breaking the surface not just creating ripples. So if you lower your water level (if you have a HOB filter) so the water fall breaks the surface then that will clear up in no time.

 

[NoMoreGoldFish]

Protein!

Increase surface agitation, or if you have a co2 injected tank and don't want to waste it, skim it off yourself or buy a few little fish that like to snack on the stuff.

 

[MonsterfishGuy]

Protein!

Increase surface agitation, or if you have a co2 injected tank and don't want to waste it, skim it off yourself or buy a few little fish that like to snack on the stuff.

Right!!

You can put sludge buster bacteria in a spray bottle and gently spray the surface with it once a day until its off!

You could use a surface skimmer if you have a filter that can be use with, it takes around 10% of the filter intake by the surface so it will help to!

Or as its already said, more surface movement!

 

[millerb7]

I had the same issue in both my beta 5 gallon tanks... all I did was lower the water level 1/2" so now my HOB filter creates small bubbles when it hits the water... issue cleared up within an hour.

 

[Aspencer]

it usually starts building up like that when your not getting enough surface agitation.

And when i say surface agitation i mean actually breaking the surface not just creating ripples. So if you lower your water level (if you have a HOB filter) so the water fall breaks the surface then that will clear up in no time.

Do you think it is better to have the water drop from the HOB than fill up the tank so the water pushes across the tank and create current?

 

[millerb7]

Do you think it is better to have the water drop from the HOB than fill up the tank so the water pushes across the tank and create current?

Yep. I tried it anyways. For me the current did nothing. You need to actually break the surface, create bubbles.

 

[Dale_I]

Another option is using an aeration device. If you don't use a canister filter or a power head, running an air pump to a bubble wand or air stone can help.

 

[abrahamavelar]

this might sound dumb but u could but a 5 dollar surface skimmer they hook to the intake of ur filter and it filters the top and bottom of the tank

 

[Lohoyan]

Okay, I adjusted my outflow to point up a bit so the flow frothed the surface a little and that seemed to do the trick. No more film! It's a bit noisy but i'll just set it like that every few days for a few hours or as required. Good to know it was nothing nasty.