clearing the surface

[TriggerHappy]

I have this thin film on the surface of my tank. Is there anyway I can get rid of this other than getting a skimmer. Are there any chemicals out there that would clear this up? I plan on getting a wet/dry in the future and the overflow will fix it but in the meantime...need a qwik fix! Tanks!

[loganj]

No chemicals...sorry. You can skim some of it out with a cloth...a brine shrimp net works pretty well also. If you have a Python, you can suck a lot of it out when you do a water change. That's probably the easiest short term solution. If you don't have a Python, this is a great time to get one...they're worth about twice what they cost.

[reefrunner69]

You can also simply put a pwerhead on the surface to beak it up, until you get the surface skimming overflow working. A strong powerhead with a good diffuser should keep plenty of room on the surface clear for gas exchange.

[two11devan]

I have the same film on my tank. I have my fluval filter return on on side of the tank near the top, this breaks up the film on that side of the tank. I have a ph on the other side of the tank that is blowing over my LR at mid level and i get the film over that part of the tank...Is this stuff bad to have? Other than being kinda ugly looking, does it cause any problems?

[roblikesfish]

Originally Posted by two11devan

I have the same film on my tank. I have my fluval filter return on on side of the tank near the top, this breaks up the film on that side of the tank. I have a ph on the other side of the tank that is blowing over my LR at mid level and i get the film over that part of the tank...Is this stuff bad to have? Other than being kinda ugly looking, does it cause any problems?

You could use a power head to break the top of the water but angle it to push it torwards your Fluval Return filter.

This should help for both sides of the tank.

[two11devan]

I know I have to use a PH to break it up at the surface, but the one i have is mid level blowing over my lr, the fluval is at the surface. My question is: Is this stuff bad to have at the surface? Or does it juist look ugly? If its bad, i will move my PH, if not, I like it blowing over my LR to help with the coraline algea.

[roblikesfish]

Well your water is not clean and unclean water can be bad.. I will let some one else answer the specifics on why it is bad. But the obvious answer is there..

Go out and buy one more PH .. Cant hurt. Besides if it is breaking the surface it will also help on Oxygen exchange etc.

[reefrunner69]

The film on the surface is DOC, it likes the surface because it is drawn to an air/water interface (the reason a skimmer works the way it does). The "oil slick" can hinder gas exchange, and if there are enough DOC in the water it will fuel algae.

[fishfreek]

You can help the issue by physiclly removing the film on occasion. How I do this is to take a large plastic cup or a water pitcher. I lower this in the tank so that I get the entire body in the water and onliy the top lip out of the water. I then slowly lower the lip down till only the upper most part of the water starts to flow in. This acts like a surface skimmer in that only the film and th ewater that is directly under the film will flow into the container. When the container is mostly full pull it out and dump it. Repeat as required.

Remember to replace the saltwater you take out this way with more clean saltwater.

[TriggerHappy]

THX all and fishfreek; thats a great idea; kinda like a manual skimmer About the PH, I used to use one in conjunction w/ a UGF, don't some of them have filters where it used to hookup to the UGF? I'm gonna start looking into getting one...any recommendations for my size tank would help too...

[TriggerHappy]

well, i got a maxi-jet 1200 today and noticed you can use it with or without a UGF. Has anyone seen the filters that go on them when you use them without the UGF?