Oily Film On Aquarium Water.

[AleeMurr]

Hello-
I have one female betta in a three gallon tank. The tank has no plants & a couple of rocks. It's pretty empty at the moment. It has a filter, air pump, all that good stuff & a heater that keeps the water at 76. A while ago I noticed an oily film on top of the water! It was so heavy that it looked like a rainbow! Anyways, so I got on google & found this site & read that it could be a Slate Rock...& I had a Slate Rock in there so I took it out & replaced half the water & such(it was cleaning day anyways.) Now, a few days after the water change & removal of the rock, I notice that there's some more oil...but not as thick. It's still there though. I don't like it & I doubt Aria(my betta) does either. I've tried the paper towel trick & it just breaks apart & spreads kind of. There is water agitation, so I doubt it's just stuff accumulating. Help would be appreciated, thanks!
-Alee & Aria

 

[KevinM]

My Betta tanks have this too, I think it's dirt or from smoking. What I did to cure it was last water change I took some tp and stuffed the holes, no film anymore

Only the tank on the top of my desk got this, the tank under an open shelf never had this film which leads me to think its dirt, never bothers my Rayne I don't think

 

[tarpon]

Mine gets this when I leave food in it overnight.
Are you overfeeding?

 

[AleeMurr]

My Betta tanks have this too, I think it's dirt or from smoking. What I did to cure it was last water change I took some tp and stuffed the holes, no film anymore

Only the tank on the top of my desk got this, the tank under an open shelf never had this film which leads me to think its dirt, never bothers my Rayne I don't think

I don't smoke /: what holes did you stuff exactly?

 

[AleeMurr]

Mine gets this when I leave food in it overnight.
Are you overfeeding?

I don't just drop the food in her tank, I give her one pallet at a time & watch her eat it. I doubt I overfeed, she gets:
Morning- 1 pellet
Afternoon- 3 mosquito larvae(maybe)
Night- 1 pellet

 

[Mojo3251]

Mine did that to.. It's because there's not enough air breakage on the water surface. ( if you get that^) take the airstone off the hose. Hope this helped!

 

[Parrisgg]

I had the same thing in my 10g. I bought an aquaclear powerhead and it cleared it all right up.

 

[AleeMurr]

Mine did that to.. It's because there's not enough air breakage on the water surface. ( if you get that^) take the airstone off the hose. Hope this helped!

If I get what? I don't have an airstone hehe. But yes, kind of helps

 

[Aqua dude18]

I used to get this. I believe it sounds like a build up of protein. Water disturbance and increase water changes over a week and see how it goes. I may be wrong but this worked for me hope it goes

 

[Phish]

Happened to my 2.5 gallon I raised the filter to increase water surface agitation and it went away. Stagnant water basically

 

[jondamon]

It's biofilm.


You can do a few things to help it.

1. A piece of kitchen paper rested on top of the water and it should stick to remove it.

2. Increase surface agitation. Airstone, powerhead or adjust your filter to make a splash.

3. Increase the frequency of water changes.


Jon

 

[vaquero]

I got the same film but not a lot in my 10 gal tank. Mine was from leaving a chunk of uneaten cubed food for three days and 300 Giant Danios fry. Didn't know they were there until I saw the film and was going to agitate the water to get it to go away. Was I surprised. I was using the Danios to cycle the new tank, took them out this last Thursday and Sunday (yesterday) saw all of the fry.