oily looking film on surface of water........dunno what???

[fishNCovice]

2nd time in this week that this has happened

all is fine the night before and when i wake up, there is something on the water surface that looks like an oil slick(rainbow-y colors and stuff)

anybody have a clue as to what this could be?
is this tht bacterial bloom that people talk about?
or am i doing something wrong with the water
do i need to add something?
could it be propane gas collecting on the surface?(there is a heater in the room, not on, only pilot light)

the fish all seem to be doing ok
i have 1 penguin 330 on the tank

water spec as follows

nitrate: 0-20 ppm
nitrite: .5-1.0 ppm
gH: 25 ppm
kH: 40-80 ppm
pH: 6.2

TIA

[krap101]

thats happened 2 me once or 2ce. i think mine came frm the driftwood. but i dunno wut it is. the other people told me to float some like paper towels and soak up the oily stuff

[vega]

Other then releasing from wood, some fish food contain protein will release the oil into water if uneaten. Its annoying but if clean regularly it will not harm the fish.

You can fix this with installing a surface skimmer. you can find eg. at Hagen website.

[William]

Its a protein film.


Some fish, like mollies, eat it.

[Menagerie]

Sounds harmless. I noticed my 50 gal has that--darn flake food!
FWIW--your nitrites are too high. Anytime they register, you should do a water change. How is your ammonia level?

[fishNCovice]

*whew*
thanks for the info, guys

[breadlowry]

Protein for shizzel. I work in a fish research center, and we feed 550 gallon tanks. They are flow through tanks so the film disapears withing an hour or two of feeding. I'd just keep up on water changes every 2 or 3 days and you should be good. Did you just change to a different kind of feed?

[fishNCovice]

only from tetra goldfish flakes to tetra tropical flakes and the protein contents are about the same - checks flake canisters - oh.....they are four percent differece in protein content fortytwo percent on goldfish versus fortysix percent on tropical, whaddya know

[fish_doc]

Do you have much surface water movement? If you have alot of surface water movement this will keep the oils mixed in the water where your filter should be able to better get to it.

[fishNCovice]

ya actually i have two of the penguin threethirty and they move water pretty good. i added the second one a few days ago and dont seem to have the problem anymore. thanks everyone