new2betas
Aquarium Advice Addict
I hope this post makes sense as I am trying to decipher my brother's problem without seeing it. He lives in CA and I am in NC and he called me this morning with a question I am not sure how to answer since I don't have experience with cannister filters. I am not sure what brand it is either (just expensive...he said it was about $140.00). Anyway, he has a 46g bowfront that has been up and running for a couple of months now. He has 5 african cichlids in it. He describes his "problem" as this: Just until recently he has always noticed water circulation at the top of his water surface. In the last week he started to notice that there wasn't as much circulation going on. He took the cannister filter off tank and checked to make sure it was working okay and he says that it is and he doesn't think the problem is with the filter. He says that he does see an oil sheen effect on surface of the water and I explained that he needed to try to create some surface agitation to break that up. I suggested he get an air pump and stone and put in his tank to create the surface agitation. He said he will, but that I hadn't really answered his question about why he used to see surface movement, but he doesn't anymore. I told him I just didn't know since I don't have experience with cannister filters, but I would post on here and see if I got any responses. He said the fish act perfectly normal and are not at the top gasping, which I told him to watch for. TIA! and, I hope this made sense. It's hard to figure out a problem when you can't see someone's tank and know the history on it. 
