Oily Residue on top off water

[mark.farrell1]

Hi All

I am a recently new purchaser of a salt water tank setup, 180 L, Live Rock and one awsome little snowflake eel. i have noticed a oily residue on top of the water, he has been in there for 3 days now. I bought a Lion fish yesterday and he sadly didn't make it through the night i came home this morning and he was floating on the bottom of the tank dead. I read some where about something to do with the eel leaving a residue of oil and it affecting other fish in the water. Can any one help me with this issue, is it common ? and what can i do in the future to stop/control this problem. You don't have to reply or just send me the link to the answer somewhere.

Thanks Guys.

Mark

 

[joy13]

Was the tank set up already when you got it?

 

[mark.farrell1]

no i filled it from from the ocean accross the road from the beach, put the required drops of that stuff in, got the carbonet hardness right, than waited 2 weeks for the bacteria and the live rock to settle.

 

[joy13]

It is probably your water source, the shore line acts like a giant skimmer and cleans the water. Your tank maybe cycled but unless you have kept track of the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates there is no way of saying for sure.

 

[Fishbone13]

This might not be it but I had an oily sheen a while back in my tank and all i did to get rid of it was to tilt one of my power heads toward the surface to agitate it a little better so noth'n can really settle and it took care of that prob. about the eel secrete'n a harmful oil I'm not sure. Hope everything works out though.

 

[Fishkeeper26]

A protein skimmer should clear the oil on build up on the surface

 

[Purevil21]

A skimmer will help, but in the future, never use ocean water in your tank, there could be all kinds of pests in it. As was mentioned above, waves are essentially a natural protein skimmer.

 

[Fishkeeper26]

Pests and chemicals, even if you're keeping fish from the same region most likely they're tank raised and not caught in the wild