question about film

[fisheyes]

I have a 55 gal. tank that i recently started pmdd in. After about a week the top of the water has a film like substance, i guess where the ferts are just floating on the top? Anyways i've tried to mix them in the water better but it keeps happening. Anyone else had this happen? What should i do? I've currenty stopped doseing because i'm not sure if this will hurt the fish or not. Any advice would be great!

 

[krap101]

maybe its the protein film? you get this when you feed meaty foods, and i guess some of it was left uneaten? you can just put a paper towel on the water and let it soak..

wait so this is like an oily substance?

 

[fisheyes]

yes it's like and oily substance. The food i'm feeding right now is just flake. There may be some not eaten but i don't think any where near enough to make a film like this. I'll try the paper towel thing anyways. oh i forgot that when it first started there were a lot of bubble on top of the water sticking to it. I scooped them out and they haven't come back but still the film.

 

[krap101]

if it is the protein film some fish eat it

 

[greenmaji]

If you look at the bottle of flake food it should give you a % of crude protein that is in it..

 

[Husmut]

I heard somewhere that mollies will sort this problem out. As I had the problem at the time, I bought 3 mollies as an experiment. They got rid of it within 36hrs (in a 90g) and it has never come back. I often wonder if it would were i to remove the mollies?

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

What kind of filtration do you have on this tank and where is the outlet from the filter? If the water from the filter falls into the other water it will break up the film, sucking it down and dispersing it. If the water comes in below the water level it doesn't affect it. So to make a long post short, you may need to increase surface agitation.

 

[Husmut]

Unless you have Co2! The suface of my tank created its film early on, and the previous post is right in saying extra agitation would break it up. I just added an airstone, worked fine. When I started using Co2, I got rid of the airstones and bought mollies. Worked fine also! 8O

 

[undbulsu]

What type of filter do you have?

If you have a canister filter, there are surface skimmer attachments that you can place on the inlet. I had a similar problem and that worked for me.