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Surface foam / bubbles

gex23

Member
Joined
10 Jan 2011
Messages
252
Just walked in from work and noticed the surface of my tank is full of bubbles / foam.

24531202167_c6106d689e_b.jpg
20171230_232304 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

Tank is mature, around 9 months old

- No equipment failure that I can see
- No WC today so no change in water chemistry
- Livestock 'seems' ok (lights off so tough to tell)
- No surface scum / bio film

The only thing thats changed recently that I can think of is adding a load of in vitro plants yesterday, I washed the gel off but not entirely?

Any thoughts?
 
What livestock do you have? Gourami and Betta (same family I think) create bubble nests. The nests can actually resemble more of a bubble bath though, getting an inch or so thick, where as yours is quite flat.
 
The only thing thats changed recently that I can think of is adding a load of in vitro plants yesterday,

Protein in the water can cause this and it doesn't necessarily need to come with that oily biofilm.. Cause can be melting leaves or organic debri in the water or substrate leaching protein. Also healthy living plants can secrete excess proteins, certain plant speices more than others. There is no documentation about what plants what so ever and what excactly triggers it.. But i also experienced it, especialy in the high tech tank with excellerated metabolism it can suddenly come and go again. If you added new plants the day before, than see if it has any melting leaves, always clean these out as thorougly as possible. Maybe it is caused with distrubing the substrate and it leached some traped protein from organic debri in the substrate.

Doing water changes is the only remedi, if you have a very steady hand you can syphon off the surface. Chances are, it'l be back hours later.. If it is from plant secretion you have to wait ti out.. I had it suddenly comming and going again without ever having a clue about the cause. My best geuss was plants.. :)
 
I used to get the same effect. some said it was an excess of nutrients in the water. Just angle the spraybar up a touch to agitate the surface and it will go in a few hours...
 
Cheers for the replies.

I performed a large WC and things seem to have settled down, no loss of stock or plants.

I think, Zozo, it was some type of secretion as you said.

At least i'll know next time not to worry, just perform a hefty WC and wait it out :)
 
Could be filters due for cleaning?
 
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