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surface film

When its oily like that I think it has something to do with the fish food as that has oils and fats in it. When its white and clumps together when you touch it I think is when it is down to plant health. Just my observations but if I've fed my shrimp alot I get oily film too and thats on a low tech shrimp tank.
 
Thanks for the replies guys ,

Just about to change the water , so will adjust the secondary spray bar so it breaks the surface a lot more , I won't feed my fish and see if that's makes a difference , this is now anetu9u4.jpg


Cheers


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I was under the impression that excess light caused this surface film? I'm sure I've read that in one of Clive's posts.

The surface of my 60L tank in my lounge ( Ei and liquid carbon, no gas injection ) used to be like this a couple of days after water change, I increased plant mass and it has cleared up. I can now get away with only one 50% change a week.

So I've drawn my own conclusion that it was excess nutrients causing the film, as lighting levels are the same as before.


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Hmmm this could explain it as I have been raising my light and it is now higher then it's ever been , it's currently 700mm from the substrate , tank is 400mm high , could it be that as it's been raised the uptake of nutrients is less by the plants ??


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Samjpikey said:
Hmmm this could explain it as I have been raising my light and it is now higher then it's ever been , it's currently 700mm from the substrate , tank is 400mm high , could it be that as it's been raised the uptake of nutrients is less by the plants ??


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Click to expand...

Could well be, as your light is now higher than previously the intensity of light at the plants is less. Maybe lower it little by little and see what the effect is, just keep an eye on algae growth etc


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I'm not going to lower it , I think extending the photoperiod a little will be more beneficial to me , I've taken away the glass lid which did reduce the intensity a little anyways



e3a4adeg.jpg
Here is how the spray bars are set up now , the higher one from the power head was a temporary measure but I'm getting better health so a clear tube is on order here along with clear suckers. .

You can see my surface agitation which I think is good , also the fish seem more active during the co2 injection period now I have more surface movement .

Cheers


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ety5eqeg.jpg


This is now (1day after water change )

There is good surface agitation but the film is there but not 'as' bad , I also have two floating bubble islands .

So do I just accept it and go with the ehiem skim ??
What is the LPH ?

Or do I source the problem ?

Cheers



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If it's bothering you I suggest getting a skimmer, like you I rasised my outlet which created a lot of surface agitation, but also created splash marked against the wall, which also bothered me. My tank is up against stair and stringer is blacker, so water stains really stand out.

Also my tank is set quite low so I also look over it, when I made my stand should have made higher lol...

I got my self one of those glass intakes and skimmer from eBay that jimmey suggested...
 
Again, a skimmer like Eheims or ADA vuppa, or a DIY from a soda bottle, they all work like a charm. BUT, it all masks the true cause. Like when someone is banging on your head with a hammer, you just take a shot of morphine to reduce the pain! Perhaps a Twinstar to compliment it?

First ask yourself, what is this layer composed off? After that, where does that stuff come from? If you can answer those two questions, you can take action at the root cause.

Unfortunate I don't know 100% sure because it isn't made out of one type of material. This scum layer contains lipids (the oily stuff) and proteins (the white stuff that makes the bubbles). The composition differs from aquarium to aquarium, thus the layer being more white, or more oily. Besides these two substances, it contains bacteria. To be more precise heterotropic bacteria. They use the proteins and lipids as a food source.

So assume this is it, where do these proteins and lipids come from. From food, like mentioned before, fish feces off course, and the main sources in our planted tanks -> unhealthy plants and bacteria that are living in suboptimal conditions.

So how to solve this besides the obvious reduced feeding: during the day, make sure your plants have everything they need, so they won't break down their old leaves to produce new ones. This results in organic waste. But more important, at night, provide optimal circumstances for your bacteria! Bacteria do best in alkaline water (high pH), so during the day they are waaay less active than they can be, because the pH is quite low due to all the CO2 we inject. No problem, they can be dormant for a while, but make sure that during the night (when we don't need all that CO2 and low pH for our plants) there is plenty of oxygen for the bacteria and pH is higher.

Off course why listen to me? So I'll make it a little more convincing. Amano! Now I've got your attention, don't I. Why do you think he doesn't run CO2 day and night? And why does he mention he aerates his aquaria at night? You think it is a coincidence the old man has the optimum pH that plants can use nutrients during the day and the optimum pH for bacteria at night...?
 
Thanks yo- Han, 🙂 I appreciate that .
I think your theory is correct , maybe aerating the tank at night is a good solution. (And simple)

But what puzzles me is the plant health throughout looks great , I've never in my life had healthier looking plants (With little or no algae).
I also barely feed my livestock as it is , maybe every 2-3 days.
I perform regular maintenance of all equipment without fail along with good wc 's .
Co2 is hitting The 1ph drop , lighting on for no longer then 6 hrs .

So I'm not convinced the plant health is the cause :/ of coarse I could be wrong ,
Maybe my fish just poop a lot and eat their poop then poop a lot more who knows :/

A standard air pump could be the next input forbme.
If an air pump runs during the day does this upset co2 saturation or is all well ??
Cheers


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do you use an aerosol (likes Air fresheners, deodorant) near the tank? without the lid, loads of airborne things will fall onto the surface and create the film, as well as things being produced inside the tank.
 
Nutty said:
do you use an aerosol (likes Air fresheners, deodorant) near the tank? without the lid, loads of airborne things will fall onto the surface and create the film, as well as things being produced inside the tank.
Click to expand...



No air freshness etc in the room and I only use an aerosol in the bathroom ,
I have a HUGE front room and the tank is not in
a place where you walk past all the time either .

Cheers



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Increasing surface agitation hasn't stopped it , just delayed build up time , eheim skim ordered
£21.95, not bad I thought .

I suppose it's a good excuse to buy one as it seems to be a nice little bit of kit 🙂


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awesome bits of kit the skims, just be sure to wash the sponge out every other day! Scum is very unpredictable and can appear out of the blue on a mature healthy tank. Strangely enough it seems to disappear on mine when im lazy and dont WC, clean filters etc... im not advocating that as a solution in any way though!!!
I got bored trying to figure it out so bought skims for all tanks that dont have dwarf shrimp (as it eats them)
i also believe that it can contribute to BBA by messing with gas exchange, everytime scum appeared on mine BBA would pop up a week or two later.... of course i can hear clive telling me something about cause and effect with this statement 🙂
 
Iain Sutherland said:
awesome bits of kit the skims, just be sure to wash the sponge out every other day! Scum is very unpredictable and can appear out of the blue on a mature healthy tank. Strangely enough it seems to disappear on mine when im lazy and dont WC, clean filters etc... im not advocating that as a solution in any way though!!!
I got bored trying to figure it out so bought skims for all tanks that dont have dwarf shrimp (as it eats them)
i also believe that it can contribute to BBA by messing with gas exchange, everytime scum appeared on mine BBA would pop up a week or two later.... of course i can hear clive telling me something about cause and effect with this statement 🙂
Click to expand...

Both (BBA and surface scum) have something to do with organics IME. Perhaps when you forget to clean your filter, your heterotrophic bacteria population grows better and breaks down more of the organics that cause BBA and surface scum.

Clive would probably relate both to CO2 but except the fact that with good CO2 your plants produce less organics, there are lots of other sources for organic waste like fish food. Throw in triple the amount of food and I bet you get surface scum and BBA too.
 
Where is Obi-wan-Clive-kanobi anyway ?

Is input in this thread is missed :/


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The only difference to that comment is my tanks been flooded for 4 months 🙂


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