Film on the top of the water?

[subie_driver]

I noticed the other day that there seems to be a film on surface of the water of my tank. Its not thick or any thing. It will break up if I point a power head towards the surface to break the surface tension. I do have the tank mostly covered other then about 2 inches across the back for the skimmer and cords. Has anyone else seen this or know what it could be?

 

[JohnK]

Very common if you don't have anything agitating or skimming the surface. IIRC it's bacterial growth.

Is your Skimmer a HOB design? Is so, it might be worthwhile creating some sort of DIY mini-overflow box to go over/around the skimmer inlet so that surface slime gets fed into the skimmer. That surface slime is attracted to the air water interface, exactly the stuff that makes skimmers work as they do.

 

[Owen386]

You got a over flow/sump ? Back before i had a rr tank i had this same problem. Point a couple power head towards the top of the water to break the water line. Think about adding an over flow an sump you wanna surface skim that water the best you can. Thats one of the reasons why you see people with coast to coast overflows. And if you dont have an actual skimmer get one. I would really skip the hob and get yourself setup with a sump.

Sent from my LG-LS720 using Tapatalk

 

[subie_driver]

I would love to have a sump or a larger tank but my space is really limited. A HOB is the way I had to go. Trust me its not my first choice either. I'll try moving the power head to see if that helps

 

[wpeterson]

You will often see a film at the surface of dissolved organic matter as it builds up in the water. You can remove this with protein skimmer or with a carbon reactor.

The advice about a surface skimming pre-filter for a HOB protein skimmer is good, the AquaC remora line had a nice prefilter box. You can also add a HOB media reactor with carbon.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You can manually remove it with a cup during water changes. Just have the surface skudge drain into the cup (have it overflow slowly over the lip of the cup. I have also heard of laying a paper towel on the water surface to remove the film but haven't personally tried that.

 

[STiTCH87]

Check out the API Super Clean line of HOB filters, they have a surface skimmer built in. Works great and they make small ones that will fit in your tank no problem. I think they run about $20 for the small. No more film and adds great surface agitation.