[Jok178]

G'day,


I have a hooded aquarium, I have 2 bars of 3w led's in the front partition an my protein film is out of control. Within 12 hours it is like the skin you get on soup left in the pot, thick and wrinkly, every morning and afternoon I scoop it out with a net.


I tried making a surface skimmer to run 10min on the 2h but it kept mangling fish and clogging with detritus. So I made the following attachment to my return pipe.


Remove the plastic piece from an airstone and drill it out to 3mm,
trim the entry end and put a 45deg angle to help direct flow,
drill a hole in the return pipe,
superglue the connector in with the angle facing the incoming water,
drill a snug hole in the partition and place the pipe through,
cut the pipe on a 45deg angle. This will allow the pipe to be rotated to control how much the flow disturbs the water, it can go from smooth to splashing.


Since I have had this running my water surface is crystal clear, no more film.

 

[Axelrodi202]

Nice contraption; very creative non-skimmer solution. However such devices are only band-aids - if you consistently have a lot of surface film it's indicative of high organics, which will often lead to algae problems down the line. I recommend eliminating them from the source - making sure your filtration and flow are adequate to prevent detritus accumulation.

 

[Jok178]

I always remove dead or damaged plant matter when I see it, my substrate is only a couple weeks old too. It is MTS so there shouldn't be and organic matter in it left.

The film only got bad when I installed the new lights and my tank sits at 29-32C I believe the extra heat is contributing to the bacterial growth which is creating the film.

I have spent about 6 months attempting to fix the cause, now I given up and am treating the symptom instead.

Also my filter is a 1300lph canister on a 160L tank