[Mojo028]

Hello fellow hobbyist, I recently have been having some problems with my son's tank, his tank is getting some kind of chemical film or residue on the top of the water.

His tank is planted, although the plants are just sprouting from bulbs and i have Floramax substrate capped with black tahitian sand, i have never had this issue before and don't know what could be causing this. If anyone can help i would appreciate it, and i will try to put up some pics.

 

[AguaTropical]

Are you using CO2 at all? I know some liquid CO2 stuff causes a film on the surface.

Also, what filter are you using? If it is strong enough it should be able to agitate the surface and break it up.

I don't have much experience with this, but I'm sure other members do. Hopefully you find a solution soon!

 

[Beezledrop]

you can use a paper towel to get it up.i'm not really sure what all it is but some of my tanks do this

 

[Silenced]

break the water surface, it is a biofilm, and you can break it by creating water waves, rain/spray bar, aeration etc.
Other than that, you can use newpaper, papertowel, or wrap on the surface, absorb, and take out but it is temp.

 

[Mojo028]

Are you using CO2 at all? I know some liquid CO2 stuff causes a film on the surface.

Also, what filter are you using? If it is strong enough it should be able to agitate the surface and break it up.

I don't have much experience with this, but I'm sure other members do. Hopefully you find a solution soon!

I do not use CO2

and thanks for all the input, i did use a sponge and cleaned it but i was curious of what it might be, and how i could prevent it.

 

[Noahma]

It will come back. one thing you can do is get one of those little nano filters, and discard the filter part of it to use the pump as a powerhead, let it break the surface of the water a little and it will not come back.

 

[dtejeda.arias]

Air pump.

 

[Phish]

powerhead

 

[Mojo028]

Air pump.

I do have an air pump and I just turned it up, hopefully that helps it or I will have to buy something to use as a power head.

Thanks for all the advice as well, much appreciated.

 

[zimbo]

can't quite see what filters you're using , however, on my canister tanks, if there's a period of time when i go too long without cleaning the filter i'll usually wind up with a surface film

 

[Mojo028]

can't quite see what filters you're using , however, on my canister tanks, if there's a period of time when i go too long without cleaning the filter i'll usually wind up with a surface film

It's a Aqueon quiet flow 10 power filter and i had just run my maintenance about two days before i noticed it.

 

[ZLogic]

all you need is surface agitation. air stone, power head, hob filter, spray bar, skimmer, whatever. i stuck an empty fert bottle under the u-shape on my spraybar so that the spraybar sits at a 45' angle and the first vent or two are above the water surface. problem solved.