Film on water

[mattheyn]

Hey guys just looking for some input to as what is causing a light film on my nano's surface from time to time. It doesn't effect any of my corals but it does get irritating.

Also any recommendations for protein skimmers on such a small tank? :?

[Ed]

The flow from my powerhead breaks the surface. This keeps the film from forming. Hope this helps.

-Ed

[captexas]

The film is a product of gas exchange at the surface and other wastes that rise to the up. The wastes slowly break down and fall down into the water column and substrate. You should adjust your powerhead or add one to help agitate the surface. Just something to get the water moving around alittle. This will aid in gas exchange and will help in the breakdown of wastes.

[TexasState]

You won't get rid of the surface grunge completely unless you have an overflow. Skimmer such as Prizm, Bak Pak, Remora have add on overflow box that you buy for extra. They generally do not work very well unless you keep up w/ your water topoff.

To get rid of surface grunge temporarily, use a white, chemical & dye free paper towel to soak out the surface grunge.

Edit: I meant paper, now power

[Sherri]

matt...Hey...I had the same thing last week...but never before that. I even had bubbles trapped in the algae. I had been thinking that I needed some more flow so I went & added a 1140 power head (300 GPH) to go with the 960 gph circulation pump drilled into my tank. I was also getting rusty red slime cyano also along with a dead spot of no circulation on one end of my tank. Since I added the power head, the film is GONE...I bought ChemiClean for the red cyano...but it isn't completely gone...but I do see a BIG difference in the water flow.

Also got a sand star to help keep my bed sifted...so we'll see about that one.

It's funny...but it seems lately that a lot of us here in SA are having probs with water quality. I wonder if the ones having probs are without RO/DI's.

Hope this helps - not sure on a nano...since I have a 100 gal.

[mattheyn]

Thanks for all the input guys. I am trying to propagate some new xenia so I turned off my powerhead. Strange how ever since then I have had the film ;) . Anyway, Hopefully when I turn it back on the film will leave.

[minimasterflash]

I had the same problem as you with the surface film on my nano. What I did to solve it was plump another line from my powerhead to spray/drip water onto the surface. This cleared all the film off in about a day.

[Gin_Tseng]

I actually built an in-tank overflow out of acrylic and had like a hob filter pump water out of the overflow. The overflow was for my 2.5gal so it was only 1in x 1in x 7.5in. I only took an hour to make and i never had to worry about the film again. If you have a small nano this is the way to go since an extra powerhead near the top of the tank would be too much current for xenia in a nano.