Surface Film

[Key Equine]

My three week old tank has developed a serious case of surface scum. I don't have a skimmer yet, but am planning to get one in the next week or so. Any ideas on how to remedy this problem before then?

Also, I am planning to get the Deltec MCE300 skimmer, but from what I can tell it doesn't take water in from the surface of the tank... will it still help with the surface scum?

Thanks!

[my2rotties]

Do you have a pump inside the tank to break the surface. It seems like you are not getting enough flow throughout the tank and do not have moving water. My 55g had surface scum because I didn't have adequate flow inside the tank. I don't know if this is the problem or not, but it's just a suggestion.

[Trigger Man]

I agree with the above, if you have a ph angle it towards the top of the tank so that it agitates the surface.

[Alberta-newb]

Sorry, not familiar with your setup so a couple of questions. Are you running sumpless? If so, I would direct a powerhead to get some good surface agitation, you want to break up this film. If you have a sump, it sounds like there is insufficient flow into the overflow. Eitherway you definitely don't want a layer on the surface as it is cutting down the available oxygen dramatically...not good for your inhabitants. Getting the surface moving is how to get good dissolved O2. :smile:

Francis

Oops, guess I don't type fast enough! 2 posts before I was done :lol

[Jack]

I have the Tunze nano cleaner and it works great.

Got it from J&L.

[Rippin]

When I had the MCE 600 I attached one of these to draw water from the surface, thus skimming the film. It worked great.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=pf-acpskm

[Snaz]

My line of AIO suffers from this problem. The issue is the overflow not working correctly, water leaves the tank from just under the surface instead of overflowing at the surface. I do not know what overflow you have but take a look at this thread on nano-reef.com and this simple mod solves that surface scum issue in a jiffy.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=169081

[Key Equine]

I don't have a sump, so I am working on the surface agitation theory and have moved the filter intake close to the surface. I will also look into some sort of attachment when I get a skimmer. Thanks!

[Pescador]

Temporarily you can lay a paper towel on the water surface and quickly remove it, to suck up the scum.