how the beep beep beep do i get rid of an oil slick at top of tank

[Milad]

so half of the top of my tank has an oil slick on it. it is basically everywhere that isnt rippling. so my question is how the heck do i get rid of it and why is it showing up?

its really starting to get annoying. i dont want to skim it out for it to return. Ideally i want to get to the root of the problem.

[Murminator]

Point a powerhead at the top get a rippling action going to break it up.....and keep you hands outta the tank a lot of that is oil from your skin

[H2o2]

Are you sure its not protiens, it may be your protien skimmer isnt cuttin it

[2pts]

Agreed. I had a bit of an oil slick on the top then I added powerheads (one pointed up), took it away.

[naesco]

so half of the top of my tank has an oil slick on it. it is basically everywhere that isnt rippling. so my question is how the heck do i get rid of it and why is it showing up?

its really starting to get annoying. i dont want to skim it out for it to return. Ideally i want to get to the root of the problem.


Get a glass bowl or pie plate and slowly tip and edge in. The slick will go into the bowl.
Repeat until it is all gone.
Replace the water with salt water.

[Pescador]

Lay a paper towel on the surface and pick it up quickly. Works great!
I used to have to do this before I had an overflow.

[Milad]

ive done all of the above
pointed powerheads to the top of the tank, used a plate to pull out the stuff, tried paper towel, nothing works!!

Ive decided to lower my feeders and stop putting my hands in the water for next few days and see what happens.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

actually what works well, is an old aquaclear filter and one of those surdace skimmers.

http://www.hagen.com/pdf/aquatic/Surface_Skimmer.pdf

it'll be gone real quick,

Ken - BWA

[Myka]

Point a powerhead at the surface towards the overflow. It will work provided you use a big enough powerhead, and you point it in the right direction.

[banditpowdercoat]

Your not getting real Sea Water from the Gulf of Mexico, are you?? :razz:

[Milad]

Your not getting real Sea Water from the Gulf of Mexico, are you?? :razz:

thats why it was so damn cheap!! dammit

[Milad]

just realized there is foam in the overflow, is that normal? or is something up.

[Rogue951]

makes me think you have a huge excess of proteins. or your skimmer really isn't doing it.
esp if foam is building up in the overflow.
I notice when I feed silversides It gets messy but it's quickly taken down the overflow into the skimmer. never seen again.

[Zoaelite]

What sort of skimmer are you running on the tank Milad and is there any irregular food going into the tank? I'm almost positive your problem stems from the peninsula set up, I had the same thing happen on my 170g.

Situating all your power-heads on one wall in the tank causes a great deal of water to be sucked to those locations, if your powerheads are lower in the tank this in turn causes a lack of flow on the surface. If you increase your return pump and get randomized side to side flow this will fix the problem.

My 2 MP40W's run on anti-sync long pulse mode creating flow on one side of the tank for about 25 seconds and then the flow switches to the other side, this clears the surface very well.

[Milad]

im running euroreef 250 clone

the food is on two feeders at different sides of the tank feeding a little pellets 4 times a day.

my return and my power heads are all on one side of the tank. You think I should run the return on the other side of the tank?

[Milad]

woah just tested my water (this is after today's water change)
20ppm nitrates

wtf, my skimmer isnt pulling crap out of the water right now even running wet, its clear

[banditpowdercoat]

Waterchange time!!!!

[Milad]

Waterchange time!!!!

got some water already mixing!

but what the hell could be causing it. could overdosing ZEOBak be the problem?

[Zoaelite]

got some water already mixing!

but what the hell could be causing it. could overdosing ZEOBak be the problem?

Skimmer intake could be blocked, I would give it a good clean. I think if you can put your tunzee's on a wave maker you will fix the problem, 30 seconds on 30 seconds off alternating.

[Milad]

Skimmer intake could be blocked, I would give it a good clean. I think if you can put your tunzee's on a wave maker you will fix the problem, 30 seconds on 30 seconds off alternating.

nope not blocked :(

My wave maker is on, my tunzes are on apex profile which is alternating by ramping up and ramping down every 5min (one goes up, one goes down).

[Murminator]

im running euroreef 250 clone

the food is on two feeders at different sides of the tank feeding a little pellets 4 times a day.



4 times a day???......mine are lucky to get fed 4 times a week :redface:

[Madreefer]

4 times a day???......mine are lucky to get fed 4 times a week :redface:

I agree. I would cut your feeding down by half. Sounds like overfeeding.

[banditpowdercoat]

My 150g gets once a day. If we remember LOL sounds like overfeeding bigtime. How's the algae??

[Milad]

zero algae. i cant even get any macro algae to stay alive. and the glass gets that film algea on it every 3-4days i have to wipe it down.

are you sure im overfeeding? these guys look hungry, some of the little guys dont get food somtimes.

[Milad]

well i turned off the auto feeders, and im just gonna feed once a day

i also have a NP bio pellets comming hopefully somtime this week. Think that will help with the oil slick too?

[kien]

it isn't really a matter of how often you feed, its how much you feed :-) 4 feedings a day could easily be equal to one person's single daily feeding. However, you could be over feeding if your 4 feedings are quite sizable portions.

As for the oil slick up top, I've found it is quite common with peninsula tanks where you have your main flow (powerheads) at one end of the tank because you're pushing all the water to the other end and by the time flow reaches the other end of that 6' tank it is quite weak so the surface at the other end of the tank doesn't tend to get a lot of movement. As suggested already, you may need additional powerheads to try and point at the surface directly at the other end of the tank or try to move your returns to the opposite end. This is one of the reasons why my returns are at the opposite end of my peninsula. The return a the opposite end to the overflow helps to push the surface water towards the overflow.

[reefwars]

Call me crazy milad but didn't we have this chat a couple weeks ago about feeding frozen and pellets too often pinch in the morn smaller pinch in the evening is fine its not quantity it's quality of the food your offering that keeps them happy:) post a pic of what your feeder feeds a day in your hand and show us how much your feeding them?? I do as little as possible to interfere with my Eco system it runs naturally and provides plenty of food(if you have a reef) try cutting the feeder out all together for 2weeks your fish will be fine feed them from your hand manually and a very tiny amount and you'll start noticing a difference. Go back and look at your posts they should tell you something.....lots of poop, skimmer underpowered,skimmer intake,oil slick your looking for a mechanical answer when the problem is right in front of you you'll see it even better in the mirror:) relax milad let your reef grow your system isn't even a year old yet did you ever hear the old saying" stop picking at it let it grow" :) cheers:)

[Milad]

ok so here is my plan as suggest from everyone

move returns to opposite side of tank
stop feeding


reefwars, i did follow your advice from a couple weeks ago and i stopped feeding nori and frozen everyday, and i lowered the pellet count.

to drop the nitrates should i pickup some:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=as-nnr0250

or just keep doing water changes until its back down.

[reefwars]

Good to hear milad give it some time you'll see improvements soon:) as for nitrates, is your ro running right ??? Is your skimmer before your return pump in your sump??

I had 40ppm in my tankhad me worried so I increased my water changes to 5% every 3days, pretty much starved everything for a month and now I'm back under 20 . Lots of flow and turnover as someone said have a powerhead close to the top aimed up at an angle just to the point where bubbles don't appear, your goal is to have no water lay still and provide lots of current to your skimmer:)

have you tried fiddling with your skimmers tuning to achieve a better skim????

Good luck my friend:):)

[Milad]

Good to hear milad give it some time you'll see improvements soon:) as for nitrates, is your ro running right ??? Is your skimmer before your return pump in your sump??

I had 40ppm in my tankhad me worried so I increased my water changes to 5% every 3days, pretty much starved everything for a month and now I'm back under 20 . Lots of flow and turnover as someone said have a powerhead close to the top aimed up at an angle just to the point where bubbles don't appear, your goal is to have no water lay still and provide lots of current to your skimmer:)

have you tried fiddling with your skimmers tuning to achieve a better skim????

Good luck my friend:):)

RO? you mean my RO water? I would think so, i just replaced all the filters and measured 2TDS. Even straight from tap im getting 11TDS.

My overflow goes into a area with bunch of ruble, then a few baffles, then into the skimmer, and then a baffle into the return.

Im running a SICCE 5.0 return pump which I estimate is running around 700 gph return to my sump.

And for the skimmer, I have the small bubbles going almost to the top of the skimmer. I can see them in the neck.

[reefwars]

Try playing with your tuning I place a mark where I have it set and if I remember correctly more air is wetter skim less is dry skim it could be gbe versa I can't rember offhand but it takes a bit for the tuning to take effect it doesn't take much turning for my skimmer to see a big diff. I've never had your skimmer I can only assume there's a air intake you can adjust???

[golf nut]

This is one of the reasons why my returns are at the opposite end of my peninsula. The return a the opposite end to the overflow helps to push the surface water towards the overflow.
This is 100% correct, I have seen way too many tanks with oils slick syndrome, always have the surface water move to the overflow box.

The foam in the overflow box doesn't sound quite right either, is it falling for quite a drop after going over the overflow? sounds like the overflow is acting as a skimmer.

[Milad]

This is 100% correct, I have seen way too many tanks with oils slick syndrome, always have the surface water move to the overflow box.

The foam in the overflow box doesn't sound quite right either, is it falling for quite a drop after going over the overflow? sounds like the overflow is acting as a skimmer.

there is no initial drop in the overflow box

Im coming up with a design to put the returns on the opposite side of the tank as we speak (or type). Its probably going to be on top of my light fixture so it wont be seen.

[reefwars]

im running euroreef 250 clone

the food is on two feeders at different sides of the tank feeding a little pellets 4 times a day.

my return and my power heads are all on one side of the tank. You think I should run the return on the other side of the tank?



quote:



i feed pellets 4 times a day on a schedule
i try to feed once a day brine shrimp or mysis before they go to bed
I use to feed 1 5inx2in nori sheet once a day before all this pooping happened




how much of this have you changed?? how many fish are in your tank in total i browsed through your thread and i cant get a solid answer but i seen alot of tangs and clowns lol:):)

[reefwars]

sorry was for your nitrate thread but i have a feeling both are linked:):)

[mattdean]

If you can swing it, put a Vortech MP20, or MP40, on the opposite end of the overflow near the top. It will clear it up in no time.

I have created a 'vortech' of flow in my peninsula tank. Returns are split in two. One on each side goes across the top along the edge and two go down along the edge. Then I have a closed loop with two returns each going along the bottom and up towards the Vortech MP20 on the end near the top. I almost NEVER have oil/protein on the surface. Maybe the odd patch right after feeding, and I feed quite a bit. There are no dead spots and everything in the tank is happy.

I know it's money, but it could save you alot of hassles. I'm not sure just you returns will be enough on the end.

Good luck