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

[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/s..._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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by kien

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]

Originally Posted by golf nut

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.