Water Scum

[Wilty]

I'm new to the website, and been doing a lot of reading to catch up to where everyone is at. But I have a problem, well I think its a problem.

I get a scum across the top of the water (similair to an oil slick). Its been getting worse with the summer warmth and I didn't have this problem in the spring. I can suck it off the top of the water when doing water changes but it returns within a day. Water testing shows nothing wrong, and everything in the tank is happy. My protein skimmer is working fine and is skimming the water. Anyone seen this? I am not having algae problems. I found the "black powder" I'm using is having trouble 'raining down' on my tank since it get caught in the slick.

Tank specs.
33 gal (open top tank)
seaclone protein skimmer
fluval 404
60lbs of LR

[Nullig]

Sounds like you need something to break the surface tension. Aiming a powerhead at the surface would do it, or using some type of surface skimmer.

Noel

[Wilty]

The seaclone is a 'hang-on the side" type so the water coming from the skimmer breaks the surface and I have a powerhead angled toward the surface. I was 'white capping' my water for a while trying just what you thought. The skim on the surface would just swirl around. Didn't help at all. I've seen angled the powerhead less since I was getting water on my floor lol

[Delphinus]

Do you have a sump? One of the reasons for having a sump is to have that oil slick drain into the sump, get mixed up into the watrer colum and then be pulled out by the skimmer.

If you don't have a sump then maybe try an overflow box for the skimmer, that will help pull stuff off the water surface.

I think, in time, you will find that the Seaclone is an underpowered skimmer, and I have no idea what black powder is. Is that a Mark Weiss product????

[Nullig]

Do you get a lot of bugs (flies, mosquitos,etc.) in your tank this time of year?

What about the intake for the skimmer? Could you rig up a type of in-tank overflow box that would suck the surface water into your skimmer?

Noel

[Wilty]

To be dreadfully honest this is a 'good enough' tank. I'm constructing a 130Gal to replace it. At the same time I didn't want to totally neglected it. Thats a good point about the over flow. Unfortunately not realistic for this small tank. But that would mean I won't have this problem in my new tank. What is the skimmer of choice right now anyway? Saves me reading 100 and 1 posts on skimmers.

I don't want to be over skimming. I'd really like to try not using a skimmer and rather rely on bioload to to clean my tank. Mangroves and the like. But I think the volume I would need would be huge. I'm of the opinion that over skimming is stunting coral growth in a lot of systems. Your opinion?

[Wilty]

Oh hey I should answer all the questions. I could rig the skimmer to suck closer to the surface however being open top evaporation becomes and issue. I don't allow my water to dip too lower but I don't want the chance of running the pump dry. And no bugs. And no sump.

[Aquattro]

Without a surface skimmer (overflow, etc), you'll always have this. A good way to reduce the amount of scum is to rinse any frozen foods before feeding and wash your hands well before playing in the tank. A lot of the scum is oils from hands and food.

[Wilty]

Good call, I don't rinse the food, I always wash my hands. I''' try that. I was fearing poor water quality or something. And then thinking my tests are wrong.

[dbdavid]

Hi Wilty, welcome to the board. I have a similar setup as yours and had the same problem with the surface film. I only have this problem on my 29gal reef which is sump less. I use one of the Fluval surface skimmers hooked up to a power head and this has cleared up the problem. I just took the power head and the surface skimmer to Home Depot and rummaged through the plumbing department to get the two to fit together. I hope this helps