Surface scum??

Hey there can anyone shine a light on why my tank water has some cloudy surface scum??
All my tests show the water to be in great condition, the surface has plenty of movement from return pumps and a good sized powerhead.

What could be the cause??

:-/

 

Do you have overflows that run to a sump or do you use HOB filters? I used to get that film when my overflow sponges were getting dirty and making less water pass and restricting how much of the surface was getting skimmed.

~Will.

 

i would bet you probably don't actually have enough surface agitation. i had to really up mine before I quit having this problem.

a surface skimmer box on my skimmer intake (which is HOB) helped, but the surface agitation was the key for me...

good luck.

 

thanks guys i will try more surface agitation. After reading your reply i noticed that the sponge was a bit dirty, so will clean that out too. thanks again.

 

What are you doing for surface skimming?

 

I had to clean mine weekly to keep the flow going, I ended up removing them all together.

~Will.

 

its a red sea max 130 tank so all the filter and skimmer are built into the back?
dont really know what type the filter is?

 

on the max 130 d, there is a surface skimmer box that leads to a rough sponge, and from that its right into the skimmer, then it flows into a chamber with the heater in and finally into the chamber with the bio-media, carbon and phosphate removal media before returning to the tank via two return pumps. Does this help??????

 

break/agitate the surface with a powerhead, see if that clears it up. I have a HOB overflow that sucks the top pretty good, so I don't have that issue. But before I had my sump, I placed a powerhead so it agitating the surface as much as possible without shooting water up. This helps with gas/air exchange. That oily stuff prevents a good exchange.

So your redmax has a surface skimmer, so that is helping. But it sounds like it needs the assistance of some good agitation.