Filmy yuk on the surface

Hello fellow aquarists:

I have had my 60 gallon about 2 months and it has been cycled 1 month. I have 90 pounds live rock that I cured in a trash can b4 adding the rock to my almost cycled tank. I cycled the tank with shrimp. I have a DSB about 3-5 inches depending where you measure. I have a aqua remora C hangon the back skimmer with a 12 Maxijet. Look at my signature for more specifics. I have this oily looking film on the surface that causes a scum on the tank and looks bad. If you look up through the tank you can see the stuff everywhere except where the powerheads might disturb the surface. Also I am not getting very much skimmate from my skimmer. Less than a hakf cup a week but what I get is black skimmate. I use RO/DI water and all the water parameters seem in line. What is causing this? My 35 gallon does not have this problem. I have ordered a skimmer add-on box that is supposed to take the water from the surface and feed it to the skimmer. It was made by remora for my skimmer...has anyone used this b4.

Any ideas anyone???

Jay

 

I cannot anser your skimmer question, but I get the same film on the top of the water also. It ended up being the Mysis shimp that I feed them.

 

i had a similar experience where a film of dust like and oil like layer appeared on the water surface of my main tank. Turns out the water went over the overflow box and thus reduced skimming effectiveness of the box. The overflow was somehow clogged and clearing it up lowered the water level and had the overflow skimming properly.
If you do not have an overflow which does surface skimming you can install a surface skimmer or buy one (I see them in LFS) and these things are cheap anyway.

 

Surface agitation is the key here Point a powerhead towards the water's surface so that it ripples the water. That should take care of things.

Since I'm not sure about the bio-load of the tank, I can't say whether or not your skimmer is working properly. I only have 4 small fish in my tank and only need to empty the skimmer once a month.

Don't know anything about the Remora so I can't help you there.

 

Surface agitation will definitely help, but you still need to extract water from the surface. THe optional overflow box for the Remora will do the trick.

If that's too big for you, you can get a Fluval Surface Skimmer and attach it to your Magnum 350 like I did on my turtle tank. This option is smaller, but more finicky as it has to be monitored everyday and you have to stay on top of your evap or it will suck in air.

 

Thanks for the tip Matt. I already ordered the Skimmer box but I have 2 tanks with these canisters and I might try it out. And I will point a power head up and see if that helps. Thanks amcarrig for the tips. You guys are a huge help. I am having a blast with all this new reef experiance. All these life forms that are in my tank just blow me away. How can so much life come out of salt water. Just add liverock and you get all these creatures.
Way cooll. Im going a little overboard with all the cash Im blowing but what the hell its only money.

Thanks everyone
Jay
;D ;D

 

Jay,

Have the same thing happening to me and just ordered the fluval skimmer attachment, which I know will help. What I have been doing in the interim is just wiping the water surface with a piece of clean cloth or paper toweling. The scum sticks to the cloth or paper really well, rather than to me as usually happens

John

 

Once you get that surface skimmer box hooked up it should take care of that for you. It also makes the skimmer a bit more effective for this reason