Surface Skimming

Hey Yáll

My aquarium has a lot of scum on the surface of the water. Besides reducing light penetration, its bloody ugly!

How can i get rid of it? I dont have an overflow (no sump) and i dont use an external filter.
The only thing i have seen that doesnt rely on the above mentioned equipment is the aquamedic skimbox, but it looks big and has to be connected to another filter - i dont want to add something thats going to take up lots of room in my tank - its only small! (Juwel Lido 120)

Any suggestions are appreciated

 

Hi, in your situation, I would suggest 2 small (Koralia) power heads, one on each side of the tank, both just under the water a couple or three inches and one facing more toward the front and the other toward the back. Adjust them to get a nice agitation of the water surface. This also adds oxygen to the water.

 

Many HOB filters and skimmers now have optional surface skimming parts. If your filtration doesn't have this as an option, you can buy a brine shrimp net (they have very fine holes) and mop up the surface.

 

I am using one of these on my Seahorse tank and one of these on my 20 long frag tank.

 

Assuming you are using a canister filter, I have used the Eheim surface extractor and the Hagen Fluval Surface Skimmer with great results.

 

I added the "Tom Aquatics Aquarium Surface Skimmer" to my tank (about $10) and within an hour, the surface was clear. I'm sure there are fancier products out there, but for $10, if you want to save some money, it's hard to go wrong with this one.

Tom Aquatics Aquarium Surface Skimmer

 

That looks to be exactly the same as the Fluval but under a different name.

 

Yup, I have one too, the Tom suface skimmer. I have removed the Fluval from my 20G as it keeps pumping nitrates out, even with weekly cleanings. My anemone was doing really bad when I had the Fluval running, so it had to go. It works with cleaning the surface though. When it gets bad now, I run the venturi hose on my Bak-Pak right at the surface to suck up the dissolved organics and oils. It takes a while, but it works and the junk gets skimmed out right away. Before that, I used clean paper towels and wiped the surface of the water. I layed the entire paper on the surface of the water and would just drag it across the surface. I would then squeeze the excess water out of the paper towel and use a new sheet. It worked great and lost only a little bit of water each time.

 

Hi all

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't use an external filter so that type of surface skimmer is out of the question.
But i like the net and paper towel idea.

What i might do is get on of those tiny filters for goldfish and stick it upside down with part out of the water, that way its forced to suck in the surface! Might work. I know it will suck in air too, so thats why i would place it inside my internal Juwel filter box to hide any bubbles created! I got the idea from Inwall with his HOB suggestions

 

I concur with Matt, that's exactly the same design and parts as the Hagen/Fluval skimmer.. I have the Hagen version for my Aquaclear and it kiks!! Does a perfect job.. I'm sure my macro in my AC70 fuge ove the scum, too.