The top of the water has like a coating of film

i used to have the flim in my frag tank untill i took out my smaller hydors and put in my mj1200 with teh 2100gph sureflo mood, took care of it right away

 

so here's what just happend, i faced the powerhea towards the surface, a piece of the powerhead popped up and i went to reach it as it went flying across the tank, it landed on the bottom, so i reached in, not only did i get myself a little wet, a few rocks fell over and hit the glass. Thankfully not hard and doesnt look like they left any scratches. While feeling the rocks i grabbed the rocks to hopefullly put them in a safe position i felt a few soft spots on them, which reminded me of touching rotten fruit. But lol i'm at least thankfull that the glass didn't scratch, and i guess that means i'm done with touching the tank for the rest of the night

 

Putting your hands in the tank will get that scum on the top of the water as well.

The oils and crud on your skin will come off in the tank. A lot of times skimmers stop skimming after you have had your hand in the tank.

The skimmer looks like it has a surface skimmer on it from the factory. Is this on yours? is it adjusted properly? If it is too high, It will not suck in the scum.

Reef Octopus BH 800S Hang on Back Protein Skimmer with Sicce Pump by CoralVue* - AquaCave



It is the clear box with the teeth on the left over the inlet.

 

yea, i usually don't put my hands in the tank, but last night i had too. And yup that's the skimmer that i have, seems to be adjust properly, it's been pulling out a lot of skimmate.

but i don't have that little white tube with blue cap, and i think that's the make below the 800 also as it has a red band and i have clear

 

The scum is the reason why I added a sump and overflow. Takes care of it instantly. Pointing the powerheads at the surface just moved the scum to the corners for me.

Using the overflow attachment for my AquaC Remora Pro helped. But it was very sensitive to water level. Had to really stay on top of the top offs. Was constantly coming home from work to hear the MJ1200 running dry in the Remora's overflow.

Decided to go with a sump and auto top off. Works great.

 

yea, i wish i could be able to have a sump, but can't.

 

Well, if you can get that overflow adjusted on your skimmer you should be all right. It's just more work.

 

what part is the overflow?

 

Does your skimmer have he clear box over the intake? The top of the clear box should be out of the water. This forces the skimmer to pull water from the surface. The scum on the surface will get sucked in with the water.

 

+1 for me, this moved it around and I used a net to pull it out. BUT, it kept it from coming back

the film needs a calm surface to form because of water tension. Remove (well, reduce) the tension (via agitation) and the oils won't float and accumulate.

This is the overflow on my octopus sticking out of the water. You should have the same thing on your skimmer

If your rocks fall over that easily from you bumping them, I'd be concerned about fish or snails one day knocking them over... I would look into securing your rocks better by either epoxy or just simply rearranging them.

No idea on the soft spots... algae?