film on surface of water.

[annewayne]

my question is there is a oily film on the surface of the water,there doesnt appear to be any effect on tne corals or fish. my question is what is this and how do i get rid of it.

 

[got2lb]

Do you have a sump? If so you need to make it so that your overflow is only skimming the surface water off. I was having the same problem on mine. My overflow has teeth cut into it. So I actually took some acrylic and covered up the teeth to make it flat all the way across now it skims that stuff off of the surface and I don't have any problems.

 

[annewayne]

yes,i have a sump with a skimmer in it.my tank has the corner overflows built in to it.i clean my filters on the overflows daily trying to get rid of this

 

[lllosingit]

Your overflow should pull the film in as the water drains to the sump, That is where your problem is, Anyway you can get a picture of the overflow?

 

[lllosingit]

One more question? what is the water level in your overflow box?
Do you run a standpipe of some kind?
If the water level in the overflow is to high it could keep the overflow from pulling in the surface crud.

 

[annewayne]

i would but my 6-year old son lost usb cord for camera. i will try to buy one tonight. thank you for your help.

 

[Atticus]

Sounds like the water level is too high in the overflow, like mentioned above. Odds are you are feeding frozen foods that contain the oil that you are seeing. Thaw and rise your food.

 

[tibbs2]

I had a similar problem when I had my powerheads set up a certain way. The tunze was blowing all the film to the opposite side of the overflow and it began to look really ugly until I re-arranged the location of the pumps.

Chris

 

[mthedude]

The oil will be there no matter what you feed. It's the disolved organics that your skimmer will pull out. You just need to make sure your overflow is pulling the surface water out and it goes directly to your skimmer input pump. You can point a powerhead at the surface to break it up but you'll need to make sure your sump has a higher turnover rate so as so make sure your skimmer is getting the organics out of the water collumn.

 

[annewayne]

thank you for everybodys help.you made me think about the powerhead setup,i moved them around and up a little,it cleared it up,and i cleaned my overflow intakes a little.everything looks fine now.