film at the top of the tank?

[slowjazz]

I have good water movement at the top and middle of my tank. (3 months old, 55gal salt tank) I keep noticing a clear to white slime floating around at the top of the tank. I usually scoop some of it each night with a fish net. I noticed that when I scoop the stuff it will goop together into a white looking slime and just float around the tank. The tank itself is clear, I have some red cyano in the sand now and then. So.. what is the slime stuff? How do I get rid of it? I have a protein skimmer, but this stuff is floating above the intake. Picture is of me pointing up from the middle/bottom of the tank to the top. (pieces are floating around pretty fast) Lights are blue, thus the tint.

 

[kilo32]

Just as your protein skimmer uses micro bubbles to produce a skim that goes into the cup this could also be the same process occurring inside your tank. Check and make sure that you are not introducing micro bubbles via your return line. This could be either from a low water level in your sump allowing the return pump to suck air or it could be the discharge pipe from your skimmer is returning directly into your sump loaded with bubbles. You can avoid this by directing your skimmer discharge pipe to empty onto a sponge (possibly between the chanbers if your set up has one or you may be able to put a sock on the discharge pipe to break up the bubbles.

 

[rbredding]

slowjazz;684758 wrote: I have good water movement at the top and middle of my tank.

not good enough...

adequate surface agitation is what stops that film from happening..

there are a couple ways to get it out of there.. Add surface skimming to your skimmer (a box with "skimming teeth" is all you need).. if you've got a Remora skimmer, it's an option..

you can also DIY a skimmer box...

that's really the only way to completely remove it..

it's protein, just like the other post suggested..

 

[slowjazz]

kilo32;684770 wrote: Just as your protein skimmer uses micro bubbles to produce a skim that goes into the cup this could also be the same process occurring inside your tank. Check and make sure that you are not introducing micro bubbles via your return line. This could be either from a low water level in your sump allowing the return pump to suck air or it could be the discharge pipe from your skimmer is returning directly into your sump loaded with bubbles. You can avoid this by directing your skimmer discharge pipe to empty onto a sponge (possibly between the chanbers if your set up has one or you may be able to put a sock on the discharge pipe to break up the bubbles.

I have the black sponge that comes with the skimmer attached to the return pipe. It feeds directly into the tank. (Eshopps psk-100h) It is a hob skimmer.
The water level in my tank has the sponge/return pipe under the water. Should it be 100% out of the water? I do notice small bubbles that attach to the sponge, but I do not see any bubbles in the tank itself.

 

[rjrgroup]

Try angling a powerhead up more. I had the same problem and simply positioned one powerhead up another couple degrees to break the surface. It went away immediately...

 

[slowjazz]

rjrgroup;684979 wrote: Try angling a powerhead up more. I had the same problem and simply positioned one powerhead up another couple degrees to break the surface. It went away immediately...

thought of that too. I have my return line from the filter pointing up to the wall/top. (breaks the surface) It moves all the junk around.

I read a few posts about having the skimmer near the intake. Currently I have the return line near the top part of the tank on the left side, the HOB skimmer a few inches in the water on the right side of the tank and the intake line near the bottom of the tank on the right side. I wouldn't think the bubbles, if any, are getting sucked back in as the skimmer return is near the top and the filter intake is near the bottom. Might move it around tonight.
Maybe I need to move the skimmer return near the flow of the filter return? (or near a power head?)

 

[jennm]

If it's a reef-ready tank, try cleaning the junk out of the overflow teeth. More often than not, we find they are clogged up and that's what is not allowing the water to flow down there freely enough to keep scum from forming.

Jenn

 

[slowjazz]

blakejohn;685036 wrote: If you don't have any micro bubbles in the tank or very few then it has nothing to do with the skimmer and everything to do with surface agitation.

If you don't have any sort of surface skimming box the surface agitation is needed even more to get the gunk that causes the film to be mixed within the tank and be able to get to the skimmer.

The surface water should not be calm or just a little ripple and not so turbulent it looks like feeding piranas either.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Got it 'fixed' I moved around the powerhead and return tube. I think my problem was that i had both of them pointing at each other and that was causing the water at the top to slow. I ended up moving the power head from middle/straight on the side of the tank to middle/back angle to the front and then the return tube I pointed more up and back. the water at the top is now moving and within minutes the film broke up and moved around the tank. (filters sucked up up )

 

[rjrgroup]

:djsmilie: