film on top of water

[Marineaqua2036]

I have a film on top of my water in the display and I cant figure out how to get rid of it, I lowered my overflow down a little to see if that would help and it didnt......any advice is appreciated. Thanks

[Slakker]

I had this problem in my nano, what I did was I would use a cup to skim the surface of the water for my water changes (I'd push it straight down so that water would flow into it like it does your overflow)

Using paper towel to soak up the surface water also worked pretty well for me.

[worleywoo]

get a powerhead near the top it works for me

[Bandsaw]

Are you running a skimmer? If so, is it pulling out a lot of junk and how do you have it installed (using a surface skimmer attachment or in sump, etc).

The film you are seeing is likely a thin layer of proteins building up. Something that your skimmer should be pulling from the tank.

[sps1-2-b]

Yeah, just make sure the powerhead gives you surface agitation. So maybe point the output towards surface.

[doubleduece]

Ditto bandsaw andsps12b

lower your overflow some more.

What kind of tank is it???????

[BuddhaKiss]

What kind of overflow do you have? HOB or internal?

I'm a go on a limb here and say try raisng your overflow. In my setup my return pump is rather weak (a Mag 2). And I find that if I lower my overflow (HOB), it can't keep up. The box fills up more with water and the surface skimming is slower. By raising it, the water level in the overflow box drecreases, thus giving my return pump a chance to catch up....if that makes any sense. IDK, if lowering the overflow doesn't work, try raising it.

A powerhead providing surface agitation will help.

[Marineaqua2036]

I have a skimmer in my sump, it is a big odyssea, it is pulling all kinds of crap in the cup! My overflow in HOB and my returnm has no problem keeping up, I actually had to install a ball valve to slow it down.

[doubleduece]

10 4 buddha, after reading your post I realized thats what I meant, good call. I have a moveable gate on my RSM, I have to raise it to keep the water level in the tank a smidge higher than the water level in the back section.....