Need Some Help

Hi folks, got adviced by a friend to join this forum as he said it was very resourceful..

I bought a new tank a few days ago, Fluval Roma 90litre... I set it all up and have been doing my water treatment as instructed by the bottle, I put in some plants when I filled it up and now I have seen that there is an oily type layer on the surface of the water with white fluffy type stuff that basically looks like dead skin cells... I figure this is not normal? I have my filter set up and my heater set at 25degrees. I have attached an image that I have taken of it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance..

P.S my tank is fishless at the moment.

MrPolaris said:

Hi folks, got adviced by a friend to join this forum as he said it was very resourceful..

I bought a new tank a few days ago, Fluval Roma 90litre... I set it all up and have been doing my water treatment as instructed by the bottle, I put in some plants when I filled it up and now I have seen that there is an oily type layer on the surface of the water with white fluffy type stuff that basically looks like dead skin cells... I figure this is not normal? I have my filter set up and my heater set at 25degrees. I have attached an image that I have taken of it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance..

P.S my tank is fishless at the moment.

Click to expand...

it wont let me view the picture link i dont know why, anyone on top of the water which u would think is oil it isnt but looks like it is, its nothing to worry about its just the ammonia so its nothing to worry about, the white stuff is nothing to be worried about but dont just leave it tho someone with more experience can answer better

Thank you for the quick reply, I'm not sure about how links are ruled here, so appologies if I'm not allowed...

here is the link to it, http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1135/24608101501593369206448.jpg

Hi MrPolaris welcome to fishforums,

cant help with what the oily substance is, but what product have you been using in your tank so far.

are you familiar with cycling your tank? are you doing a fishin cycle or a fishless cycle?

you can read about cycling in the beginners-resource-center

a good article to read is the fishless cycle, you can read it by clicking this link it is a real good read, that a lot of the local fish shops wont tell you about, as they would rather you spend more money in buying the products they sell in store.

I am coming to the end of my first fishless cycle and can say so far its been a breeze to do and my tank/filter is now clearing all the ammonia and nitrites within 12 hours. ammonia and nitrites can hurt fish and even kill them. have a good read and decide if fishin or fishless cycling is for you.

im sure that a more experianced member will be along soon to try and help with the oily substance you are getting

Good luck

Danny

Hi Danny, thank you for the reply, and that link much appreciated.. I used Nutrafin Aqua Plus to kill off the chlorine in my tap water and I used Nutrafin Cycle for what is said to be used for 3 days..

Yeah the cycle that comes with the Roma tanks is their bio start thing. In using mine I found it really didn't speed things up at all.

Have a look at the cycling info in the beginners resource area.

At this forum people will try and persuade you to do a fishless cycle which basically means adding ammonia to the tank. At 4 or 5 ppm, when it clears add again. Keep going until it's clearing that amount in 12 hours.

There's more detail in the resource area but that's the basics.
Doing it that way will save your fish from suffering.

Do you have a test kit yet?

Oh, and the oily stuff is protein I believe. You can get it off the top with a bit of kitchen roll. One tip was to line a fish net with the kitchen roll to make it easier.

Thank you.. Turns out my filter was set too low in the tank. I raised it up and has been disturbing the water more and has cleared it out.

Thanks for the help!