Film on water

[Oldspartan]

Big Blue, the half moon Betta, is in 5 gallon tank. About a week ago after some reading I added a Catappa leaf. A free a few days I began noticing a rainbow slick on the water surface. Did the leaf cause this? The water parameters are largely the same

Am O
Ni 0
Na 5
PH 7.2 .. this is down from 7.4
GH 241
KH 130sh
Temp 78f

Tank is 5 gallon with granite rocks, Cherry branch, gravel, small gentle hob filter, heater, matrix. 2 gallon wc every 4 days.

Is this slick a normal result of the Catappa leaf?

 

[Aqua67]

No, the leaves should not cause that. I use catappa leaves and lots of other botanicals in all 6 of my tanks and they haven’t caused that. My open top tank does however get something like that every once in a while. At the risk of sounding like a nag, I do ask others in the house not to spray anything in the rooms with my fish tanks and if they must, to spray it on cloth in another room and then come in and do what they need to do. So I can’t say that isn’t happening. It is possible you had something on you when you stuck your hand/arm, etc in the aquarium to move something or take something out. I take a clean paper towel and set it on the water’s surface, then pull it up and stick a cup underneath to collect any water running off the napkin. I’m not talking about a dainty paper towel, I’m talking about a paper towel you can scrub with like a Brawny, or a Bounty.

 

[MaloK]

How old is your tank ?

Betta food is rich in protein and will have a tendency to create oil slicks even if slightly overfed...

What you are seeing is the acids from the tannins of your catappa leave that is fixating the oils from the uneaten food. If you remove it like suggested before and continue to add more tannins it will eventually digest it completely and prevent it's formation.

While these leaves release beneficial tannins in the water, they soon become depleted and leave a lot of matter to decompose in the water. I used them and find that you need some kind of critters that would feed on them.

Like Shrimps !

If you want to add tannins with minimal residue, Alder cones are very good, you have to watch them and remove them if necessary and it doesn't need a lot. At the moment I use Catappa leaf extract instead of real leaves, it's a lot more manageable.

And no film on my nearly no moving water tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Do you have a filter or air pump running?
Oily films in aquariums are normally from fish food and no surface turbulence.

You can use a paper towel to quickly wipe across the surface to remove some of it. You should also wipe around the inside of the tank near the water surface. Then increase aeration if you don't have any or much.

 

[Oldspartan]

Used paper towel as suggested.

I wash hands / arms. Pre and post putting them in tanks. I have reminded Linda who uses bountiful amount of lotion.

Filter creates a gentle flow. I have several sponge filters on order. Perhaps change the hob when the arrive?

No viable decomp on leaf yet. Has only been in a short time. I plan on changing it regularly before decomp.

Seems likely that over feed is partly to blame. Big Blue receives 6 to 8 grains of Aqueon betta food 2x daily and an occasional treat of frozen brine shrimp .. small part of cube.

 

[Colin_T]

Raise the filter outlet so it's slightly above the water surface or as close to the surface as possible.

Don't swap filters if you get a new filter. If you do get another filter and want to use it in that tank, take the filter media/ materials from the old filter and put it in the new filter so you have beneficial filter bacteria in the new filter. Then remove the old filter.

 

[Oldspartan]

Raised the filter enough to increase surface agitation but still a gentle flow.

 

[Colin_T]

See how it goes over the next few days. If the oily film reappears you will probably need an airstone bubbling away in the tank.

 

[Aqua67]

I have 2 fish tanks and 4 shrimp tanks. The fish tanks receive the same types of food, a huge variety. The only tank I ever see that surface slick on is the open top aquarium in my library. It has an airstone on full blast in one corner and a AquaClear 50 HOB with a prefilter added as an additional location for bacteria to colonize. It is an acrylic 29 gallon aquarium. I cannot confirm the fish food is doing this. My thoughts are that it is just something in the air circulating in my home. I don’t use air fresheners and rarely light scented candles, although I do enjoy them. I don’t know what causes it. I do wish I knew though. It doesn’t happen very often, but I wish I could determine. The fish in that aquarium seem to be just fine though and the only time I lose one is when my angelfish eats it or we have an extended power outage during winter months.

 

[gwand]

I have 2 fish tanks and 4 shrimp tanks. The fish tanks receive the same types of food, a huge variety. The only tank I ever see that surface slick on is the open top aquarium in my library. It has an airstone on full blast in one corner and a AquaClear 50 HOB with a prefilter added as an additional location for bacteria to colonize. It is an acrylic 29 gallon aquarium. I cannot confirm the fish food is doing this. My thoughts are that it is just something in the air circulating in my home. I don’t use air fresheners and rarely light scented candles, although I do enjoy them. I don’t know what causes it. I do wish I knew though. It doesn’t happen very often, but I wish I could determine. The fish in that aquarium seem to be just fine though and the only time I lose one is when my angelfish eats it or we have an extended power outage during winter months.

I have had a slick on my 10 gallon tank since inception December 2022. It has white cloud minnows and celestial pearl danios since January 2023. All original fish are still with me. If anything I underfeed.

 

[raylove]

Food can definitely be the cause. I've seen a film develop immediately around flakes dropped into the water from time to time but usually it disapates fairly quickly.
Last year though I had a persistent film which also accumulated in my floating plants. I never find paper towels particularly effective so I slowly skim it off the surface with a plastic beaker. Here's the thing - although it looked whitish and stringy on the surface, when collected in the cup it became concentrated and was very green in colour. There was no hint of that colour until it was accumulated in that way.
I concluded it was an algae or biofilm of some sort rather than being just an oily slick which it looked like. I threw out all of the floating plants but every time I skimmed it off it 'grew' back.
I subsequently invested in a Juwel surface skimmer - boy was that great! It sucked the film off in minutes! I put it on a timer to skim for three hours a day and never saw a surface film again.
Now, 18 months later I suspect it's no longer necessary but I still have it come on for an hour or so each day as a precaution. I now consider such a device as a must-have!