Tank Water Is Oily

[adammichael]

The surface of my water looks really oily when its settled for a good day it looks metalic. what is the cause of this and what do i do. i feed my fish just tetra flakes and i have a terta aquart tank

 

[dthoffsett]

I've had this happen in a couple of my tanks, most notably my betta tank (since they like little to no water movement). I believe it is a build up of proteins and a sign that you don't have enough surface movement. I was able to remedy this by adding an air stone. Temporarily, you can skim a paper towel over the surface to soak up the oily stuff, but you'll want to change something, add an air stone or stronger filter. The "oily stuff" cuts down of the oxygen exchange on the surface.

 

[idlefingers]

I've had this happen in a couple of my tanks, most notably my betta tank (since they like little to no water movement). I believe it is a build up of proteins and a sign that you don't have enough surface movement. I was able to remedy this by adding an air stone. Temporarily, you can skim a paper towel over the surface to soak up the oily stuff, but you'll want to change something, add an air stone or stronger filter. The "oily stuff" cuts down of the oxygen exchange on the surface.

I'll second that. You could also just move the filter outlet to break the surface more if you dont want to buy an airstone or new filter.

Adding more biological filtration will also help.

 

[rdd1952]

It could be something that you had on your hands and got into the tank such as hand lotion but doesn't neccessarily have to be. I thought that was the case with my tanks until I ran some water in a bucket and let it sit for 3 days and it kimmed over so i know it's the water and not the tank or something I've put in it.

Since my tap water is prone to having a film, I run an airstone in my betta tank with it turned down fairy low so that there are just enough bubbles to keep it broken up. I run surface skimmers on my canister filters on my 75 gallon tank to keep it sucked off and I keep the water level down just a bit on my 29 gallon so the HOBs cause some surface disturbance.

 

[adammichael]

how long do air stones last for

i could do with an air pump in my tank but its only 60l so its not really worth it

 

[idlefingers]

air stones attach to the air pump.. they disperse the bubbles into smaller ones, so you'd need a pump to have an air stone.

 

[rdd1952]

The stones will last quite a while. The sand or what ever they are made from will rub off when they get wet if you put any pressure on them but ust being in the tank, they will be fine for a long time. Technically, you don't really even need the stone on the end. They just create more bubbles that what you would get with just the air line running from the air pump.