What's This White 'film' On My Water Surface!

[woody88]

What is it?.........I don't think its my skimmer as the water in the skimmer wier is clear and the skimmer is working correctly [sucking up froth in to the cup and not leeching back into system].

I dont think its any form of decay as I have not lost any fish/inverts etc and my ammonia & trite stats both read zero]

I have 3 theories :

1/ My 720 lph [stock] pump powering my spraybar simply is'nt powerful enough to force the water through the inlet and through the weirs as my powerhead is facing the same direction and is possibly disturbing the flow from the spraybar.

2/I have recently been dosing TMC nutra plus reef feed into my tank [3 ml] every 2 days as it contains pods etc and is a very thick Yellow substance which clouds the tank up for a good half hour. [I turn pumps off for 15 min to allow it to settle at the bottom for fish/inverts to pick off]. Could it be leftover?

3/Ive had my hands in the tank quite a bit over the past few days [cleaning/adjusting etc] and ive always made sure my hands are clean before they go in. Could it be something off me tho?

I've always had some type of film/bits etc at the top since I first had the tank but recently it seems to have worsened slightly.

My water stats are all good! [amm,trite,trate,ph,phos,cal,sg,temp,kh]

Any advice please as it's driving me nutz!

It looks worse in the pic than what it actually is, but its still noticable!

 

[Donya]

Can't really tell what's goin on from the pic (surface films are tough to capture well!). Is it foamy, or is it more oily-looking? It could well be buildup from the new food depending on what's in it.

From the photo it looks like the spraybar is completely submerged and rippling but not breaking the surface. Is anything in the tank either breaking the surface or taking water from from it directly (some kind of an overflow/surface skimmer)? Although they increase the noise level of a tank, those are the two methods that usually do in surface films pretty well. Otherwise they can build up on even pretty actively moving water.

 

[woody88]

Can't really tell what's goin on from the pic (surface films are tough to capture well!). Is it foamy, or is it more oily-looking? It could well be buildup from the new food depending on what's in it.

From the photo it looks like the spraybar is completely submerged and rippling but not breaking the surface. Is anything in the tank either breaking the surface or taking water from from it directly (some kind of an overflow/surface skimmer)? Although they increase the noise level of a tank, those are the two methods that usually do in surface films pretty well. Otherwise they can build up on even pretty actively moving water.

Hi donya, no froth, not really a film (only partially) mainly what looks like debris. think it's mainly my hands now as a piece of coral dropped down and when I put my hand in it seemed to be coming off my arm so my bad!

Have now adjusted spraybar to break the water surface and re positioned the powerhead to move it toward the the inlet so will see how that goes.

Thanks x

 

[HappyGeorge]

Definitely aurora borealis LOOK

either that or when you put your hand in the tank you have contaminated it? Did you get near the powerhead? Count your fingers.

 

[woody88]

Definitely aurora borealis LOOK

either that or when you put your hand in the tank you have contaminated it? Did you get near the powerhead? Count your fingers.

I'm ok. still got 7 fingers on each hand. I should move to ipswich! I'd fit in up there with they're webbed feet!