White Surface Film On Water

[celaeno]

everytime i do water changes and fill the bucket with lukewarm tap water, there's a white surface film on it. it disappears after a few minutes and seems to release gas in the process.

anyone know what this is, and if i have to wait every time for it to fizz out before pouring the bucket into my tank?

 

[underworld]

I want to know also.

 

[celaeno]

anyone?

 

[dthoffsett]

I'll take a stab at answering this although I'm not positive that I'm correct.

I imagine your water is pretty hard. Hard water has high amounts of calcium and magnesium salts, when heated over time they can form scale in water heaters etc. I think what you are seeing are the minerals sitting temporarily on the surface because they have been heated causing them to "stick" together to form larger molecules (eventually would become scale). I could be totally off base though.

And no, it wouldn't be harmful to your fish.

 

[celaeno]

I'll take a stab at answering this although I'm not positive that I'm correct.

I imagine your water is pretty hard. Hard water has high amounts of calcium and magnesium salts, when heated over time they can form scale in water heaters etc. I think what you are seeing are the minerals sitting temporarily on the surface because they have been heated causing them to "stick" together to form larger molecules (eventually would become scale). I could be totally off base though.

And no, it wouldn't be harmful to your fish.

i think you replied to the wrong thread. >.>

 

[dthoffsett]

everytime i do water changes and fill the bucket with lukewarm tap water, there's a white surface film on it. it disappears after a few minutes and seems to release gas in the process.

anyone know what this is, and if i have to wait every time for it to fizz out before pouring the bucket into my tank?

I'll take a stab at answering this although I'm not positive that I'm correct.

I imagine your water is pretty hard. Hard water has high amounts of calcium and magnesium salts, when heated over time they can form scale in water heaters etc. I think what you are seeing are the minerals sitting temporarily on the surface because they have been heated causing them to "stick" together to form larger molecules (eventually would become scale). I could be totally off base though.

And no, it wouldn't be harmful to your fish.

i think you replied to the wrong thread. >.>

This is the thread I was replying to. That's why I was talking about heated water causing you to be able to see temporarily the minerals on the surface. That is assuming your TAP water is on the hard side. And no, you don't have to wait before adding it to the tank.

 

[celaeno]

my tap water has a kh/gh of 2-3, so it's fairly soft.