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glo
Tue Jul 03, 2007, 12:40 PM
I restarted up my planted discus tank a few weeks back after moving house and a couple of weeks after I reintroduced the fish, a film developed on the surface of the water that looks like an oil slick except it covers the whole surface and is like a hazy film. When I remove most of this through a water change, it seems to grow back after a couple of days.

I did have an algae problem at first until I double dosed the tank with excel. The plants seem to be growing well now and there is a small pleco that helps keep away the algae. I fertilize very little due to the fish load (once a week) using seachem flourish and iron and have a seachem substrate. Low light plants, almost 2wpg, half dosing with excel. Everything seems to be ok except surface scum and one discus. I did notice a lot of muck in my canister when I cleaned it out recently ie much more than is usually the case and this may have been due to the 'dirt' in the new substrate as I did not completely wash all of this out (tried but took ages to rinse and re-rinse etc).

Any ideas on what this is and how to get rid of this?

Scotty Bils
Tue Jul 03, 2007, 01:05 PM
I had the same problem with my tank about 2 months ago until I hooked up an Eheim surface skimmer. It works a treat. My surface water is now always clear. I can not remember how much I paid for it as it is about 5 years old! They are still selling what looks like the same one online.

shawn barker
Tue Jul 03, 2007, 04:01 PM
I had problems with this sort of film but could not find where to buy a fresh water skimmer in the UK. Therefore I made one.

Works really well as well, have a look here and see what you think

http://www.tetratopia.com/surface-skimmer

takes a little fine tuning but it works really well, crystal clear water surface again. :lol:

glo
Fri Jul 06, 2007, 10:46 AM
All, thanks very much for the advice and help

Davo
Sat Jul 07, 2007, 11:14 AM
I have a eheim surface skimmer for sale. It is brand new, has never been used. $40.

Dave.

lighter
Sat Jul 07, 2007, 11:28 PM
Use a surface skimmer to remove that, its very useful.

glo
Sun Jul 08, 2007, 06:40 AM
Davo,

Thanks for the offer, but I purchased a surface skimmer before I read your reply.