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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Dealing with oily film on water surface

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24 Nov 2011 18:36 #1 by ghart (Greg Hart)
I would be interested to hear what method/s the experienced aquarists on the forum use to remove the oily film that can develop on the water surface of a tropical aquarium. I believe that this can affect the oxygen and other gas exchanges for the aquarium.

I see JBL has a product call Top Clean or Surface Skimmer for tropical tanks you attach it to the in tube on an external filter. Have any of the members used this item and is it worth getting to overcome the problem mentioned.

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24 Nov 2011 18:46 #2 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Dealing with oily film on water surface
You only need to use your Filter to stop the problem, if most people shut off any equipment that causes the surface to be broken they would end up with scummy surface. Use a Spray-bar, bubbler or set your Internal Filter high enough so it's return is breaking the surface tension, chemicals are, imo, unnecessary.

Kev.

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24 Nov 2011 19:03 #3 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Kev,
I do use a spray bar to break the surface at the moment but it does not remove the problrm for me.
I get over this when I do a water change. I use newspaper on the surface to soak and then lift it off to remove the film on the surface. Any surface plants have to netted first and then put back when finished.
I tend to do this with every water change and tanl cleanup exercise.

Greg

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24 Nov 2011 19:11 #4 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Dealing with oily film on water surface
That's a pain in the Butt, Newspaper does work but who knows WHAT is going into making Ink these days...

How old is the Aquarium and equipment and where is it located?

Kev.

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24 Nov 2011 20:17 #5 by ghart (Greg Hart)
It is an old AquaOne 3' tank 175 Litres.
I have a couple of discus some rummy and cardinal tetras, corys and a golden nugget plec.
I do feed the discus mostly frozen food which may be causing the film on the water (though I do drain the excess water from the food when it is defrosted.
I use an Eheim Pro 3 canister filter and internal box filter. The return spray bar stretches most of the length of the tank and the flow from is not bad.
All is going well it is just finding a better method to remove the build up of the oily film on the surface.
The JBL Top Clean device looked interesting.

Greg

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24 Nov 2011 21:26 #6 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Dealing with oily film on water surface
Ok Greg, did a little bit of digging and the guys on the Plantedtank.com website say this is the Buisness.

www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CA...OD_ID=01002400020101

Kev.

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24 Nov 2011 22:18 #7 by AquaticGardenDan (Daniel Madziag)
Bacterial scum - the type of biofilm, a thin film of bacteria, organic matter and dust, picking up and floating on the surface of the water in the aquarium.
The membrane is usually microscopic and under normal conditions is often imperceptible. Composed primarily of bacteria existing on the surface of the water and impurities accumulated there.

Conditions favoring formation :
stagnation of water in the aquarium, its poor circulation,
no protection against pollution of the aquarium air
negligence and aquarium admission to the accumulation of large amounts of organic pollutants,
leaving on the surface not eaten fish food

It can be prevented by:
Increse water flow, direc outlet in to water surface,
Aeration,
Remowing not eaten food from surface,
Use the Spray bar,
on of my grandpa method was - collecting it with a bottle or jar submerged millimeter under water, causing the scum pouring in - you can collect up to 100% of bacteria.

Thats what I know about that oil film on the surface. I had the same problem in my 30l cube, I found out that external filter wasn't strong inuf, I've change and problem gone.
In Your case what I will do on first step is good filter cleaning, and change filter media.
Get the glass Lilypipe outlet, they are great and submerged 2-3mm under water, they do same work as scimmer. They can increse water circulation as well,
You can also try circulators.


Hope that will help to You


Dan.

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24 Nov 2011 23:57 #8 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Thanks Dan!
All sound advise. I will be changing to a larger tank soon so will look to get a suitable filter. What turnover capacity should a good filter have to achieve this turn around. Should it be twice or three times the tank capacity per hour? The current tank is 175 litres the new one will be 380 litres.I was looking to use a JBL CristalProfi e1500 for the new tank.
Any advise would be appreciated.

Greg

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25 Nov 2011 01:09 #9 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)
Hi, when I get a buildup of this film I usually get a smallest tube for siphoning water and place it on the surface. first till you get the water flowing you have it fully in the water, but then when the flow is good try to lift it up to take 50/50 air with water. This way you siphon very little water, but a lot of surface. I actually discovered this while trying different stuff.
Other thing you could try is redirecting output of the filter higher and at the same time towards the other end of the tank, creating a circle flow on the surface. worked for me.

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25 Nov 2011 15:11 #10 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Thanks for the input guys.All good tips.
Simtas5 use of small tubing is very good but I am looking for something that will do the job continually.
Kev's reference to the Fluval device is interesting.
I will be using a JBL external filter so the below item looked interesting..
www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/fish/technic_and_...es/oxygen/jbl/186001

Has anyone used either of these 2 devices. If so any comments would be welcome.

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25 Nov 2011 15:20 #11 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Dealing with oily film on water surface
By all accounts the cause is from the use of high Protein Foods. The cure... ahem.. not so easy

Kev.

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10 Dec 2011 15:05 #12 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
I am afraid I don't agree with this you can have an aquarium with high flow rate, low stocked, low feeding regime and you can still get this scum, if you remove 90% of scum it it back the next day to cover all the 100% of the surface , it tends to occur in a freshwater only system with little or no plant growth, if you add hardy plants e.g Java fern and stock/ plant 50% or more of the rear of the tank with these nutrient sponges with roots above the gravel layer suck up the nutrients that these scum rely on and the scum disappears with 2 or 3 days without even bothering to mechanically remove the scum.

Bacterial scum - the type of biofilm, a thin film of bacteria, organic matter and dust, picking up and floating on the surface of the water in the aquarium.
The membrane is usually microscopic and under normal conditions is often imperceptible. Composed primarily of bacteria existing on the surface of the water and impurities accumulated there.

Conditions favoring formation :
stagnation of water in the aquarium, its poor circulation,
no protection against pollution of the aquarium air
negligence and aquarium admission to the accumulation of large amounts of organic pollutants,
leaving on the surface not eaten fish food

It can be prevented by:
Increse water flow, direc outlet in to water surface,
Aeration,
Remowing not eaten food from surface,
Use the Spray bar,
on of my grandpa method was - collecting it with a bottle or jar submerged millimeter under water, causing the scum pouring in - you can collect up to 100% of bacteria.

Thats what I know about that oil film on the surface. I had the same problem in my 30l cube, I found out that external filter wasn't strong inuf, I've change and problem gone.
In Your case what I will do on first step is good filter cleaning, and change filter media.
Get the glass Lilypipe outlet, they are great and submerged 2-3mm under water, they do same work as scimmer. They can increse water circulation as well,
You can also try circulators.


Hope that will help to You


Dan.


That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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10 Dec 2011 15:39 #13 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Sean,
Thanks for the tip on the Plants and scum removal.
With my new tank I will be stocking up with lots of Bogwood and Java Fern as it will be a Discus Amazon type setup.

Greg

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09 Jan 2012 13:11 #14 by omen (Conor)
Well worth buying one of these:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Surface-Protein-Skimm...&hash=item4ab2a034ae

Use these on most of my tanks, looks to be a chinese rip-off of the Fluval one.

Does the job a treat, and for £8 you can't go wrong!

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09 Jan 2012 13:13 #15 by omen (Conor)
Oh and as for conditions, I have densely planted high tech and low tech tanks, all of which get 50% water changes each weak, have no algae or detritus, and are not over fed. Always have got bio-film, possibly down to tap water?

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09 Jan 2012 13:59 #16 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Omen,
Thanks for the tip.
I am a bit confused as to the workings of the device mentoned. What do you attach to the output tube shown on the picture :huh: I do not have a sump on my tank .

Greg

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09 Jan 2012 18:58 #17 by omen (Conor)
You attach to an external filter input pipe. It draws water from the bottom, and skims from the top. There is an adjustable screw thingy going through the middle of it to allow adjustment for more flow from beneath or via skimmer. I highly recommend these! Though you probably do require an external filter for best results!

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