# film on water



## mrtarkanian (Jan 27, 2012)

Hello everyone! I recently set up my 55g again with live plants and the proper gravel. I have had the tank running for just about a week now. My LFS has a really nice display tank set up that the guy was showing me and was saying how Its better with a canister filter and no surface agitation to the water so that co2 doesn't escape in the bubbles. In the past ive always had filters that pour the water back in and have ever encountered this problem before but over the last day I've noticed that there is now a film on the top of the water. my guess is that im going to need a protein skimmer??? not quite sure as i thought they were mostly a salt water tank thing. Am I correct or can someone point me in the right direction for solving this? Or would a simple water change concentrating on whats on top do the trick? Thanks for the help! I also uploaded(hopefully) some pics in my gallery to help see what im dealing with


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## phil_n_fish (Nov 19, 2011)

Welcome to the forum!

Protein skimmers are only for marine/saltwater setups. Using it in freshwater will keep it from foaming up. 
I had this problem before. I just increased the surface movement. You don't have to agitate the surface to move it. 
I use a spray bar underneath the surface about an inch under the surface and have it point straight out. This caused the surface to clear up. My canister filter came with a spray bar. If you don't have a spray bar, you can just have the filter's exhaust come out right below the surface or use a power head.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Sounds like typical biofilm. Common in low/zero current tanks.

Phil has a good recommendation with the spray bar. Another option is to run an airstone for a little while a night.


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## mrtarkanian (Jan 27, 2012)

thanks for the help guys ill give that a try and see if i can get the water moving a little better and get it to clear up


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

agreed. more surface agitation will help to resolve the issue


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

The film you need to be concerned about is when it has rainbow colors. Biofilm will not have that.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

I used to get a film on my tanks at about 3weeks to a couple of months or so.

I now "trap" the peatmoss under a sand substrate which prevents most of that.

As I remember the film went away over time and was greatly reduced after adding the first platy or guppy. they kinda act like vacuum cleaners constantly cleaning the surface.

my .02


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

If the film doesn't come from anything but organisms in the tank....how is it that peat has anything to do with keeping it away? I can see where a zero flow tank wouldn't get it at all.

The film is harmless and most tanks with any surface movement at all don't get it.


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## mike87 (Jan 28, 2012)

if you are wanting to keep surrace agiation down then you can buy a surface skimmer to replace your intake for canister with will clean the surface with no agitation. Also a protein skimmer would do nothing in a fw tank and not even worth thinking about


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