oily water

[Fred Raud]

i have one oscar,,and a jack dempsy in a 55gallon tank(please dont lecture me on your opinions on tank size and oscars),,i dont think i am over feeding them,i only feed them when the oscar comes up and asks for food(times i enjoy much),,im going to test the water again today,,buti dont think its a water issue,,

the water has a oily water layer to it that seems to have just shown up,,that and alot of redish algae,,ive been told the algae is due to the light being on 24/7 so i got a timer and that will fix that i hope,,

Fred Raud

[blu]

From what I know it means high nitrate levels

[cocoa_pleco]

is it oily or more of a film on the water surface?

[MeganL3985]

I had the same problem with my 5 gallon tank....it was there for like a week and then it disappeared. Never did figure out what it was...cause even changing the water didnt help. It just showed up and disappeared a week later.

[Fred Raud]

its a film

but has an oily look to it,,but it is definately a film

Fred Raud

[stunner]

I had a little bit of an oily film on my 29 gallon...but it only happened when the water level was high enough that the discharge from the HOB hardly made any surface turbulence. Now I keep the water level a little lower (I can actually hear the water discharging from the HOB now), and I don't have the film.

[blu]

Oh yeah I forgot about the surface agitation thing. Sometimes my bettas tank gets it b/c theres not much surface agitation

[Fred Raud]

I had a little bit of an oily film on my 29 gallon...but it only happened when the water level was high enough that the discharge from the HOB hardly made any surface turbulence. Now I keep the water level a little lower (I can actually hear the water discharging from the HOB now), and I don't have the film.
i think thats it,,i did raise my tank level a bit too much,,and there is no turbulance,,i actually got concerned my filter pump was bad since it wasnt looking right,,ill bucket some out tonight,,thanks!

Fred Raud

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, film is caused by too little surface disruption

[hack]

Thanks for the information on this subject.
I used to have that problem too. Didn't know what caused it.
I would sop the surface with paper towels until the film was gone.

[Fred Raud]

well,,i lowered my water level a few inches,,and over night fixed the issue!!!Thanx all!

Fred Raud