# removing oil film on surface



## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

Some use paper towels, some use surface skimmers, etc. Best to find the cause, however.


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## Youjin (Mar 15, 2006)

I have the same problem.

I think it got to do with my hand having traces of oil when i put my hands into the tank. I reduce it by washing my hands thoroughly before working on the tank.

Is interested also to know how to physically remove the thin film of oil from the surface.


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## jake (Feb 20, 2004)

Increase surface agitation... turn the python upside down and make a bit of a whirlpool to suck it up when you do a water change....thaw/rinse frozen foods in dechlorinated water before feeding to fish...


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

DO NOT put your hands in the tank after putting on hand lotion or doing your hair in the morning and having residual hair gel or conditioner on them. I had a local lady at my club not realise that it was her lotion that was killing the fish. Problem went away as soon as she started rinsing her hands really well before messing in the tank.


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## fishunderpants (Mar 2, 2006)

There is a little add on that you can attach to your intake that appears to do a fine job. There is a big thread about it on here somewhere but I'm too lazy to find it.

I found the thread....Surface Skimmers UPDATE


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## aquamoon (Jul 26, 2004)

One time, at band camp, my fish food was high in protein and it caused a oily film to build up. Then a bear ate all the fish food, new f. food was lower in protein . No more bear....um...er...oily build up.


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## teban (Feb 2, 2006)

i dont use any lotion or gels etc. i do believe these are related to the food given to my fish. so using paper towels or napkins can solve the problem?

when we agitate the surface wont it cause the CO2 levels to drop?


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## Oqsy (Jul 3, 2004)

black mollies eat it... unless it's lotion  i run a venturi in my airhead to keep surface agitation and O2 levels at a good level (the only downside i've found is that i have to clean my reflectors and bulbs every couple of weeks to keep water deposits from decreasing my light level too much). i run co2 inline at about 90 bps and still have a darn high co2 level after adding air bubbles and surface agitation. it's just an issue of getting the air set first, and dialing in the co2 to a good level after that. yes, you will lose "some" co2, but its seeming like less and less of an issue for people all the time. increased o2 levels are good for plants at night, and fish all of the time, so it's really a win-win situation as long as you're not fighting to keep co2 in the water (DIY CO2, no CO2, or pressurized CO2 set too low). 

Oqsy


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Just get one of the Fluval surface skimmers from Big Als for $8.50. Zoom, in no time all surface gunk skimmed off the top. They attach to your cannister intake in the tank. http://www.bigalsonline.com/search/.../catalog3-1&keywords1=Surface+Skimmer&x=0&y=0


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## Youjin (Mar 15, 2006)

won't that introduce too much agitation of the water surface, causing CO2 loss ?


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## aquaphish (Dec 20, 2002)

Chances are the oily film on the water surface is proteins. I get it when I stop my CO2. Then when I restart it the stuff goes away. Why? Dunno. But it does. So try to increase your CO2 level.


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## Ktulu_JL (Apr 3, 2006)

I was just reading another website and thought of this thread right away. I jumped back over to plantedtank and saw Oqsy's post about the Mollies (Must have missed it the first time around). I checked my three tanks, and the only one with zero surface scum, is the one with the Mollies in it.

I have to make room and move my happy two Mollies into a 26gal bow with _plenty_ of surface scum in it. I will see what happens after some time and report back if anyone is interested.

I watched them for a while and saw them constantly agitating the surface and "messing" with it. If this is true, hmm... well, that's neat then I guess.

I guess I sound a little too excited, but adding two Mollies into a tank instead of another piece of unsightly eq. in the tank to try and hide sounds like a lot more fun to me, at least for my application.

I was on Hoa G. Nguyen's low-cost/low-tech webpage on Geo, he even included anchors in his page for a nice, direct link 
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/2637/comments.html?#ESE

cya


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## Anthony (Jan 11, 2005)

Aquaphish that makes sense also. My tank has been starting to get it worse and worse for the past week. 3 days ago I noticed that the bubble count on my regulator had dropped significantly(I ran out of co2 the next day, thank god for my co2 controller as both gauges on my regulator have broken from being submersed in Katrina). Now for the past 2 days with no co2 the film is horrible. But, I'm going to get a refill tommorrow and hopefully all will be better.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Andrew Tan said:


> won't that introduce too much agitation of the water surface, causing CO2 loss ?



Very Neglible. Just sucks down the surface scum. My spraybar puts out a lot of turbulence. I like to get plenty of O2 in the tank for the fish at night. I keep it open top with no air at night. CO2 is cheap anyways.


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## Ktulu_JL (Apr 3, 2006)

> I have to make room and move my happy two Mollies into a 26gal bow with _plenty_ of surface scum in it. I will see what happens after some time and report back if anyone is interested.


Well, obviously no one is interested, but I moved those two black mollies over, and any kind of surface scum was gone within 24 hours, and now my ten gallon that they came out of has scum in it  Plus they started mating again after being in the new tank for only about an hour.

cya


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## mikeredchurchstreet (Mar 30, 2011)

Ktulu - I'm going to try that today, and see if it works....


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## AndiH (Apr 4, 2010)

Mollies huh? I find that very interesting and I'll keep it in mind


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## Vancat2 (Jun 23, 2010)

+1 on the mollies
they worked for me


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## Teddy372 (Apr 28, 2014)

Molly's are a brackish water fish. So although they will clean the surface, i'm not sure if they'd be happy without some salt in their tank. my 2 cents.


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## AshNeon93 (Jan 11, 2014)

Just use kitchen roll, lay it on the top then slide it off. Don't use toilet paper as I did it fell apart immediately!


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## Gop (Sep 6, 2014)

I need to remove the oil slick every 2 days. 

Skimming and blotting both work but are not so convenient. In my configuration I notice that the slick appears in the return chamber of the overflow tank. I have a planted tank without fish so food isn't contributing of the oil layer and since there is no cooking done inside, cooking oil and fat vapour is not the origin. It may well come from the normal cycle of plant growth, biofilm and possibly from plasticisers (DEHP) in the system flexible PVC hosing which leaches over time.

One method for mopping up environmental oil spills is to use bundled human hair. I decided to try this and see. Basically I took a handful of washed human hair and placed it in a media bag. The bag then I supported so that it was at the surface of the return chamber of the return tank and that the water could flow around and into the bundle. The oil diminished dramatically.

I wash the bag of hair in a strong solution of dishwashing detergent every 2 days and rinse it thoroughly.


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