brown film on top of water

[bcollins]

my tanks been up for about 9 weeks now and its going through a diatom bloom. i came home from work tonite and theres a brown film on the top of the water. its a little slimy, i thought maybe it was my power head - a maxijet 1200, but the power head is still running strong.

do diatoms die and float to the top?

if not, any other ideas what this might be?

also, possibly related, my butterfly has red sores all around his snout.

any help would be much appreciated. thanks

[frosty]

Pretty common, I have it occasionally and other people do too. Most common solution I have heard on here is to turn a powerhead upside down so it "skims" it off the surface.

[Max]

Your tank is way too new for the butterfly . They need a well established tank to do well. I don't know what your water paramaters are but, it can't take amonia, nitrate or nitrite. I'd remove it to a well established tank asap or it probably won't make it.
hth
chris