Milky foam on water surface =(

[twig]

Heeeelp ...
I've got this milky film that covers the surface of my 80 gallon tank and its getting pretty bad ... it's catching air bubbles and making it look like soap bubbles or something ....

I tried to remove as much of it as I could with a paper towel.. it'd like crumple up then sink and get sucked up by my filter but i can't get it all ...

The only place that doesn't have it is the ripples my fluval and powerhead make from hitting the wall (i wanted to get some good oxygen) ...

The tank is newly cycled and i've added four boesmani over the course of 3 weeks...

I've gotten .1 readings of ammonia when adding them but i've been doing water changes whenever ammonia or nitrite registers ....

How can I make this stuff go away? =( it's getting pretty bad.

I'm also wondering if maybe my boesmani are sick. When I bought them they were healthy looking but when I brought them home after a couple days they got a bit of cottonmouth... it's not been getting noticeably worse yet but with near daily 50% water cahnges it hasn't been getting better either. Should I treat the tank with Melafix? Could that be the cause of this white filmy crap?

This is awful. I mean I have some good ripple effect to aggitate the surface and oxygenate the water and theres lots of water movement (it's a hagen 70 powerhead on one side and the fluval 404 on the other)

gah!

 

[fish_freak]

sounds like you might have a lot of organic waste and a lot of water movement. When you see the foam in the ocean or a river it is organic waste bonded with air bubbles. A protien skimmer works on this exact principle. Wish I had a way to clear it up. I could be wrong here but thats the only thing besides a chemical that I could think would cause this to happen

 

[twig]

0.o I have java moss in the tank and that's it.

I only add prime to the water.

 

[echoofformless]

Prime contains stuff to stimulate the slime coat, iow - Prime has greesy crap in it that you don't need. But I seriously doubt it's causing this problem. Still, I would recommend switching to something like Amquel, which doesn't have that ingredient.

You're changing the water too much!! An aquarium only needs water changes 2-4 times a month if it's established and functioning well.

You shouldn't be getting readings for ammonia or nitrite at all, unless you had just fed the fish within the last few hours. Even then, that minute amount will disappear on its own within hours if you're tank is properly cycled.

I would treat with mela and pima fix 50/50 blend, change the water as per the bottle instructions, and not overfeed.

 

[twig]

been feeding once every second day .. water changes are to keep ammonia/nitrite from registering because i'm in a fishy cycle and i've just added a pair of boesmani on friday...

ill ease up on the Prime and see if it helps

will adding meta/primafix damage my bacteria?

 

[echoofformless]

Ah, fish-in cycle. Hmm. That changes things.

The boesmani are hardy fish, so in this case I would say it's a-okay to let the ammonia gather a bit. In fact it needs to if the bacteria are to get a good foothold. Just make sure you don't let the water turn to pure urine in your tests. As long as the ammonia readings are within the bottom half of the chart, your fish will be okay for short periods. Same for nitrite. Just remember to change the water when you see the stuff getting to be at dangerous levels. A fishy-in cycle in a tank of your size should be okay without water changes for a couple of days at least.

Such aggressive water changes as 50% a day, while keeping down the pollutants, will tend to annoy the fish and stress them out. In my experience a little ammonia or nitrite is a lot better than a lot of stress.

Now being as though you're in a fishy cycle, the prognosis for their health if it's going downhill is tricky. You might have to invest in a more hardcore medication if the infection is especially noticeable. I'm not one to give out advice without experience, so hopefully someone else can help you with treating the cottonmouth. Mela/Pima are more for very mild conditions, and/or prevention. I use them whenever I suspect a slight bit of fin rot or what not. I've been fortunate enough not to have had to deal with any significant fungal or bacterial conditions as of yet in my fishkeeping life.

And no, neither will affect your bacteria. They're great meds for their gentleness.

Hope all works out for you.

 

[twig]

Yeah it hasn't reaaaaaaaaaally been everyday. Just when my levels dictate ..

i did two waterchanges in two days because i had to aquascape my tank though 0.o ...

I'll try adding MelaFix today so that, hopefully, things will get better.

 

[twig]

Hey,
I did some research and figured out a few things about that film. There was another post similar to mine around the same time so whoever posted it, I hope you're reading this too.

My film had a rainbow effect on it when i'd glance at it the right way. The cause of it is actually dust. It works like a magnet attracting all kinds of crap. High light helps cause it, too.It builds up until it gets into a filmy substance and promotes bacteria/fungus or whatever in the process. I was starting to get some fungus crap growing down the powercord of my powerhead.

The solution is to buy a surface skimmer. I bought a fluval one and attached it to my powerhead's intake nice and snug. Cleared the film up in seconds.