surface skum
- Thread starter hmt321
- Start date
get 2 mollies, if that's not an option place the smallest power head you can find near the surface area and hook it to your timer so it turns on when lights are turned off, and vice versa.
Airstone adds more clutter to the tank, you need air pump, airlines etc.
Edit: although some may disagree, i never see a need to turn on/off co2 flows. Just leave it at a constant x bubble per sec for your tank, in the day plants will absorb co2, at night the tiny powerhead will create enough surface movement to balance out co2 and inject oxygen for fish.
When in doubt, go with the KISS philosophy
Airstone adds more clutter to the tank, you need air pump, airlines etc.
Edit: although some may disagree, i never see a need to turn on/off co2 flows. Just leave it at a constant x bubble per sec for your tank, in the day plants will absorb co2, at night the tiny powerhead will create enough surface movement to balance out co2 and inject oxygen for fish.
When in doubt, go with the KISS philosophy
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the so-called scum is actually just dust that settles over the surface. If you look at it from the bottom you might catch a 'gas' rainbow effect on it.
It's really annoying and if you let it get bad it will trap oxygen and lower your water quality.
If you don't have anything to break the surface it will continue to get worse unless you take action.
http://www.geocities.com/myfishtank2001/skimmer.htm
You look a skimmer like that. I have a Fluval skimmer that i attach to my powerhead and it works great
the surface is so clean and mirror-like now I can just gawk at it.
Ohya
should cost around 10 bucks ..
It's really annoying and if you let it get bad it will trap oxygen and lower your water quality.
If you don't have anything to break the surface it will continue to get worse unless you take action.
http://www.geocities.com/myfishtank2001/skimmer.htm
You look a skimmer like that. I have a Fluval skimmer that i attach to my powerhead and it works great
the surface is so clean and mirror-like now I can just gawk at it.Ohya
should cost around 10 bucks ..
I have a very new 30G bowfront tank and started to develop the surface "bubble" scum about 2 days ago as soon as I converted it from a cold water tank (72f) to a heated (79f) tank.
I intend to try to siphon it off when I do my next 10% cycle by trying to siphon the top layer of water first.
But why did someone suggest to get a pair of Mollies? How do they help?
surface scum
I believe the scum you are actually talking about is a build up of both dust particles and organic plant waste. Adding an air stone will certainly break it up and clear the surface but unfortunately the bubbles from the air stone result in dispelling to much vital CO2 needed by our plants. The easiest way to solve this is to add a surface skimmer that can be connected to a cannister or similar power filter both hagen and eheim produce such a device for this purpose.
I believe the scum you are actually talking about is a build up of both dust particles and organic plant waste. Adding an air stone will certainly break it up and clear the surface but unfortunately the bubbles from the air stone result in dispelling to much vital CO2 needed by our plants. The easiest way to solve this is to add a surface skimmer that can be connected to a cannister or similar power filter both hagen and eheim produce such a device for this purpose.