A light "film" on my brackish tank...

I did a water change for the two puffers in my 10-gallon last Sunday,
and today have noticed a slight film on top of the water. It's a
little hard to describe, but the water is almost imperceptibly cloudy
at the very surface -- I wouldn't notice the cloudiness were it not
for "clear patches" here and there on the surface.

This "film" is easy to break with my finger but re-forms quickly after
I drag a "trail" through it. The puffers seem to be in good health and
good spirits. I didn't do ANYTHING unusual to the tank when I did the
water change (about 50%).

I am putting in about 3/4 teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon of
water when I do the change, eyeballing it (I change about 1/2 of a
10-gallon tank, so I put in about 4 teaspoons of salt over the course
of the water change).

The puffers are eating blood worms and occasionally bits of red
wriggler (kept for "voiding", well-rinsed and frozen, then thawed).
The filter on the tank seems clean. No weirdness otherwise.

Thoughts/suggestions??

- Matt
www.man-man.org

Matt Shepherd wrote:

I did a water change for the two puffers in my 10-gallon last Sunday,
and today have noticed a slight film on top of the water. It's a
little hard to describe, but the water is almost imperceptibly cloudy
at the very surface -- I wouldn't notice the cloudiness were it not
for "clear patches" here and there on the surface.

This "film" is easy to break with my finger but re-forms quickly after
I drag a "trail" through it. The puffers seem to be in good health and
good spirits. I didn't do ANYTHING unusual to the tank when I did the
water change (about 50%).

I am putting in about 3/4 teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon of
water when I do the change, eyeballing it (I change about 1/2 of a
10-gallon tank, so I put in about 4 teaspoons of salt over the course
of the water change).

The puffers are eating blood worms and occasionally bits of red
wriggler (kept for "voiding", well-rinsed and frozen, then thawed).
The filter on the tank seems clean. No weirdness otherwise.

Thoughts/suggestions??

- Matt
www.man-man.org

I've gotten this film on my tanks before, it seems to be a protein film,
but I've never gone through the steps to positively identify it. Surface
agitation will break it up, or, if you're looking for a calm(er) surface
you could look into building/buying (building may be the only option for a
tank that small) a protein skimmer.

Jeff

It is protein and normal water changes will not get rid of it because it
floats on top. There is a special filter called a skilter that may take
care of it for you. I keep salt water tanks and the skilter works good
for them but having never kept a brackish water tank I am not sure how
well they will work for that. Check eBay for one so if it don't work
that well, you have not spent too much money.

Vicki

You should use a skimmer but not a actual "Protein skimmer" for SW
tanks the surface skimmer by Eheim.

Have a look under products/acessories he

www.eheim.com

"Monkey4you" wrote in message
om...
You should use a skimmer but not a actual "Protein skimmer" for SW
tanks the surface skimmer by Eheim.

Have a look under products/acessories he

www.eheim.com

AFAIK, a protein layer in a freshwater tank is essentially harmless, so
you could ignore it, or drop a paper towel on the surface and quickly
pull it out if it bothers you. I noticed the new Fluvals now include a
skimmer as well. I haven't had a chance to test one out yet.

NetMax

Matt,

That film on the water surface is probably protein. Since you have a brackish
water setup a good solution would be to add a couple of black mollies. They eat
the protein and will clear the surface.

Good luck.

Skip...

What kind of puffers do you have? It's just that some puffers I've seen are
very aggressive and will anything you add to their tank.


"TEACHSKIP" wrote in message
...
Matt,

That film on the water surface is probably protein. Since you have a
brackish
water setup a good solution would be to add a couple of black mollies.
They eat
the protein and will clear the surface.

Good luck.

Skip...

"SteveG" wrote in message ...
What kind of puffers do you have? It's just that some puffers I've seen are
very aggressive and will anything you add to their tank.


Absolutely! I have Fig8s and I'm not about to add anything after
seeing the way they shred redworms. The protein haze cleared up after
a week or so all by its lonesome, so now I only have an ailing
crayfish to worry me.

It sounds like your tank is overstocked, one figure eight needs a 20 gal min.

(Monkey4you) wrote in message . com...
It sounds like your tank is overstocked, one figure eight needs a 20 gal min.

Really? I hadn't run across that fact yet after doing a bit more
reading up on puffers. They're still very small now -- under 2" each.
Mind you, I've read everything from "keep them in freshwater" to "keep
them in 50% sal****er", so it's a bit hard to know what to take as
gospel.

- Matt