Dust/floating stuff on top of tank

[Sikryd]

I have been wondering what you do to get rid of the dust and other stuff that sits on top of the water in your tank.

If you look up through the tank to the top of the water I see dust and everything that just sits on top of the water up there.

For now I have been using a little cup and "skimming" the top of the water to pull that stuff out. Is there something I am missing that takes care of that.

I just added a "durso" drain to my overflow, but it didn't matter either way of course.

[blaze98]

I have been wondering what you do to get rid of the dust and other stuff that sits on top of the water in your tank.

If you look up through the tank to the top of the water I see dust and everything that just sits on top of the water up there.

For now I have been using a little cup and "skimming" the top of the water to pull that stuff out. Is there something I am missing that takes care of that.

I just added a "durso" drain to my overflow, but it didn't matter either way of course.

 

 

What kind of flow do you have? I point my powerheads at the waters surface and it creates a nice wave pattern that gets rid of the layer of "stuff" I have 3 Koralia 4's in my tank though.

[Stephen]

That's organics and proteins built up that form the skim on the top of the water if I'm not mistaken. My over flows take care of it for me. In the sump it's my skimmers surface skimmer that gets it.

[mogurnda]

From your pix, it looks like the water level is above the strainer for your overflow. Looks like you need to lower your standpipe or reduce the flow from your return.

[jason the filter freak]

your overflow should be skimming that stuffoff as long as you overflow sucks enough water in. if your overflow aint cutting it aim a high out put poeer head at the surface to create surface ripple

[mogurnda]

your overflow should be skimming that stuffoff as long as you overflow sucks enough water in. if your overflow aint cutting it aim a high out put poeer head at the surface to create surface ripple

An overflow like that will surface skim without a need for powerheads if the water level is correct.

[reefmontalvo]

In my tank that is a lost battle. I tend to clear it by pulling the strainer off the intake pipe to the fug. Then hours later doing it again. I think I might get a larger screen to place over the intake to help pull the water faster but yet keep it in the tank to let the fish eat.

[astroboy]

For what its worth, I've found that to get rid of that oily film on top the water level in my overflow has to be such that its an inch or two below the surface of the water. That is, there's a small waterfall going from the tank into the overflow.

 

 

The only thing I can think of is that in a waterfall the top lay of water picks up a certain velocity or momentum. The water in the waterfall moves downward, of course, but it also moves sideways, into the overflow. This sideways movement seems to be limited only to the top layer of the water.

 

When the water in the overflow and tank are level, or nearly level, the water seems to flow into the overflow from both the surface and deeper levels in equal proportions: no particular sideways motion, at least not anything limited to the surface layer. When you have the waterfall effect the top layer moves sideways a bit, whereas the lower levels don't. I suppose surface tension is a player in the game too.

 

I'm supposed to know some of this stuff for my job, but I don't.... There's probably a patent somewhere for someone who builds an optimized surface skimmer...

[onux20]

Sometimes the flow patterns on your ph's compete with each other and create dead spots. Debris that gets caught in that area never gets to the overflow to get skimmed off. I have readjusted my ph's several times to minimize interference and still have good surface agitation. I also agree with comments about the overflow. Make sure the grate is clear of debris that may be restricting flow.

HTH

Ron

[fry_school101]

I started running a fan over my tank to help with the temps and it had the same problem. Pointing a powerhead at the surface helps, but doesn't cure it, the only thing that would work was having more water going through the overflow. IE your overflow isn't pulling enough off the surface. Just make sure you don't do something that will cause a flood!

[dschflier]

I had an issue where I think some stuff from an old lighting fixture was falling in my 90 gallon tank and was creating this film on the water. I know most people dont have the equipment to do this but I have a couple of peristalic pumps lying around. I attached R/O size tubing and had the pump move the water through a canister filter filled with carbon. I put the tubing right at the top of the water. In about 4 hours it was completely clear. The reason the peristalic pump worked so well for this is I could place the intake right at the top of the water and not worry about loosing a syphon.

 

I will take a picture when I am home of what I used.

[Sikryd]

Sounds good. thanks for the suggestions. I haven't adjusted the durso that I just added, so I'll toy with that. I also didn't notice it before when I have more flow with 2 1200's in there. I switched one out to a Kor-whatever 3 and it sucked, so I changed it out. It is back to turbulent water again - and I haven't looked to see if it cured the issue or not. I have a feeling it did though.