'oily' Water!!??

Hi,

I have noticed an oily film on the top of my tank water, which I think is coming form the filter.

I tested my ammonia this morning and it had risen to 4ppm again. This has been the case now for three days. and after three water changes each day I have not managed to get it any lower than 1ppm (each water change being at least 16 litres).

I have done one water change this morning and I tested my tap water, which reads 0ppm, to make sure it wasn't that that was high in ammonia. While I had the filter off I looked inside it and the sponges are very dirty and when I put it all back together and turned it back on the oily substance came from the filter.

The sides of the tank are also looking dirty. I daren't clean anything because I don't want to disturb any good bacteria that is growing but I am wondering if the filter and glass 'film' could be the reason my ammonia is so high.  Another factor to consider is that I am using ammo-lock again so could this be making the water oily??

I'm sorry this post is so badly written!!!  Suggestion would be appreciated.

 

FC

The oily film on top of the water is usually from fish food. The recommended way to remove it is to turn the filter off so the surface is completely still, then lower a paper towel flat onto the surface and lift off carefully. The oily layer sticks to the paper towel. I've found it doesn't get rid of everything but it does reduce it.
Don't forget to turn the filter back on!
And as baggie says, letting the filter outflow ripple the water helps break it up.

Your tank is 30 litres isn't it? Changing 16 litres will only lower the ammonia from 4 to 2. You need to change more like 25 litres. Just leave an inch of water in the bottom of the tank. So long as the new water is the same temp as the old, the fish will be fine.

Re the filter, when you do a water change, take the filter out too, carefully as some mucky water will run out as you lift it out of the tank. Then squeeze the sponges very gently in the water you've taken out. You only want to remove the slime sticking to the sponge, you don't want to make it look brand new again. Swoosh the casing round in the old water too to get rid of any muck caught in there. It is possible that you may have fish food caught in the filter if any gets sucked in before the fish can catch it which might possibly be adding to the ammonia problem.

Are you cleaning the gravel when you do a water change? Food, fish poo etc gets stuck in there and can cause problems if it builds up.

Is it like a whitish film on the inside of the glass? I would leave it for now, though I do realise it doesn't look very nice. Once the ammonia and nitrite levels stay at zero, then you can wipe it off. The bacteria grow in the biofilm which covers everything in the tank, just more of them in the filter. For now, you need to hang on to every bacterium you can.

Righto!!

Situation now as follows:

Tank has been drained (fish taken out first and filter/heater turned off)  Filter sponges have been gently swooshed in old tank water and then filter put in clean, dechlorinated water to run whilst tank is re-filled.

Everything now back in tank and turned on - except fish!

I always have the filter agitating the surface of the water and I have been doing three water changes a day, each of about 16 litres. When I siphon that tank for these changes I always siphon the gravel and there is always only just enough water for the fish to swim in.  I have come to the conclusion that my tank is smaller than 30 litres. I think it must be 21 litres as that is how much water I put back in (my 'fish' bucket holds 8 litres and it took 2 and half to refill the tank).

I am only feeding once every two days.

Incidentally, when I put everything back in the tank the oily film came back!!  I am hoping that I was/am at a point where perhaps my ammonia is peaking and I should see a drop off (fingers crossed) overt the next few days/week.  The film on glass is whitish and I left it alone.

I will leave it until about three o' clock until I put the fish back in the tank so it has plenty of time to settle again and I'll do a water test before I put them in. Will also try Sue's blotting idea on the film.

Fingers crossed (again!) that things will be ok.

FC

In fishcake's case, the fish will probably be OK to go straight back because s/he's been changing the water so often recently the water in the tank will be virtually the same as the tap water.

But in cases where the water hasn't been changed regularly, then yes such a big water change will need the fish to be acclimated when putting them back. This is especially true if the tank had been suffering from 'old tank syndrome' where water changes are rarely done (and where it isn't a Walstad tank)

Hey Jesnon,

I popped my fish into a bag (the one from MA that Peppa came in) with clean, de-chlorinated water so it was identical to what was in the tank when they went back in.  I just gave them a bit of acclimatisation time so the temperatures were the same but this was only for about 15 minutes as it wasn't that different.

They are all back in the tank now and seem ok. They have had a couple of hours with no tank lights on and  are all swimming about merrily as they usually do.   

My ammonia reading was 0 on testing after the re-fill but my nitrite has gone up to 0.25ish.  I don't expect either to be the same tomorrow . My ammonia will probably have gone up again and not quite sure what the nitrites will do as they have been 0 for ages!!!?  Maybe they were in the tap water - I didn't test it for nitrites!!

Anyway, we'll wait to see what tomorrow brings!!!

FC