Help! aquarium scum! =]

[mistah]

I've got 2 fresh water tanks, and recently noticed quiet a bit of surface scum along the top of the water. I've tried to drain the surface water to make it disappear, but barely does anything.

It's a 40gal and a 80 gal.. some plants, but not considered as heavily planted. (80 gal has about 10-12 plants)..

But I do feed them frozen food on a daily basis.. from the reading I've done, it's probably caused from that..! Brine shrimp, blood worms, mosquitos, etc.. (well fed fish!) lol..

What can I do? Is there a fresh water skimmer thing I can create?

I was thinking of modifying the intake pipe on the fuval 440 or the eheim prof 2 (both on the 80 gal) with a small hose + tip to suck the surface water, but I doubt that'll work.

any clues??

thanks!

[mark0933]

There is a comercially made "surface skimmer" from Fluval (available in most pet stores)that is designed for that (I have one on my tank as a surface cleaner, I tipped mine to about 45 degrees to make it quieter.

Mark

[mistah]

for fresh water?? really? I think I did see one that has some kind of spout that sticks out the top.. I'll have to go take a look!

thanks.

[mark0933]

They are for either fresh or salt - I cheated and attached mine to a powerhead that then goes down into the sump (but you are supposed to attach it to an external power filter) - essentially the collection cup is supposed to float slightly below the surface, but mine never worked well like that, but works fine tipped on the angle. most have a flow valve that you adjust to say how much water intake is from surface, and how much is from below (I keep mine almost fully top)

THey are relatively inexpensive (I think no more than $25)

(I found them on-line, but out of respect for AJ, won't post) - try any web under fluval filter parts listed as surface skimmer

Mark

[mistah]

Haha.. I've got my turboflotor t1000 waiting here for the SW tank, may as well plug it to my fresh water 80 gal! haha.. Yeh Yeh, it won't work =]

I'll give it a shot. I know what one your talking about, saw it at the LFS the other week, so gonna go this weekend and pick one up..

You say their noisy??? guggling sound from the water intake?

I'll use the 45deg incline you did if I find it makes too much noise.

Does it work good enough for the 25$ investment? =]

[mark0933]

For the $, it does the Job, I wish I had done other things (like get the tank drilled and put in a proper overflow), but maybe for the next tank - right now that feeds the refugium (sump) quite nicely

Another way to beat the surface scum is put a powerhead aimed at the surface, but again that is $20 plus, so no real difference, actually the first may be better since it will actually remove the scum (through the power filter), not just redistribute it throughout the tank.

Mark

PS - I found it for $16 on the web

[mistah]

Sounds good to me. I've got 2 power heads in the 80 FW tank just for circulation purposes.. so I'll see what I can do with that.

I just read that it requires the oem hoses + adaptors from fuval's 404 setup. I replaced those DAMN tubes with eheim hoses + U shaped adaptors, etc.. so the fluval + eheim both have the same hoses, intakes + spray bars along the top.

So I heard it won't connect right.. Hmmmmmm.. I'm sure I can figure something out with DIY connectors, adaptors, ...

=]

ps: found it for 10$ US tho.. on the net =]

haha..

thanks again.. time to Zzzzzzzzzzzz.. =]

[mistah]

I decided to be cheap, and re-aim the 2 power heads towards the surface... yep. within a couple of hours, the scum was gone. Suppose that was the best way of doing it (for no $$) =]

haha.

thanks for the insight