Hello everyone. I am Brandon Simmasouk!

[Souky]

Hi, I hope you all are well! I am 5 months into the saltwater hobby and I am already learning so much. I have a 20 gallon and a 50 gallon that has a 20 gallon sump. I am hoping to learn a bunch from this forum. To break the ice, how do I get rid of the top oily film of my nano 20gal aquarium? I have a protein skimmer on it but there is still some oily film, likely due to me overfeeding. The nano powerhead is already pointing towards the surface making small waves but not enough. How do I get rid of it? Unless I have a 2nd powerhead for my 20gal nano, I do not have this film on my 50 gal because there is enough surface waves from my one powerhead but the powerhead in the 20gallon is not strong enough to blast the top oily film to where it can come down and reach the bubble magus QQ1 skimmer!

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

 

[ScubaFish802]

 

[fishguy242]

hi welcome to the reef...
can you not turn your return jet up to surface ?

 

[Souky]

hi welcome to the reef...
can you not turn your return jet up to surface ?

My apologies, my 20 gal is not connected to the sump, so no return on this one. I am thinking another nano powerhead could assist, making more surface waves.

 

[rmorris_14]

welcome!

 

[Gtinnel]

Hi and welcome to R2R.

I’m assuming there is no overflow on that small of a tank so the best way is to increase the surface agitation. Can you move the power head closer to the surface to get more agitation?

 

[jsker]

Hello and welcome to R2R!!

 

[Utubereefer]

Welcome to the club

 

[Kennya]

Welcome to R2R Brandon

 

[Souky]

Hi and welcome to R2R.

I’m assuming there is no overflow on that small of a tank so the best way is to increase the surface agitation. Can you move the power head closer to the surface to get more agitation?

That is correct. I have now moved the powerhead to be parallel with the surface instead of pointing 45 degrees up at surface. We will see what this does for now and if no solution then I may just attain another powerhead.

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board!

 

[Big Smelly fish]

 

[Just John]

Glad you're here Brandon!

 

[Peace River]

That is correct. I have now moved the powerhead to be parallel with the surface instead of pointing 45 degrees up at surface. We will see what this does for now and if no solution then I may just attain another powerhead.

You may need to remove much of the existing film build up so that the powerhead agitation can keep up (or at least slow down the surface film build up). If you submerge an empty cup at the water line so that just a small trickle can flow into the cup you should be able to manually remove most of the film build up. Additionally, you may want to consider the Tunze Comline DOC 9001.

 

[Antics]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Souky]

You may need to remove much of the existing film build up so that the powerhead agitation can keep up (or at least slow down the surface film build up). If you submerge an empty cup at the water line so that just a small trickle can flow into the cup you should be able to manually remove most of the film build up. Additionally, you may want to consider the Tunze Comline DOC 9001.

Thank you! Coincidentally, I just performed this because I was cleaning out the protein skimmer and used the empty cup to reboot the skimmer. We will see if the film goes away!

 

[Peace River]

Thank you! Coincidentally, I just performed this because I was cleaning out the protein skimmer and used the empty cup to reboot the skimmer. We will see if the film goes away!

Sticking with pellets over frozen food and regular water changes can also help. Good luck!

 

[LeftyReefer]

You need something with a surface skimmer to take care of the oily film on the water.

maybe you can make up a surface skimmer intake for your existing skimmer?

 

[G Santana]

Welcome to R2R