Brown layer on top of my water
 

I am in week two of my cycle, I have a 135 galon tank and 100lbs of live rock in it to help the cycle move along. I have noticed that a brown layer of dirt? has formed on the top of the tank, I have not seen this before and if I wipe it off it comes back in a matter of minutes (well half our but still quickly!). I have talked about this at my local LFS and they said that it is normal but could not tell me why or what is causing this, could you help.

Thanks

Hi Trevor,

Are you using a protein skimmer????

This should take care of your problem rather quickly...

best regards

Marco

I don't have a skimmer I have been told by several people that they are not really needed till your bio load gets up there and then you really only need one if you see a problem. Is this line of thinking way off?

I have had the same problem. I found a skimmer did not help at all. What I do these days is run an Aquaclear on the tank. Any size will do. You can use the foam or not. For some reason the way the water is returned solves that problem. If you continue to use the foam it works even better. :cool:

Wow an Aquaclear eh? so does that mean that if I just raised my water return so that it breaks the water it may work as well?? Also a quick question about foam, I have never seen foam from an aquaclear or are you talking about a skimmer, and if so how do you 'use' the foam I thought that you just tossed it? (but I have never had a skimmer so I don't really know).

Thanks again :biggrin:

Trevor,

Bob is talking about the man made plasticky square chunk of foam that comes with the aquaclear I believe. Not the frothy kind you can get when you agitate water enough. I think if you just break up the surface of the water, maybe introduce a powerhead aimed at the surface or something it should clear up the problem :question:


Christy :)

Yes I was talking about the filter foam. Agitating the water with a powerhead will also work quite well. In my case it was not as effective as using one of the AC filters, but sure give it a shot. :lol:

I'd get a protein skimmer with a surface skimmer if you don't have a sump. There are different schools of thought on the hows and whys of skimmers but I think you'll find one an invaluable tool.

I'm with Troy on this one, i wouldn't setup a tank again without a skimmer.

Clinton

So the assumption is that you do not have an overflow going to a sump that would constantly remove the top layer of grime from the tank.

The following has worked for me.

1) Pointing a powerhead or return at the surface of the tank to keep it clear. You may need a couple on a 135. However, this seems to just relocate the grime to the corners of your tank.



2) On my refugium, I have a suction tube that that just takes the top portion of my water and send it to my sump. But as I said before, if you do not have a sump, this will not work for you.

Chris

I don't have a sump but I do have two different filters and one 802 powerhead (I am getting a 2nd one right away). I don't have an overflow so that will not work.

I will try moving my powerhead up to the top of the water and see how that works, if it moves the crap to the corners that is okay I can just wipe it away.

Thanks for the help I will let you know how it works.

Re: Brown layer on top of my water
 

Surface scum was a problem in our old well-cycled 75 and the 180 (both had a skimmer), and in our 110 gallon indoor goldifsh pond. It can be cured by agitating the water surface more. Just move your powerheads up so they're almost making the water splash. If you have only one powerhead on your 135, another would certainly help, making sure they both agitate the surface as much as possible. In the 180, we had 802s (with prefilters filled with foam) in both corners and had them pointed at 45 degree angles so they agitated as much water as possible. I weekly cleaned the foams as they got pretty dirty.

The same scum's now a bit of a problem in our 42. Because of the length of the glass cover on the 42, I can't raise the big 802 powerhead any higher. But I've been experimenting with trying to get the right upward tilt on it so more or the surface is agitated, but not so much that it splashes onto the glass cover. Come to think of it, I should see how the last tilting experiment is doing. And I'll be water testing today too to see if any ammonia or nitrite has appeared in the 42 :-)

i pointed my power head towards the surfaceenough that the water raises athen goes back under, pull that stuff back into the water which is probably some of the smallest particles

Re: Brown layer on top of my water
 

Tests for the 42 gal hex:

Sunday night (the day after adding all livestock with well-cured rock):
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm

Wednesday afternoon:
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite barely registering a colour change which I judge to be .01 ppm
(This must be the beginning of the spike!!!! Egads!!)

Still some scum on the 42's surface. Tilted the 802 a little more upward, and added a second source of surface agitation at the other end of the back panel of the tank - a Whisper that came with our 2.5 nano - and filled the media chamber with a Mini foam. This puny thing just barely moves any water compared to the 802, but it moves it right at the surface, so it may end up being useful afterall :-)

A skimmer won't help here at all unless you feed its chamber via an overflow (the most effective use of it anyhow), but since you don't have one (thats cool too) use a fine mesh net (blue handle, white net) and scoop it out. I think it is a collection of oils, detritus and brown algae. All it takes is a small clear film of oil to develop and that can provide a medium for algae growth on the surface. Look through your tank and up when netting it out to make sure you get most of it. It will lose intensity as your tank matures and you maintain your tank at scheduled intervals. Some parts of your rock might be uncured, or too much oily food additions (Mysis IMO and exp.) may cause it.

Good Luck

Stephen

Thought that I would update everyone as to how this is going.

Well I finaly got out and purchased a second 802 powerhead with a filter on it and when I got down stairs to put it into the tank I noticed that the brown layer was...gone!

Well I guess the sit back and do nothing worked just fine in this situation. Well I put the 802 in any way as I think that I will need a 2nd powerhead in a tank this size.

Thanks for all your help, I am sure I will need it again:rolleyes: I think that I am getting a clown or two this weekend.

PS does it affect you bio load when adding clean up crew's like snails and hermit crabs?