Added microbacter clean now theres a oil sheen.

[Jasonak]

So cycling new tank. Added microbacter clean to tank last night and now theres what looks like oil sheen in the water. Anyone else have this happen ?

 

[steveschuerger]

that’s odd. I’ve used it and nothing like that. But then I was using it on an established tank. I do know it’s really meant to work on older tanks that have organic buildup.

 

[Jasonak]

They want you to add it as the second bacteria and then mb 7 from the way I read brightwells webpage for doing a none fish cycle. Who knows maybe I screwed it up lol
I was just hoping to hear from some one that had seen this same crazy rainbow swirly in there tank.

 

[Waters]

Ive used it many times setting up new tanks but always had surface agitation so I can't say for sure if it looked like that or not. I will say I never had any issues using it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you have a skimmer?

 

[DaJMasta]

Yeah, if you develop any sort of sheen or skin, you probably just need more surface skimming (if you have an overflow, make sure the water level on the back side is low enough to break the surface when water falls over it.)

You don't want a sheen/skin because it indicates waste and may reduce gas exchange, but virtually any active system can get one without some surface skimming/breaking of some sort.

 

[Jasonak]

Do you have a skimmer?
I do but its not running. I was thinking it was suppose to leave it off still.

I guess the main point of this thread is I was hopping someone would say oh yeah I added that and saw that same oily sheen. Because it just seemed odd.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I personally would not be using these products anyway.

 

[DaJMasta]

Do you have a skimmer?
I do but its not running. I was thinking it was suppose to leave it off still.

I guess the main point of this thread is I was hopping someone would say oh yeah I added that and saw that same oily sheen. Because it just seemed odd.

If it helps, I raise larvae in containers with very little flow/surface agitation using water from active tanks and it only takes a day or two to surface scum of some kind to be visible. I think this will happen regardless, but it is likely to happen faster when there's more bacterial activity or more dissolved organics. So I don't think it's a cause for concern, you just want to make sure there is enough breaking of the surface to remove it.