Biocube Surface Skimming to Reduce Oily Biofilm on Surface

[george9]

Hi all,
I am wondering if anyone has a mod or a type of surface skimmer that fits in the 32g Biocube? I am having a lingering oily film on the surface of the water recently that only goes away with water changes and comes back occasionally. Lately it’s been coming back pretty often and I am not sure why yet. I notice dosing aminos gives me a good slick after a few days, and potentially kitchen cooking but I’d like to increase my surface skimming to prevent build up at all.

Are the top grates in the biocube supposed to act as a surface skimmer? I have a protein skimmer already so I am not exactly worried about gas exchange/low oxygen, it seems to be purely cosmetic and annoying when viewing from tank-level. The surface has a good ripple where I don’t think it needs more agitation, but not sure.

Any tips are appreciated

 

[Dan_P]

Hi all,
I am wondering if anyone has a mod or a type of surface skimmer that fits in the 32g Biocube? I am having a lingering oily film on the surface of the water recently that only goes away with water changes and comes back occasionally. Lately it’s been coming back pretty often and I am not sure why yet. I notice dosing aminos gives me a good slick after a few days, and potentially kitchen cooking but I’d like to increase my surface skimming to prevent build up at all.

Are the top grates in the biocube supposed to act as a surface skimmer? I have a protein skimmer already so I am not exactly worried about gas exchange/low oxygen, it seems to be purely cosmetic and annoying when viewing from tank-level. The surface has a good ripple where I don’t think it needs more agitation, but not sure.

Any tips are appreciated

What you refer to as an oily film is a biofilm of diatoms, or cyanobacteria or both and more. The surface water in my macro algae pond occassionaly develops this type of film. I found that aerating the water clears the surface film. It seems that the air bubbles break up and push the biofilm to the sides of the container where they stick to the sides. In your case some of the biofilm will be skimmed off.

 

[bakbay]

Sorry - old post but hope that you've the issue? It appears that your return pump is pushing more water than what can come down the weir. Try reducing the return pump's flow and it should go away.