Strange sma thin film in water: like breath mint sheets

zalick

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The last couple weeks I've occasionally had these strange small thin film sheets floating around the tank. Usually only one or two and then eventually disappear somewhere. They look like those breath mint strips that dissolve in your mouth, and about the same size or a little smaller.

I haven't been able to determine any pattern to when they show up.

When I first saw them I thought it may have been something spawning. But when I saw them again and looked closer, it's clearly film like.

In 23yrs of reef keeping I haven't encountered this before.

My hunch is that it's some strange bacteria breaking off from the PVC walls of my return line.

I'm not particularly concerned about it but curious to what it might be.

I've tried to get pics many times but its too thin and opaque and doesn't show up.

Anyone have an idea what this might be beyond strange bacteria? :)
 

T-J

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Probably just a build up of nutrients/waste/etc. on the surface. Increasing surface agitation, or even using a surface skimmer, will help.
 
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zalick

zalick

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Probably just a build up of nutrients/waste/etc. on the surface. Increasing surface agitation, or even using a surface skimmer, will help.
You might be right. Interesting. The one change I made right before this started was rearranging my power heads.

I have a 300g with pretty intense surface agitation but there is one little corner that tends to build up surface film. I have a "flush" cycle with my power head to try and flush it out but doesn't work 100%.
 
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zalick

zalick

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Just to update this for future searching:
Turns out the “breath mint strip” looking things is actually my foxface shedding its cuticle from around its spines. Having this guys for 5 years I’ve never noticed it before. My wife thought she saw it happen the other day and I thought she was nuts. I just saw it shed and then looked it up.

So for anyone reading in the future: foxface rabbit fish shed the cuticle from around their spine periodically and it will send a thin film in to the water
 

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