# oily surface on new tank with ADA aquasoil?



## dhchan888 (Apr 15, 2010)

Hi, i recently started over my 65 gallon planted tank, replacing everything except my old Rena xp3 and the fish. I replaced the light with a 192w coralife aqualight and replaced the ecocomplete substrate with 4 bags of ADA aquasoil amazonia. the tank also has a 5lb compressed co2 system that is releasing about 3-4 bubbles per second into the tank according to the bubble counter. 

I'm concerned about a thin layer of bad-smelling film that is covering the water surface. The film only appeared a few days ago and is making the tank smell horrible, but all of the plants in the tank are growing rapidly and seem completely healthy. There are currently no fish in the tank and I am not adding any ferts yet. Any ideas on where it came from and how to get rid of it?


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

put your return pipe just above the water so it agitates the water enough to break up the film. it will also add oxygen to the water to allow for gas release when the film breaks down. do this every night then put the return below the water during the day and give a good water change and lighten up on the ferts for a bout 3 days till film dissapears. 

hope that helps


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

all my tanks get this when newly set up


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

*I had this problem in all my tanks, old and new set up. The easiest solution is to use a Fluval surface skimmer or any other brand of skimmer that would fit in the intake of a small power head, like a Rio50 or the intake tube (you might have to cut it short) of a hang on the tank filter.*


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## dhchan888 (Apr 15, 2010)

Hmm... I'll try the return pipe technique tonight and see if that helps. Thanks!


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## dhchan888 (Apr 15, 2010)

Well, putting the return pipe above the water during the night didnt help much, the film keeps reforming whenever I put the pipe below the water. Im going to try putting a skimmer attachment onto my filter intake to get rid of the film completely


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