dirty film on the top of my water

[RickySan]

so i just notices this dirty film on the top of my water. Many times i would see this type of post and past right by it so, sorry if you guys have answered this a million times.
I did a water change last night and this morning it was still there. All of my parameters checked in normal, and all of my livestock seems to be doing fine. Any ideas of what i can do to get rid of this film?

[albatross666]

Hi

You need to do some surface skimming to get rid of that oily stuff. It will restrict oxygen exchange in your tank.

Hope that helps

[RickySan]

ok i will try that...do you know what the cause of this film might have been?

[steri]

I point a powerhead at the surface of my tank, and that seems to help break it up some. Surface skimming would be a much better solution though.

[albatross666]

Hi

I believe that this is a normal "feature" of aquariums. The oils and protein waste float to the top of the water.

Probably, this is the same gunk removed by a protein skimmer.

Hope this helps

[MalHavoc]

organic compounds secreted by corals and other things naturally accumulate on the surface of water. Pointing a powerhead at the tank's surface does help quite a lot. It doesn't remove it, it just keeps it mixed in with the rest of the tank's water. do you skim now?

[rhythmicfire]

Directing flow from your powerheads towards the surface should help quite a bit with this film...it did for me, and most people I know. While simply directing flow towards the surface does not directly remove the oily film, the surface agitation will essentially cause the hydrophobic film on the surface of the water to become mixed into the water column, for removal by your skimmer.
Problem solved bro

[dsn112]

I had a ton of this using a red sea prism skimmer. Since the change to the Aqua C remora, I have noticed much less. I don't have a powerhead towards the surface.