Water Surface

[Richgrenfell]

Well, i "think" I have everything under control.
I did run into a few problems at first..... after a couple of weeks, I ended up with brown algae. A half dozen otto cats made short work of that problem. I also noticed that as cheap and convenient as shop lights are, they really lose alot of light. Not willing to spend the money that it costs for new fixtures, I decided to modify. I took some scrap aluminum, and pop rivited pieces (cut to size) of it to the edges of the shoplights. I then used flat clamps to bend the sides downward to form a sort of "hood". This bought the bulbs up to just under an inch from the class cover, and allowed me to get rid of those chains that it was hanging from. I used some reflective tape to line the inside of the fixture, and IMO they work just as good as the ones that cost so much! My new dilema is the "film" that has appeared at the surface of the water. i really don't know what to do about it, but i do know that I don't like it very much. i keep the water surface pretty still so as not to force out C02. I suspect that this is at least part of the problem. Anyone ever have this? If so what did you do about it?

Rich

 

[aspen]

i have used a net, and also an overflow to get rid of this film. by dripping water slowly into your tank, and overflowing the film, it will be gone in no time. but, i would be looking at where it is coming from, and trying to alleviate it, from the food source. my discus don't get beefheart too often in my planted tank. it can also be scooped with a flat container.

good job on the light, keeping the lamps close to the water surface is the best.

hth, rick