Hi, not new to fresh water, but recently moved into a new house and finaly have room for a bigger tank. I set up a 90 gallon with a canister type filter. The aquarium shop owner suggested this for live plants vs. an over the back type filter to minimize surface water movement to cut down on oxygen transfere for the plants.

The thing is, the way I've got it set up is it has no surface movement and the surface has developed a fine scum, nearly a shimmer. Should I have some surface movement to keep it mixed so that the filter can eleminate it? Rite now I only have 16 tetra's, and a small number of plants. Will be adding more plants very soon, but didn't want to add all at once.

Opinions?

Thanks,

Will

sure, maybe you should just get a small power head and aim it towards the filter.

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90 gallon mixed reef
20 gallon cichlid tank(soon to be an SPS tank!)
14 gallon (saltwater) Biocube &
10 gallon nano reef tank!

Thanks, think I'm going to put the out put bar closer to the surface to get a little movement. Think I'm going to have to play with it to see how much is too much. I do have a CO2 bubbler set up to help the plants.

Thanks,
Will

Some canisters have an available surface skimmer attachment that you could get. Depends on the brand.

Also, how long has your tank been running? If the tank is in the middle of a cycle the film on top of the water is normal and it should clear up shortly after your cycle ends.

yeah i have a 90 gallon up and cycling for about 2 weeks now and even with a fluval fx5 and a extra power head there is still a little film on the top.

It's been running about 3-4 weeks now. What do you mean, "in the middle of a cycle"? I though it continusly cycled? My prior experiance has been with over the back filters, and they stired the water very well, too well in fact.

Thanks

he mans the The Nitrogen Cycle for your bacteria i believe. not how long the filter has been on with water flowing through it.

Thanks, you have a link for learning more about the nitrogen cycle?

Beginner FAQ: The Nitrogen Cycle

when you said you weren't new to fresh water,jrman83 probably assumed you knew you had to cycle a tank first. its the first thing you NEED to know when dealing with aquariums. what tanks do you have besides this new one or have you had in the past.

My last aquarium was a 29 gallon, and an assortment of 5 and 10 gallon ones.

I did use the stress zyme and cycled the tank for a week before putting fish in, and transfere the gravel from the 29 gallon to the 90 gallon one in hopes of keeping as much bacteria as I could.

What I'm talking about cycling, cycling indicates that it needs to be done on a regular basis. After I've gotten other tanks set up they generaly took very little effort to maintain. Especialy with live plants. Want to make sure I fully understand.

Thanks,

Will

Its the nitrogen cycle. It doesn't start until there is a source of ammonia. This is where fish come in or you could cycle fishless, but then you still need to provide a source of ammonia. The fishless way is safer to the fish and you don't need to do water changes to get your levels down if you don't have fish to worry about. Any additive you place in the tank will not matter if there is no ammonia for the bacteria to feed on. This also includes the gravel from your other tank. The good bacteria will start to die off if there is no ammnia to feed off of.

There are a couple of threads that have been recently started by a few of us that cycled our tanks fishless.

Now I get you,

Thanks