Name that gunk! Help me make it go away!

[ingg]

I get this surface scum on all but one of my tanks.

It looks clear on the surface. On the 55, it actually traps the micro bubbles of CO2.

If I wave my hands through it, it... umm... it congeals, it gangs up, and looks like tiny white/milky strands of stuff.

If I take a cup and drain from the surface, it congeals in the cup, little strands, stuck together, floating on the top of the water in the cup.

Remove it one day, back in 48 hours.

All SMS charcoal tanks. One (the 55) is an algae mess, the others aren't bad in algae, a bit of BBA in one of them, one clean, but only the 55 gives me algae fits...

WHAT is this stuff?

[fredyk]

scum.. get a platy or mollie

[Jeff120]

Organic build up, get a little surface movement or a surface extractor hooked up to your filter.

Another way that helps is when you change the water use the siphon at the surface to suck it up. There doesn't seem to be any way around it

[krisw]

You can also just take a regular paper towel, lay it gently across the surface of the water. Then, when you pick up the paper towel, you'll have removed much of the surface scum with it.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Dose a little Hydrogen peroxide in your tank. 1 ml/G shouldn't hurt anything
and you should see results within 24 hours. Not a permenent solution but
it helps oxidize organics pretty quick. Doesnt hurt anything in that concentration
and breaks down into O2 & water quickly.

[SCMurphy]

This is one of those things that will come and go, it is directly related to the bacterial biomass of a tank. As the Bac flora gets (re-)established the scum will dissappear, the easiest thing to do is aggitate the surface to break it up. Otherwise try any or all of the previous suggestions, the results will be the same.