Help with surface film (eisenbacteria?)

jweis · Post by **jweis** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:14 am

My film is not going away and it seems fairly constant.

DelawareJim · Post by **DelawareJim** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:37 pm

Surface extractor.

Cheers.
Jim

jweis · Post by **jweis** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:15 am

DelawareJim wrote:Surface extractor.

Cheers.
Jim

Jim, Scroll down a bit on this thread. Do you think I could combine the surface extractor below with my sponge filter?

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:40 am

I made a little extractor but haven't tried it yet. My theory is the amount of stuff on the surface is quite small so not much extraction is needed. Further I've found that even thought the film looks oily an air stone seems to break it up.

So my little extractor is made from a pill bottle with some eheim blue foam I had laying around inside and an insert of closed cell foam to keep it floating at the surface. The cap of the pill bottle was removed and some notches cut in the top edge to let water pass into it and the cap was replaced. The suction comes from a tube inserted through the bottom of the pill bottle.

I plan to run the tube down to a little manifold wrapped around my drain screen made of a piece of PVC with a couple of O-rings from the hardware store to seal it enough to direct some suction into it. So the extracted crud will get pulled into my filter.

The tubing is just thin and flexible airline so it can float with the inevitably poorly maintained water level in my tank. It's just a small vet (green) pill bottle. If it works I'll paint the white lid. With green airline tubing it should be pretty invisible in my 90g.

Of course it may not work at all. It also may not be suitable for a small tank.

I'll report success or failure.

Jim

jweis · Post by **jweis** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:29 am

Thx Jim. You've given for a DIY of my own. Mission Scumbuster is underway.

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DelawareJim · Post by **DelawareJim** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:43 am

jweis wrote:
DelawareJim wrote:Surface extractor.

Cheers.
Jim
Jim, Scroll down a bit on this thread. Do you think I could combine the surface extractor below with my sponge filter?

No, I don't think it would have enough suction to draw properly.
You could always try Ghazanfar's water bottle surface extractor once a week.
Cheers.
Jim

sns26 · Post by **sns26** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:16 pm

DelawareJim wrote:You could always try Ghazanfar's water bottle surface extractor once a week.
Jim

Mine gets bad inside of 24 hours. It's really maddening, and the stuff is quite solid on the surface--you can break it up and it floats around like teeny thin icebergs. I'm using a Koralia powerhead to stir the surface, but unless I put it up high enough to suck in air (and make a lot of noise), it can't get rid of the film.

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:57 pm

Mine is the same semisolid layer. Bubbles overnight destroy it.

Jim

jweis · Post by **jweis** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:05 pm

I purchased two skimmers. One is working well on my 11g. It is 10.99 on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00176 ... 01_details. It attaches to the intake pipe and it is not too obtrusive. I did modify it a big by places a very thin layer of sponge inside the intake cup to hopefully prevent the shrimp fry from litterally "going down the tube". Sam, I think this one might work for you too.

: pump driven skimmer.jpg (7.18 KiB) Viewed 2658 times

.

The other skimmer is a bust because it is too big for my little 5.2g shrimp tank. Technically, I could fit it in the tank, but it would just look ridiculous. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A ... 00_details

: Lees air driven skimmer.jpg (9.53 KiB) Viewed 2658 times

Jim Miller · Post by **Jim Miller** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:45 pm

I'll buy it from you if you don't want it. Might be good to use until my super duper home brew unit gets working.

Jim