Tap water and bubbles that won't leave

Hi guys. I have, for a while now, noticed that the surface of the water in my tank forms this film with bubbles that won't leave without skimming. Hence why I bought a surface skimmer a while ago.

Now, I have started the tank again and replaced the filtration with a Tidal 55,which has a surface skimmer. Even this is not clearing the surface entirely.

Could my tap water be the problem? I don't have RO unit to take all the nasty stuff from the tap water.

I have dosed with Seachem Prime and Stability. I cleaned and boiled the PFS before it went in tge tank.

 

maybe your filter pump is sucking air somewhere?, that is a lot of bubbles.

 

Definitely not the pump sucking air. Even when I have pumps completely submersed, I have these bubbles form. It's almost like there is something in the water causing it.

 

Ok baffled, any chance someone could have put soap in there?...kids? that is wierd...
When in doubt do a water change?

 

I may just do a water change this evening, but the tank is cycling. Wondering if it is Ammonia causing the bubbles.

 

Could spray and cook from the kitchen cause it?

 

Makes complete sense and my tank is about 5 meters away from the kitchen.

I think as an addition I'm going to have to keep my surface skimmer in the tank. It just needs to be cleaned out 3 times a week.

 

It's seems you were right. Once the surface skimmer got rid of the layer on the surface, the bubbles and water surface cleared.

 

Yip

 

Biofilms, oils or anything that forms in a new tank is almost harder to ID than a working ecosystem. What are you cycling with .. My thinking has always been ... get as many plants in as quick as possible. Things like stability are great but even bacteria produces a load that needs to be absorbed somewhere - like plants that grow.

Later Ferdie

 

Never thought of it that way. I'm cycling with Stability and dosing Prime every now and then as well to keep the Ammonia levels from scyrocketing beyond the ability of the bacteria in the biomedia.

I'll get the plants in asap

 

Yeah, get those plants in as soon as possible. Plants preferably uptake ammonia, then nitrites then nitrates. Only time i've heard that it's not a good idea to put plants in immediately is when they are immature and small, as they can get ammonia burn. Ammonia is also a really strong trigger for algae, so getting those plants going should slow down any algae problems in future.

 

Did you use fresh aquasoil or the pre-cycled mix from Hawk?

 

Ah, that's good news then

 

I'm using pfs which I cleaned because it had hair algae and ferts which weren't safe for fish. I bought 10 Flourish root tabs and I'll add 2 in when I add the plants. I'll monitor the plant growth and add iron, Trace etc if needed initially, as my plant population will be minimal to begin with.