what is that on the top of the water???

i set my tank up yesterday.added the sand and rock but i have a horrible film on the top of the water surface looks scummy.i cant take a good pic of it tho to show you. could it be stuff from the sand and rock? has anyone had this before?i dont have my skimmer on yet i was gonna wait to turn it on once the tank had cycled but do you think i should turn it on now?will it disturb the cycling process?

the rest of the water is crystal clear.

 

if this is reflecting what you had on your other post about all the fish, bag them now.. if you set up yesterday you arent ready for any fish. They will all die.. Im just trying to help..

 

oh and the skimmer will only pull the layers of the top of the water if there is some typer of overflow where the skimmer has a chance to get the top layer.. did you buy live rock, if so how much?

 

i dont have any fish yet where did i say that?????

i stated a fish wish list which means what i would like once it has cycled which i did state

i only set my tank up yesterday and i dont plan on adding a thing untill it has cycled

please read my thread properly before you reply

 

I apologize.. I assumed you had all those fish in a new aquarium. Its my fault, its late and I cant sleep.. disregard my previous statement..

Looking back, I think your fish list is spot on and I think you did some good research on what to have. How about some pictures for reference..

 

what some pics of my tank? if so there are some in my photo album

 

As you have observed "crap" floats, I actually used a toms surface skimmer (not protein skimmer) on my 36 successfully until i made the plunge and went with a homemade sump and an overflow. the surface skimmer worked great, but needed weekly cleanings...

 

did you rinse the Sand very well before you put it into the tank? if you did the stand will still give a nasty, scum film on the surface. An overflow would help that greatly. if you dont have one or cant get one going then, I would add a powerhead pointed straight at the surface water to help dissolve the junk into the water. then I would startup your protein skimmer to help pull the junk out.

just what I would do.

 

hi no i didnt rinse the sand.i have got my skimmer on but its throwing out millions of tiny bubbles at the mo.

 

The sand was brand new? if it was, not rinsing it will cause major clouding and surface film(scum). The skimmer if brand new also will produce bubbles till it breaks in. You might also be able to adjust the level of bubbles in the skimmer to slow them down in your tank. What kind of skimmer is it?

again just me, if the film on the surface is very thick, you might be able to hand skim some of it off with a fine net. otherwise I would get the surface flow moving as much as you can and keep your skimmer running to help pull it out. this may take a long time to remove.

a second thought on the skimmer, it may be giving you so many bubble because of the junk in the water, if it is foaming on the surface of your tank, then it only stands to reason that it will foam huge in a skimmer.