water movement at surface

[crankbait09]

Recently I started adjusting my powerheads to avoid dead spots throughout the tank.

Over the past day or two, i started noticing a haze/film at the surface of the water. this film is going from the middle of the tank to the back of the tank. It's the same type of appearance you would see when there is no water movement in a lake or stream and the water just "sits". the thing is, i have water movement. I watch it move and roll, but that film does not disappear. It doesn't even look like it goes in to the overflows. The overflows are not clogged wither.

What would be causing this?

I have a 130 gallon tank, with (4) Hydor 1500 powerheads.

[mcgyvr]

Insufficient surface skimming from your overflows..
Thats a protein film..

This is one of the reasons a "coast to coast" overflow is great and your typical "corner reef-ready overflows" suck..

[crankbait09]

i googled that coast to coast overflow.....that's legit. but im a tad bit past that option. so how can i fix what i have?

[scooter31707]

Only thing I would say is to maybe get some extra powerheads to get some movement at the surface.

[nereefpat]

Originally Posted by crankbait09

i googled that coast to coast overflow.....that's legit. but im a tad bit past that option. so how can i fix what i have?

I keep thinking about cutting some of the teeth out of the weir on my reef-ready overflows. What do you folks think about that?

[crankbait09]

ok. that's what I was thinking. but it just seemed odd, how this all of a sudden started appearing. system has been running for a year, today. I will add some smaller ones. I was thinking of two more 1500's, but I really think that would **** my corals off....the few I do have

[mcgyvr]

It started happening because you removed flow at the surface which tends to "knock" that crap back down into the water to flow around again..

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by nereefpat

I keep thinking about cutting some of the teeth out of the weir on my reef-ready overflows. What do you folks think about that?

Yes removing the teeth can help (some).. Note.. That will change your water level some (slightly)

[ericarenee]

Do you have a ATO that you add Kalk to?
If so you need to add a pump to the ATO Tank on a timer to run say 2-4 hours before the ato usually tops off. This can cause this film .

If not the above then your over flow box does not have enough skimming , as said above.. this can be caused also by too small of a return pump .. how much water are you getting over the over flow box .. if your return pump is pushing all the water your weir can handle then i think more surface movement is your only other option..

[crankbait09]

so does this have ANYTHING to do with the skimmer? Or is it strictly flow/overflows?

[crankbait09]

Originally Posted by ericarenee

Do you have a ATO that you add Kalk to?
If so you need to add a pump to the ATO Tank on a timer to run say 2-4 hours before the ato usually tops off. This can cause this film .

If not the above then your over flow box does not have enough skimming , as said above.. this can be caused also by too small of a return pump .. how much water are you getting over the over flow box .. if your return pump is pushing all the water your weir can handle then i think more surface movement is your only other option..

no ATO and no to adding Kalk.

my return pump is a Eheim 1262. I don't think that's the issue. As I mentioned, this all started happening when I messed with the powerheads. I may add a couple more and see what happens.

I'm getting frustrated with the powerheads cause it's ****ing my corals off. Once one side is happy, and I adjust the other side, theres always one coral that isnt happy.

[ericarenee]

Originally Posted by crankbait09

no ATO and no to adding Kalk.

my return pump is a Eheim 1262. I don't think that's the issue. As I mentioned, this all started happening when I messed with the powerheads. I may add a couple more and see what happens.

I'm getting frustrated with the powerheads cause it's ****ing my corals off. Once one side is happy, and I adjust the other side, theres always one coral that isnt happy.

For what its worth on my 7 foot long tank i have 1250 pumps same as you . two on each end of the tank near the bottom aimed at the front glass and two about 5 inches down down from the top of the tank aimed in similar direction but up wards .they keep the corals moving by deflecting the water off the glass instead of aiming them directly at anything.. my tank is also 30 inches deep and i think that helps.. you may be better off with 4 smaller pumps in stead of two large one..

my weir is also 30 inches long with no teeth

maybe pulling your return line from pump a bit above the water level to cause more water movement . but this will cause more evaporation ..

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by crankbait09

so does this have ANYTHING to do with the skimmer? Or is it strictly flow/overflows?

Sort of.. Its obviously protein that the skimmer is not removing BUT if the skimmer has no chance to remove it because its floating on the surface and not going to the skimmer then...


My skimmer is a HOB style (no sump for me on this system)..and the inlet is 4" below the water surface..
I was getting a thick layer of protein on the top of my water.. I made a overflow box for just the skimmer inlet = no more protein on the water surface..

Does that mean my water is now cleaner? I don't believe I can say that.. But the surface of the water surely is..

[crankbait09]

ok, let me get a couple more power heads and see what happens.

thanks for the help

[vashawn]

put a small jebao rw8 in the middle of the tank facing up towards the surface of the water.
I had this problem with my 265 perfecto tank and didnt know what it was until i started to google.
I saw some youtube video about 2-3 years back and it helped me.
also removing the teeth helps a lot more water will move into the overflow.
i removed all my teeth from the OF and added a mesh.
the holes on the mesh are larger enough so particulars wont get trapped and small enough so a fish or snail wont get into the OF
gl

[crankbait09]

why a jeboa, over a, let's say..hydor koralia?

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by vashawn

also removing the teeth helps a lot more water will move into the overflow.
i removed all my teeth from the OF and added a mesh.

Removing teeth does not move more water.. The rate of the return pump is whats moving water.. But you will be moving more surface water..

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by crankbait09

why a jeboa, over a, let's say..hydor koralia?

Just because Jebao is cheap/controllable.. A hydor is not controllable..
The ability to adjust the flow of a powerhead is a very feature to have..

[vashawn]

Originally Posted by crankbait09

why a jeboa, over a, let's say..hydor koralia?

because you can adjust the power and you cant go wrong for the price.
I have a rw8 in the mid of the tank pointing up on 1/2 power. because of this i have a lot of whirl pools which i love, my fish and corals and no dead spots no sand blowing all over the place.

beside the film at the top i had a problem were my power heads would blow sand from the mid of the tank so much it left a big dip which i hated.
so the power head dir in the mid of the tank break up the straight stream from the other 2 (hope this makes sense) LOL

[crankbait09]

that's one thing I have never dealt with. Obviously none of my hydors are on a controller. so they are what they are.

[crankbait09]

vashawn, it does......thanks for the advise

[vashawn]

I using jebao as any example because thats what i have.
Any power head thats controllable will do

[vashawn]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Removing teeth does not move more water.. The rate of the return pump is whats moving water.. But you will be moving more surface water..

Removing the teeth did drop the water level a few, and more water from the surface was flowing faster into the overflow because there s no restrication any more, meaning teeths
pumps on or off

[crankbait09]

I might try and remove every other as well, and see what happens. I do have the plastic canvas stuff to avoid fish jumping in to the overflow. The squares are close together though, wouldn't that restrict flow as well?

the only problem with me using a different powerhead, this late in the game, is that now I have a mismatch. I need them all to match. Whether I use one over the other. So I can't just buy one to solve the problem. I would now need to buy all of them over again. ugh

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by vashawn

Removing the teeth did drop the water level a few, and more water from the surface was flowing faster into the overflow because there s no restrication any more, meaning teeths
pumps on or off

I just wanted it to be clear that the flow rate did NOT change at all.
The same amount of water is still circulating in the tank at the same rate it was before....

If you had 451GPH before you still have 451GPH of water flowing after busting out the teeth..