Surface skimmer

[bubuseng]

I notice a thin oily film developing on the surface of my planted tank.
Should I buy a surface skimmer? Izzit really necessary?

[chua]

I personally felt that it had to depend on the size of your tank.

As the skimmer can be quite space consuming for a tank size of 2ft or less.

Maybe you can try live skimmer like guppies and platies.

[Simon]

[quote:aafda09f4a="bubuseng"]I notice a thin oily film developing on the surface of my planted tank.
Should I buy a surface skimmer? Izzit really necessary?[/quote:aafda09f4a]

solution taken from thekrib, do a search.. there is a few solution.. but these are the usual practise

Surface skimming, either with a trickle filter siphon box, an Eheim
Surface Extractor (fussy but effective) or some DIY device.

Laying a paper towel on the surface to absorb the film. Not a
permanent fix, obviously.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/surface-scum.html

[bubuseng]

Thanks a lot for the replies. The oily film don't seem to have any detrimental effects on the plants or fishes yet. Plus I don't wanna spend unnecessarily.

[joestoys]

mollies eat them

[chua]

I believed the fishes will be fine but for the plants, the thin layer of protein/oil will block off some amount of light to the plants.

If your layer is not too much, your lighting is strong or your plants are not light demanding, it should be fine.

All the best.