Cheap way to clear oil film on water surface.

[aquaSynthesis]

Very cheap way to clear the layer of film on your water surface.


Get 1-2 (depends on the size of your tanks)...Mollies!! hehehe...

I have a 1ft cube tank, surface very oily looking. Bought 3 cute mollies and within an hour...ZZzzuupp!!! Its gone!..

there you have it..

[Zacharysoh]

thanks for sharing with us. Is awesome

[beetlejuice403]

Very cheap way to clear the layer of film on your water surface.


Get 1-2 (depends on the size of your tanks)...Mollies!! hehehe...

I have a 1ft cube tank, surface very oily looking. Bought 3 cute mollies and within an hour...ZZzzuupp!!! Its gone!..

there you have it..

Hi bro,

just to check if these mollies can be introduced into shrimps tank safely to clear the oily water surface?? Fear my shrimps becomes its food after it'd finished the layer of oil... Thanks for sharing!!

Cheers!

[aquaSynthesis]

uuhh.....i seriously have no idea if mollies will attack / consume shrimps.

[Aquaculture]

Why not a 2-in-1 solution of filter inlet cum surface skimmer?

[rwalker]

Hi bro,

just to check if these mollies can be introduced into shrimps tank safely to clear the oily water surface?? Fear my shrimps becomes its food after it'd finished the layer of oil... Thanks for sharing!!

Cheers!

Most live bearer eat surface oil.

Adult shrimp are fine, but can't say the same for shrimplet.
You can try male endler, which is smaller in size and safer for shrimp.

[aquaSynthesis]

Why not a 2-in-1 solution of filter inlet cum surface skimmer?

sir..for nano cube tanks i don't think its feasible to use a surface skimmer sir

[leechaorui]

Use a surface skimmer. I think it is helpful.

[Aquaculture]

I was using a skimmer for my 1ft cube, agree that the skimmer looks kindda huge & out of place for that 1 square ft HDB but the protein is more unsightly...

There's also another method. Put an air stone half way between the water and the air and have it on. The bubbles would disperse the protein in minutes. I used this method a couple of times but got lazy in the end ...thus still recommend a skimmer.

[aquaSynthesis]

skimmer will cost you about $8-15,
Molly....$1/ea

heheh...to each his own lah

[CK Yeo]

Other cheap ways include using paper towel, newspaper pull across the water surface to absorb the film. You have to do it periodically of course since it will come back eventually. Nevetheless, it is shrimp safe; no risk of sucking into skimmer or eaten up by fish.

ck

[windcharm]

Actually snails like zebra/bee etc (Non- burrow) do eat up the layer of oil. Nature and good!. No maintainence at all and definitely shrimp safe!

[beetlejuice403]

[quote=rwalker;375966]Most live bearer eat surface oil.

Adult shrimp are fine, but can't say the same for shrimplet.
You can try male endler, which is smaller in size and safer for shrimp.Have 3 pieces of male endlers (courtesy of bro Aquasynthesis ), find them quite playful/ aggressive leh... Used to keep them previously with my pair of guppies until they go & 'tackle' them to death... Now they 3 endlers are living in isolation... [/quote]

skimmer will cost you about $8-15,
Molly....$1/ea

heheh...to each his own lah
Agree that a surface skimmer is a 'space-eater' in a nano like 1-feet cube also... To each my own, I prefer to spend the $$ on buying out & planting more varieties of plants in the space...

Actually snails like zebra/bee etc (Non- burrow) do eat up the layer of oil. Nature and good!. No maintainence at all and definitely shrimp safe!

Have personally seen my Ramshorn doing the same also {When I first saw them floating underside the water surface, I thought that they were dying.. Just saw that their mouth kept opening & closing as if breathing for air. After a while, found the layer of protein/oil on my water surface gone... There, another use of Ramshorn snails!!! Anyone need them, just contact me!!!

[fishking]

Wow...an eyeopener....by the way, they eat the oil film for what purpose??

[beetlejuice403]

Wow...an eyeopener....by the way, they eat the oil film for what purpose??

Frankly speaking... I have no idea also leh... Maybe they were starved in my tank, so had to resort to eating the oil film (for its proteins)??? But surely it's much more safer & organic than to add melamine to boost the protein levels...

[fishking]

Frankly speaking... I have no idea also leh... Maybe they were starved in my tank, so had to resort to eating the oil film (for its proteins)??? But surely it's much more safer & organic than to add melamine to boost the protein levels...

hohohoho...melamine...well...maybe that's why sometimes I see snails floating on the surface...they maybe eating the oil from the surface...

[stonespot]

yes snails can do the job as well. I have 4 horned snails, one zebra snail, 1 red ramhorn and 1 POUCH SNAIL. Ha ha... She is the best worker so far in my 1.5ft tank. On the rainbar.. on the ehim tubing, on the leftover shrimp food and she swims from spot to spot with the current 24/7.

[randchai]

Thanks for sharing a great tip !

[aquaSynthesis]

There are a few other tips.
I wished I could start a new thread on other tips and hopefully the mods can make it 'sticky'. But I don't know where to start...heheheh

[gyjd]

hi,

thanx to all for sharing, learnt something from this thread.

regards,