General Care Discussion :: Gross..Rainbow water top..eww

[SurelyEvan]

Recently my brother had just bought a RES from Florida. He's a baby. We put him in a 35 gallon tank, along with an underwater filter. We got some flat rocks outside and stacked about 4 up on each other, so hell have a place to bask, well within the first 10 days, I've started to notice that the top of the water has been getting a liitle thick and starting to have a rainbow like color to it. What does this mean?

[octpusgirl8]

It means the water's really dirty. More water changes/a better filter will solve the problem.

[SenorProgrammer]

Even the best underwater filter won't get oils and lighter-than-water pollutants that float on the surface. Every now and then you'll have to scoop the top layer of water to get rid of that.

[TheComputerGremlin]

You can also get some sort of bubbler to break the water's surface. The more the water's surface it broken, the oily layer will be able to get to the filter. Right now you'll probably need to do a water change or two, but in the future, just get a bubbler and it will help out.