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QYNGA: Surface scum
On Tuesday, November 18, 1997 3:48 PM, Aquatic Plants Digest
[SMTP:Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com] wrote:
> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 09:57:19 -0700
> From: George Booth <booth at hpmtlgb1_lvld.hp.com>
>
> OK, I'm starting to feel bad about all the questions I never answered
> because I thought "someone else would do it". I call for an open
> season on "Questions You Never Got Answered". Send'em in folks. I'll
> bet they get answered this time. Be sure to mark them as "QYNGA" so
> we can give them priority.
I'll bite. I asked about this several months ago, and recently saw another
person ask as well. Perhaps nobody knows, but perhaps they do:
Early this summer I setup two 120 gallon aquariums each w/2 175W MH lights.
*One* of them has had a persistent problem with surface scum, which comes
and goes not apparently in response to anything I am doing. The problem
tank is ~ pH 6.6, the other ~7.2 - aside from that there are no differences
that I can see making a difference. (different plant and fish choices,
but similar amounts of both in each tank.)
When the sum is thick I can agitate the water with my hand and it will
break into small white bits.
The questions then are:
1) What *is* this scum?
2) What does it's presence tell me about my tank?
3) How can I encourage it to go away and stay away?
(I am soon installing a trickle filter with siphon boxes on those two tanks
and expect that the drawing of surface water into the filter will answer
#3, but I am still very curious about #s 1 and 2.)
Frank.
-----
The very act of seeking sets something in motion to meet us;
something in the universe, or in the unconscious responds as if
to an invitation. - Jean Shinoda Bolen
http://home.istar.ca/~fir