White foam on the surface of the water.

[Karen B.]

Greetings 

I am moving some aquarium around, updating some fish, etc.

My betta used to live in a 5 gallons, I am upgrading him to a 10 gallons.

I emptied his tank, which I had neglected a bit. He is currently in a bucket with some of his plants/decor/heater and sponge filter. I let the bag of bio balls and a sponge soak in there until I was ready to use it in the 10 gallons. 

I rinced the « new » 10 gallons aquarium (I was using it for another fish that got upgraded to a 20 gallons.). 

I rinced the old substrate of the 5 gallons in some of its water and added some more that I too rinced in the said 5 gallons water.

I put cellophane plastic on the bottom and filled the aquarium. I moved the substrate a bit to liberate the air bubble. The water was ok, just a bit of sand in suspension. No bubbles from filling up the aquarium.

The next days, I added the 5 gallons HOB filter with its seeded dirty media (half of them were with the betta to stay wet, the other half came from another filter). I lightly rinced them again in some of the old 5 gallons aquarium I had kept for that purpose.

I also poured in a small container of the 5 gallons water that I had put the plants in and added a spare heater. I let the filter run and the plants just float around.

The next day (today), I noticed some white foam at the surface of the water. It definitely wasn’t there before adding the filter. There is no bubble in the bucket with the betta (were some of the media was soaking for a day).

Now I am a bit paranoid. Is it normal? Did I accidentally introduce soap in my tank by not rincing my hands well enough? I don’t see any oily film on top of the water but there is some kind of something (residue? Dust? This substrate tends to do that - stoney river black sand). It’s my 3rd tank in 2 months I upgrade/start with that substrate and never before did I see foam.

 

I tested the water with the aquarium coop test strips - 0/0/0, 150 gh, 40kh, no chlorine and pH about 6.6.

It’s not coming from my water source - I use the same bucket for all my aquariums and no foam anywhere else.

There was no foam in the 5 gallons aquarium before.

I don’t remember if I used Prime and Stability.

So anyway to make sure it’s not soap? Would a 50% wc be enough to get rid of the problem or should I take the whole tank apart/wash and rince thoroughly everything and start from scratch?

[isaly]

My first assumption would be soap if I'd used it. I could be mistaken but you didn't mention that you used soap

You could suck out all the water and refill, see if the bubbles lessen, but I'd likely just take it down, re-rinse everything, and put it back together because I'd likely want to get rid of whatever's bubblin'.

[Guppysnail]

This looks like from the substrate. I use big box gravel. No mater how well I rinse including in boiling water this happens. It takes a few water changes over about a week to stop as it seems to continue to wear off the gravel slowly.  A few years ago I also had it from sand. 
It has never harmed fish or inverts in my experience.  I have replaced or added new many many times while fish were in the tank. I have no clue what actually causes it though. I do do small water changes daily until it goes away then at my weekly big one it’s usually gone. 
 

I hope that’s all it is. Double check for ammonia just in case. Chances of having enough soap residue on your hands to cause this is slim. 

[nabokovfan87]

There's definitely some surface film.  There is a product called clarity you can add, then just run filter floss for 2-5 days and it should clear up.  Adding an airstone or surface skimmer is also another way to help.

Ammonia would be the cause for bubbles, but given the slick of protein on the top of the water surface there was likely a chemical residue somewhere that is causing the added surface tension.  You can drain the tank to about 10% full, using fresh water (a hose or something) and splash all the walls of the tank to try to get the residue off.  Rinse everything and then just refill and hope it lessens using the filter floss over the next couple of days.

 

On 5/20/2022 at 8:35 AM, Karen B. said:

Definitely need to replace the floss too. but beyond that it looks good.

[modified lung]

Looks like protein foam to me. Probably from burst bacteria cells from rinsing and moving around the substrate. If this is the case it's nothing to worry about unless it was bad enough to disrupt your cycle.

 

[Wrencher_Scott]

Why take a chance and guess what it is?

I would at least do a big water change and see if they dissipate. 

An airstone added in there would be interesting too, it needs one anyway. 

 

[Karen B.]

On 5/20/2022 at 8:35 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There's definitely some surface film.  There is a product called clarity you can add, then just run filter floss for 2-5 days and it should clear up.  Adding an airstone or surface skimmer is also another way to help.

Ammonia would be the cause for bubbles, but given the slick of protein on the top of the water surface there was likely a chemical residue somewhere that is causing the added surface tension.  You can drain the tank to about 10% full, using fresh water (a hose or something) and splash all the walls of the tank to try to get the residue off.  Rinse everything and then just refill and hope it lessens using the filter floss over the next couple of days.

 

Definitely need to replace the floss too. but beyond that it looks good.

Yeah, the floss got that bad because it filtered all the sand particules in the water. That substrate does that, it’s weird.

Thanks for your answer!

On 5/21/2022 at 12:36 AM, Wrencher_Scott said:

Why take a chance and guess what it is?

I would at least do a big water change and see if they dissipate. 

An airstone added in there would be interesting too, it needs one anyway. 

 

Thank you for your answer. I was letting the filter run for 2 days to clear any particules (as per the company’s instruction). The air stone is with the fish and is seeded so I was goimg to add it once everything was cleated and I was done planting.

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/20/2022 at 11:07 PM, Karen B. said:

Yeah, the floss got that bad because it filtered all the sand particules in the water. That substrate does that, it’s weird.

That's a good thing though! Even on a gravel vac, very fine small particles like that tend to get sucked up.

[Brian]

Can you net it out?  With something very fine?  Maybe a brine shrimp net, or a coffee filter.  Remove as much as possible and maybe increase surface movement and see if it comes back or not.   Increased surface movement may also help gas it off.  I wonder if your water at the tap had a higher than normal amount of something and what ever (Prime, api stress coat) you use to remove chlorine was just bonding with it and showed itself at the surface.   
Good Luck