Cloudy film on top

Question
Hi, I have a 40L(10.5 gal)  tank and a 130L( 34.4 gal)  tank I have been waiting for my big tank to cycle and about 2 weeks ago it was ready for fish. The ammonia was at .25 but after 4 hours of my fish being in the tank, the fish were gasping at the top which I read meant there was too much ammonia in the water. I transferred those fish back into a smaller tank which has been running fine. After 2 weeks of waiting for the ammonia to decreases it had actually increased to 4.0 and a white/ cloudy, slimy film had formed on top. We emptied the tank, cleaned the rocks, did the filter, set it back up and now it has been 1 week and the ammonia is at .5 and the film is forming again. I don't know why this is happening!!!! I use stress coat which takes the chlorine out of the water and I have a CF 1500U filter which has a switch which is apparently meant to stop algae build up but i dont think its working but it has a water skimmer. Please help!?!?!?

Answer
Hi Kiarah,
How did you go about cycling your tank? Rising ammonia levels are normal when fish are first added to the tank. You'll need to do sometimes daily water changes to help the fish make it through the ammonia spikes until the good bacteria can establish and take care of the dangerous ammonia.

Taking the tank apart is just re-setting the whole cycling process. And it won't help with ammonia or the film on the top. You'll need to let your tank run and cycle for 4-6 weeks and during that time do little water changes to help with the film and the ammonia. Ammonia can also be in your tap water. Ammonia and chlorine are bonded together to create chloramine...which is a common disinfectant added to water supplies along with chlorine.
Water conditioners like Stress Coat take care of chlorine and break the chloramine bond but then leaves ammonia. The fact that your tank isn't cycled yet means the ammonia has a chance to really build up.

There are water conditioners like AMQUEL + and Prime which take care of ammonia as well as chlorine and chloramine. Switching would help neutralize some of the ammonia.

Are you going to fishless cycle this tank? Some people just simply add some flake food in (as if you were feeding several fish in the tank) and the decaying food produces the ammonia good bacteria need to develop and colonize the tank. And you would do small water changes to help the tank get in better balance as it cycles for about 4-6 weeks.

I feel all you need to do is let your tank cycle and do some small water changes to help with the slimy film until the bacteria levels can stabilize.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Susan~