Steviebutch

Help!

Last week the water in my 28 gal tank started turning a reddish/brown color. I found out thiat
the filter was clogged. Last weekend I did a 60% water change and vacuumed the pebbles on
the bottom of the tank, changed the filter, removed all the plants and decorations and cleaned them
and then refilled the tank (conditioning the water).

Today the water is starting to turn brown again. I checked the filter and it is clear. Just to be sure,
I rinsed it again.

What am I doing wrong?

Steve

Stradius011

Do you have any driftwood in there? How long have you kept this aquarium?

Steviebutch

No driftwood. The tank is only about 4 months old.

Steve

Timesdragonfly

As far as the red/brown water goes, I can't really help... My water's green LOL! What I would like to ask you though, is when you said "I rinsed out the filter" Do you mean you rinsed it with tap water?

I'm just asking b/c I made that mistake quite a few times before I learned that: every time you rinse your filter media with tap water, you are killing your good bacteria that you need to keep your tank cycled!!! To rinse filter media, swish it around in tank water from a water chagne. It doesn't feel like your're really cleaning it, but you'll get the big chuncks out, and you'll leave your bacteria in tact!

This is important!!! We had our tank set up for over 6 months, and we are just now, getting trough the cycle. We did EVERYTHING wrong, lol! So, i've learned from experience!

Good luck!
~J~

boff

Have you got any big rocks that might be leeching the colour in to the water.Because i found some nice dark red rock but when i cleaned it the top service came off and turned the water red .

Butterfly

Is it the actual water or the glass making it look red brown? Like if you dip a glass of water out and look through the water it's red/brown? Was wondering if it could be diatoms.
Carol

JMatt1983

it could be that your tap water has a high iron content in it causing to turn this rusty colour