Yellow/rustic colored water...

Trying to find out if anyone else has ran into this.... For the past few weeks I have noticed my tank water is rustic looking. I have a 55 gal acrilic tank. All the plants are plastic and have a couple of fake logs. I run two filter set ups, both penguin, one is a carbon filter with bio-wheel and the other just a douple carbon filter set up. The first time I noticed this I cleaned my tank and did about a 50% water change. Then I noticed after a few days after cleaning the water turned yellowish again. Last weekend I cleaned the tank again, vaccuuming the gravel and did about a 75% water change and replaced all the filters. But sure enough, the water started to get that rustic color to it again after a few days. I use all the right chemicals and test my water ph, and so on every week and the results are always the same. Everything is in balance except the water hardness, the water here I could never get the hardness level down. All my fish stay very active even with the water being the color that it is... The only thing I can think of is keep changing the water but instead of every two weeks, every week now... Any other advice will help
Thanks
Brian

 

hi, when I put a sunken wood and a drift wood in my goldie tank a few months back my water was rusty and yellow. did u put anything like that? how many fish do u have? it may also occur for too much fish waste. frequent water changes will help at the moment.

 

No drift wood at all, all plants and wood are all fake. I have prox 16 fish now. Last week I was down to 12, just got four more yesterday.

 

Is your tank cycled? What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? Please list each species of fish and how many of each that you have in that tank. Without more information, it sounds like you might have an overstock issue. Let us know.

 

My tank cleared up today!!!! Must have been a alge cycle or something. The tank looks great now.

 

I've been trying to get my tank to cycle for some time now, and it just now is finally starting. It also has a lot of that yellowish (I'd call it yellow brown) algae stuff in it. I learned those are called Diatoms, and is a sign that your tank is starting to cycle. No matter what you do it'll just keep coming back for now so I'd leave it alone until your tank cycles.

 

That's exactly what I noticed and did. I never knew of the tank cycle before. I cleaned it and did a major water change, it came back. I left the tank alone, the fish stayed active and in just over a week the tank cleared on it's own.
Learn something new every day...

 

Good to hear that your tank is well again. The yellow color might come from algae, because algae feeds on light, or maybe another cause. Be sure that your tank is free from sunlight. Having some algae eaters in your tank can be handy, too.

 

What is the cycle thing you are all talking about? I have a 55 gallon and rusty looking water I have canged half the water out and vacumned the rocks about twice a week for 3 weeks now and it hasnt helped.