# Need help determining the cause of my yellowish tank water.



## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

In the last week, I noticed my water was tinted yellow. It looks clear while sitting in front of the tank and looking at it but when you look through the sides of the tank it is noticeably cloudy/yellow.

I noticed algae growing on the sides, so I thought that might have been the problem. I scrubbed that off, held back on feeding for a few days, and kept the light off. (Algae even though sunlight from the windows barely reaches the tank?)

As of today, its less cloudy and the tint of yellow isn't as hectic, but its still evident.

This led me to think maybe the water has a yellowish shade due to low pH. So I tested pH and nitrAtes today. pH from my tap is around 7. Yet pH of the tank water is only 6. NitrAtes are at 40 or 50ppm. I've been doing weekly water changes of around 25% but I guess that hasn't been enough or I'm overfeeding.

*Any ideas on the cause of the yellow water and the best ways to go about getting it clear?*

_ps: Its a 125g, filtered by 1 big hang on back something or other, along w/ a fluval 405 and a 305. I've got one 7" JD, one 6" Mota, one 4" Five Star, one 3" Freddy. A few Corys, a Senegal Bichir, and two Pictus Cats._


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

have any wood in the tank? and I'd bump up the water changes.


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## BoostedX (Mar 1, 2009)

Could be a algae bloom also.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

I would do a few larger water changes every other day and you should see a change.
If not for the yellow tint you would drop the nitrates and raise the pH a bit.
Add some fine mechanical media to your filters and see if that helps.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

organic acids,

bogwood is the obvious cause, however organic wastes will yellow the water, (also look at the food, when I was feeding spiralina flake my water would take on a yellow/green tint)

clean the filters, do a thorough clean of the tank, and keep up with waterchanges.


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## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

I have 2 pieces of driftwood in the tank but they've been there for over a year and I've never noticed this yellow tint until recently. So I'm not convinced its the wood's doing. I think I overfed w/ frozen blood worms and mysis shrimp. I did a larger than average water change today, and I think I'll do another 2 days from now and see where that rings me. I also bought special nitrate absorbing carbon to add to the fluvals.


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## I3lazd (Dec 29, 2008)

The wood is what is causing your ph to drop lower you need to either take out the wood or add a buffer to increase the ph especially if you have african cichlids, if you have american cichlids then your water parameters are where they should be. What are your feeding you fish?


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn said:


> organic acids,
> 
> bogwood is the obvious cause, however organic wastes will yellow the water, (also look at the food, when I was feeding spiralina flake my water would take on a yellow/green tint)
> 
> clean the filters, do a thorough clean of the tank, and keep up with waterchanges.


 :thumb: I had a tank years ago with big oscars, etc, and had this problem. It's dissolved organics. 
Step up the filter cleanings and water changes. That also accounts for the dropping pH. No such thing 
as overfeeding if a) the fish aren't fat, and b) you do enough maintenance to keep up the water quality. 
I'd go for 50% changes weekly and see how that goes. Also rinse your mechanical filter pads at least 
weekly as well. Just be careful with the biomedia. The driftwood may be contributing, but I don't think 
it's the main source of the issue. It wasn't in my case anyway. I was new in the hobby and didn't 
understand the importance of large water changes for big, messy fish.


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## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

Lately, I've been feeding a lot of Bio Pure frozen bloodworms, and mysis shrimp, which tend to go all over when the ice melts..

I think I just need to step it up on the water changes.. I was doing more like 30% every week and a half. 50% every week might be more ideal.

None of my fish are gigantic or all that messy but somethings producing plenty of nitrate.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> somethings producing plenty of nitrate.


Check your canister filters. How long do you go between cleanings? Nitrate is simply the end product 
of the conversion of biological waste, whether it's coming directly from the fish or uneaten food. Less of 
that in the system, wherever it resides, the less there is to eventually be converted to nitrate.

As a side note, there's no need to try to resolve this all at once, and actually could be some risk. Step 
up the water changes, like you said, but don't get aggressive about cleaning all filters, etc all at once. 
Take a filter at a time and stagger the cleanings. A thorough cleaning of everything all at once works 
for some things, but not usually aquariums. Shoot for improvement over the next few weeks.


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## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

I cleaned out one of the cannisters the other day. In the 2 yrs I've had them running I've rarely took them apart for a cleaning at all. And surprisingly it wasn't that dirty? I was expecting to see the foam media catcher to be covered in muck but that wasn't the case. I changed the carbon which was in their for a yr, to special nitrate removing carbon. I soaked the fluval ceramic bio thing-a-ma-bobs in a bucket full of tank water and alot of what I suspect dirty looking bacteria came out. But that was the extent. I kinda wanna clean the intake and outtake tubes but I don't have the tools to do that and I'm kinda nervous to take those apart and get air in the system and have to pump start it..


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

NY SURF RIDER said:


> Lately, I've been feeding a lot of Bio Pure frozen bloodworms, and mysis shrimp, which tend to go all over when the ice melts..


Melt your frozen food in a cup of tank water and then feed with a medicine dropper like this: Medicine Dropper, you can open the hole a bit for bigger stuff. You can control frozen feedings better this way, also waste less.

Works well for dry feedings for fry when using ground or powdered food, just put the "dust" in a small cup add some water, mix and squirt a bit where the fry are.


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## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

Thats a good idea, thanks.


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