Water Yellow In Color, Need Honest Answer

[drozhenbane]

Hello,

I have done alot of research into this before I even made the leap from Fresh to Salt. I originally didnt want to walk into this project like an ignorant person expecting perfect results. I also wanted to DIY as much as possible, and I could have just shelled out what I consider a rediculous sum of cash for a gauranteed to work package. Nothing against anyone who does that, I just learn best from trial and error, and feel I gain a better understanding of everyting that is going on. What I did find was endless pages of opinions, how to manuals, do and dont lists, Sales gimmicks, and alot of contradictory information. I tried my LFS, which wont even cover Salt, heck the guy only carries a 10 lb bag of salt, and gets stuffy when I asked about saltwater tanks. So I drove 65 miles to a LFS that did cover salt, and got alot of information there. Again alot of the same, I think he wanted to sell me stuff rather than answer my questions. So now I have a complete hodge podge of knowledge, and a significant investment into my tank.

Heres what I have....
55 Gallon Tank
Berlin System
Roughly 75 Pounds live rock, I question what is considered "Live" I originally bought me a $180 chunck of rock(about 37 pounds in itself and barely fit in the tank!) on the first run I call it "The Brain" It is fully covered with purple growth, and several mushrooms. Plus alot of cool tag along friends, that didnt last long..... The other rock is white porous stone, that I added to fill in the blank spots, same tank at the store, just dont see any purple growth only white.......
No filter system(told I didnt need one)
No Skimmer(told I didnt need one)
Running 1.21 for a target(They told me to do that) achieving a 1.23 with evap taking into the mix.
76 degrees F stable
I have roughly 1 inch of live sand(Crushed Sea Shells from what I see)
2 Power heads (Now 4 told to get 2 more to address my problem)
I have algae attack pack in there(the hermits are eating my snails lately since prob developed)
2 Actinic bulbs T-12 40 watt
2 10k bulbs T-12 40 watt Custom Lighting Hood

So heres the history....

Setup Tank....
55 gallons tap water treated for Chlorine/Chloramine, Mixed in a cleaned 55 gallon garbage can with a submersable fountain pump to agitate mixture. 1.21 SG, and 76 degrees F target.
Filled tank up, added 1st live rock "The Brain"..... Lots of little critters came out including a star fish, and 1 snail, and a tube like fish thing that came out of the rock havent seen more than 4 times, but havent seen dead either.

Went through tank cycle, after about 3 weeks everything looked fine.....
Added the remaining rock, and 1 inch of live sand. Watched water parameters, and did a 10% water change weekly during this time as well. Carefully following target speccs. Lights on for 12 hours a day. Every other day water testing. I watched the Nitrogen cycle, and noted the added bio load change. Now my water has never been crystal clear, A slight and I man slight amount of cloudiness. It turned that way after I added the salt mix. It wasnt enough to be worried about. Coralife salt mix by the way, LFS said it was the best!

At week 5, water test still looked good, but I was having an agressive algae problem. It was brown stuff, on everything, and growing at an astonishing rate! So I grabbed an attack pack, and due to driving over an hour to get there, opted for 1 Yellow tang, 2 clownfish, 1 royal blue tang, and a few mor pounds of live rock. Acclimated everyone to the tank, they all did fine. The blue tang was showing sign of stress from the moment we left the LFS to the moment we arrived home, and was pronounced DOA. Everything else adjusted fine, and has been doing well.

Enter Month 3, same water changes, water chemistry is normal. Then all of the sudden I notice the tank getting merky. Its turning a yellow tinge. Fish seem normal, tank looks normal, tests look normal. then it gets worse, and worse, and worse...... Its been 2 weeks since the water started turning yellow, and my nirtrite level has gone to 0 from .5, my nitrate has gone from 0 to 40. The water is the color of Human URINE!

So I did some research, and I see Carbon Filtration, and Protien Skimmers as the solution from all the articles I read. I did active charcoal for 2 weeks, no improvement, I added 2 more power heads as my LFS reccomended, and did a 50% water change every 3 days. It looks better, but I am starting to think I am winning battles, and not winning the war. Its much improved, but I dont think my yellow tang, should be able to go stealth mode 2 inches from the glass! I ordered a protien skimmer this morning.

What can I do to correct this?
What did I do wrong?
Will my actions eventually solve the problem?

I come here for advice, and not sales pitches, If you know a specific product that will help please let me know the name. I got a little girl who is very concerned about the health of her prescious bubbles........

[Fat Tony]

Run carbon, this is commonly called Gelbstoff (german for yellow water) it's naturally occurring, but is more pronounced in tanks with higher nutrient levels.

[three90s&125sump]

What skimmer did you get?

I never recommend running a tank with out a skimmer.

Your running a fish only with live rock? (FOWLR)

Run your temp more twards 80oF and SG of 1.026.

A 55 is too small for a blue tang FFR. The yellow tang will be cramped in it. I wouldn't add more than 1 fish per 2 weeks.

The brown stuff is not algae it is diatoms. They will pass syphon them off with your water changes. Don't add anything to the tank while their present. After they pass you should get cyanobacteria (red velvet), again it will pass. Syphon it off with your water changes and don't add anything to the system while it is still present.


Do 30 percent water changes weekly untill your skimmer gets broke in. Then you can cut down to 30 percent monthly.

What size are the grains of your substrate in mm?

[Loverotties]

I agree with them,but 1st thing is you got to get rid of your nitrites!What type of tank?Jason said a FOWLR but I didn't see that in your post,is it that or a reef?

[aquawolf]

Welcome to TRT!!!

Using tap water can create all kinds of issues as well. Your best bet is to use either RO/DI water, or distilled if you cannot get RO/DI. Many of us end up buying our own RO/DI units as it pays for itself in a matter of no time versus going to an LFS for water.

Also, the carbon may only be good for a week or so at the most depending on how much you are using and how much flow is going through it. You will want to change it frequently while the water is still yellow in order to help remove the discoloration.

The good news is that you found this site, and we will give you exactly what you asked for. Advice on how to fix things without any sales pitches. Hang in there, and I wish you the best with your tank.

[Cuttlefish]

You really should try to raise some cash for a decent skimmer man. SKimmers are the backbone of any healthy reef. It takes organics out of the water column before they have a chance to become part of the nitrogen cycle. This is most likely why youre having problems with nitrites. IF that doesnt fix the yellow tint, Ive had alot of success with using chemipure type media bags. For the past 4 months Ive been using this one pouch of Dick Boyd's Chemi-Pure my water has been sparkling blue. Honestly ive mixed so many different methods of water maintenance in my system its hard to know whats most responsible for what. But I know using that media has helped alot with my water's tint. Also higher quality salts like Tropic Marin and Reef Crystals also contribute to a blue water tint. In my expereince using TM trace elements has turned water blue. Great stuff really, comes in a pump container and you add one pump per 3 gallons. One of the biggest reef LFS uses it in maintaining their own system. Good luck man, try and get that skimmer

[jenglish]

It sounds like gelbstoff. How much carbon did you run? Carbon has a limited amount of gunk it can absorb before it is full. Is the water uniformly yellow or is there particles in it?

I now this isn't something you asked about but 2 tangs in a 55 will lead to aggression. THey also eat a lot and digest it poorly leading to a lot of waste. I think you will find the skimmer may help this situation quite a bit.

What skimmer did you order? You can pay the same price for one that does next to nothing (like a Seaclone) as one that will work very well. When I started a year ago I would have made many costly mistakes without the advice of this forum

Welcome to TRT

[drozhenbane]

Water is uniformly discolored. My substrate is 4-5 MM in size its mostly sea shell rubble and chuncks. I had carbon in there for about a week, I was using a floating bag with about 4 cups of carbon in it. Didnt seem to improve anything. Umm I will start using RO water, I am lucky enough to work were I have access to an industrial RO unit. Skimmer I ordered was a 580GPH Lifetech Skimmer. Found it on Ebay used for pretty cheap. Umm I wanted the tank to become a reef tank, but right now its a FOWLR tank.The fish were really there just to give my kids something to stare at.

Is 30% water change about max? I am fearful of killing of the bacteria or weaking it to much?

[luther1200]

I would definitely get a skimmer as soon as you can.

I am not sure what your water change schedule is but maybe you could bump it up a little until the water clears at least. I think its better to do small frequent water changes than the large once a month WC's. So if you have a 55g, if you did 5g a week, I think you would see dramatic improvements after a while. Plus a skimmer of course.

[three90s&125sump]

You can do a 100 percent water change of you do it right. I just did one yesterday when I moved my tank inside from the garage.

I don't recomend it however due to the need to really know what your doing.

I would recomend doing 3 50 percent water changes spaced a week apart. Be sure that the water perameters are as close as you can get them. The three most important ones to watch are pH, salinity and temp. They can kill anything if chanhged too quickly.

Be sure that the fresh ASW is thoroughly mixed for 24 hours. Freshly mixed salt water can be caustic as the chemicals react in solution.

I strongly suggest changing your substrate to a smaller sized sand roughly .5 to 2mm in diameter. Special grade seaflor is what I always use. I stay away from oolitic sand because of its tendency to clump and for hydrogen sulfide.

Carbon works best if placed in an area of high flow that forces fresh water to contact the carbon, it really does work on cloudiness unless it is a bacterial bloom. But with the yellowishness of the water it really sounds like DOCs, which carbon works on. The skimmer will work better. I am however not fermiliar with the brand you purchased.

I think the largest benificial change you will be making is the use of RO water. Water changes alone can keep a tabk healthy but like I said a skimmer is always benificial.

[sks4613]

Defintely run a skimmer.... I think you will find that anyone who advises you otherwise is probably not someone you want to take advice from. Switch to a finer substrate as that is where the majority of the bacteria will reside. This will also allow you to keep some other fish Gobies for instance that will probably not make it with crushed shell. I would also get an 8mm bag and become really good friends with Phos-Ban. This will pull the phospates out of the water which will assist with the Diatoms you are having. Remember to swap out the media often. Package will say four days I would leave it in 2 no more than 3 days. Water changes will help, just make sure you are using RO water or you will just be throwing in more phosphates which will continue the problem. *VERY IMPORTANT* IF YOU DO CHANGE YOUR SUBSTRATE (WHICH YOU SHOULD) CHANGE A LITTLE AT A TIME. Other wise you run the risk of eliminating a lot of beneficial bacteria and could cause the tank to be even more unstable which would not bode well for your livestock.
To Recap.
SKIM THE HECK OUT OF IT (skim on the wet side for a while.)
WATER CHANGES
RUN PHOS-BAN CHANGE EVERY 2 DAYS 3 MAX
CHANGE SUBSTRATE SLOWLY
Was the additional rock you added cured or uncured?
Let everyone know how it goes.

[sks4613]

Run the phos-ban in the filter you are running your activated carbon in.
I am REALLY curious though as you mentioned you added the rest of the rock. How was this rock treated, where did it come from and was it cured or uncured? Sounds like you might have added it and started the tank cycle again?? You might have uncured rock curing in a brand new cycled tank, which coupled with the large substrate etc. may not have enough bacteria to handle the additional organic matter. All the organic matter rotting if that is the case could cause a mess. Don't know if it would account for the water being yellow though. Hope everything works out.

[drozhenbane]

Thank you all for taking the time to post useful information!

The additional rock was "supposedly" cured. It came from the same tank that my large rock came from at the LFS. So slowly change out substrate, go finer in size Gotcha. Cant wait for that skimmer to get here. Water changes will keep on top of that, also going to use RO water from work. Is there a test kit for phosphates? I have 5 in 1 dips stick tests(Daily Testing), and also a tetra labs kit(Weekly), and none of them have phosphate listed.

Ok Phosban, as I dont have a true dedicated filtration system, aside from my frankenstein home creation canister filter I made years ago for freshwater. Is it best used in certain types if filtration setups? Since I have to modify my canopy to fit the hang on back skimmer, If it is advisable to add further filtration I would like to do it now. So I dont have to modify the canopy again.

Next debate? Bags or filter system?

Also a side note I am a dedicated DIY kinda guy. Not just for cost savings, but for my ego! It doesnt always look pretty, but if it works thats good enough for me.

[Fat Tony]

Next step.. better test kits... Something like Salifert, Sera or Tropic Marin

Phosphate tests are pretty useless for our tanks as they measure unbound free phosphates in the tank. Phos. are bound by bacteria and algae rather quickly and testing for it is usually fruitless.

As for the filtration. I recommend only using the canister for occasional water polishing after waterchanges. The skimmer and rock will be your primary source of filtration.

[three90s&125sump]

Remove ten percent of the substrate a week to be safe. Don't add anything else to the system. Reduce feedings to about 2 to 3 times per week. Once the substrate is removed you can figure out if you want to add a rock stand off. I recommend one, it is not needed but it will definatly prolong the life expectancy of your sand bed and make detrital maintenance much easier.

If your running a mechanical (canister) filter disconnect it immediately. If you don't change the filter daily it does more harm than good. The only filter you need is the skimmer and live rock and untill you get the skimmer your live rock and water changes will have to do.


My motto is K.I.S.S keep it simple stoopid.

Live rock, skimmer and water changes will do everything you need done the best (and simplest) way possible.

Once you get there work on the rest. The rest being flow, lights and chemestry.

After that you'll be a reefaquarist!!!