yellow water

[side19]

so i mentioned it in a previous post but i figured i'd make a post for this topic on its own as it is more of an eye sore than the algae itself. the water in my tank has slowly been turning yellow over teh past few weeks. readings are as follows 0-0-0, temp 78.2, pH 7.6. i have lights on about 10 hours a day and is planted heavily with brazillian swords, anubias nana, and java fern. i have a single piece of driftwood in the tank, but i boiled it before adding it so i don't think that is the problem. i did the same procedure for my 20 and the driftwood in that tank never turned the water yellow. i did a little research but i've not found anything really helpful. i'm thinking of starting to dose ferts and c02 again as well as take the carbon out of my filter. do you think this will help at all? any other suggestions would be great. i have nutrifin ferts, an all in one liquid, and i have a nutrifin c02 set up. i started using baking yeast but it produced a ludicrous amount of bubbles. is that ok? is there such thing as too many bubble form a co2 system? thanks for the help everyone.

[Pufferpunk]

Carbon should take care of that.

[DarkStorm]

id say the driftwood is leeching the color, as well it robs tank of co2. get some bogwood instead.

[RTR]

Second PP's comments.

A yellow tint to the water can be from newish driftwood (most commonly), fish urine (only in tanks which are not partialed sufficiently, almost standard in OTS - old tank syndrome, unlikely here), or dying algae and/or plant mass. I'd bet on the driftwood.

Carbon will remove the tint as PP said, but so will water changes. I am more likely to do extra partials than to use carbon - and it can be preferable in planted tanks.

[Flutter]

A yellow tint to the water can be from newish driftwood (most commonly), fish urine (only in tanks which are not partialed sufficiently, almost standard in OTS - old tank syndrome, unlikely here), or dying algae and/or plant mass.

Ew! I've seen pictures of other people's tanks and many of them have had a yellowish colour. I never knew why, thought it was gross, but never thought about it beyond that. I'll bet it was urine Cichlids are all the thing in this area (many get to be quite large and are kept in tanks with no plants and only rocks) and so many people overstock their tanks...

[PolishPuff]

If this is driftwood related problem, your filter cartridge may collect that yellow water color. I would recommend to clean your filter cartridge during your W/C.

[side19]

so i cleaned my filter sponge insert and added a fresh carbon insert as well (its an aquaclear filter). hopefully ill notice a difference. in relation to another thread i posted earlier about algae i was hoping someone may be able to give me very detail instructions of exactly how to dose nutrients and which ones. is the all in one nutrifin ferts i have adequate or am i going to need a plethora of different ones that all have to be dosed at different intervals and turn the whole process into a big complicated mess? i'd like to keep the maintenance as easy as possible. also should i begin dosing with co2 again, and is there such think as too many bubbles being produced? it was also recommended to me taht i just get more plants, is this really an option and would it really work? i've been dieing for some red ludwidgia but i figured it was a bad idea since the plants are why i'm having an algae problem in the first place. thanks for the help everyone.

[timwag2001]

its definately tannins. you can boil and soak dw for months and it can still leach tannins into the water for months after. and yes carbon should definateily help clean that up for you. tannins arent always a bad thing though, they can filter the light that comes down into the tank which is great if the lights too bright, help soften the water, its acidic which can help spur spawning of some fish. the yellowish discoloration you might see in other tanks may have been purpsely put their by using peat in their filter, substrate, or sometimes people will fill buckets and put peat in them to treat the water and then take it out before using it to fill back up from a water change. i use peat in one of my tanks.

the cheapest, maybe not the easiest way to dose ferts is using the ei (estimated index) method. basicly you dose more ferts than your plants can possibly use. contrary to most beleifs, lack of nutrients in a tank is one of the number one causes of algae in a planted tank. ei also rules out nutrient deficiencys in plants. you can read more about it here http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.ph ... echy-folks
what you need is kno3, kh2po4 and csm+b. you may need gh booster depending on your gh. you can find those here http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/index ... =1&Regit=2

once you get your ferts in line, inject co2, lose the bubble strip, and reduce any splashing on the surface from hang on back filters

i hear people recommend to get more plants to help rid a tank of algae. it doesnt work like that since your problems more than likely that the plants you have have removed all of the nutrients. what good will it do to put a plant in a tank that doesnt have fertlizers to make it grow.

are you using pressurized co2 or diy? do you have a drop checker?

[side19]

thanks for the quick response. i'm not using a pressurized system, its just a nutrifin system with a bottle connected to a bubble counter/disperser. also thanks for the back ground on tannins but unfortunately i want this tank to have hard slightly basic water, so all those potential benefits are lost with this tank. haha. i'll have to remember that though when i eventually set up the amazonian biotope tank that i want when i move out. anyway as far as teh nutrients are concerned i know what all but one of them are. what is csm+b, and where can i find it? again thanks for the help

[Iliveinazoo]

I used to have a program that I downloaded from the net to help with fert doses - it was called Chucks Planted Tank Calculator, I've had a quick search for it but without any luck. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find it or another similar program

[Pufferpunk]

go to: http://www.yamatogreen.com.

[PolishPuff]

go to: http://www.yamatogreen.com.

yeap, I use it to and my Java Fern plants keep on multiplying

[RTR]

If your tank is fully planted, more plants will not help. If your planted tank is only lightly planted, say 25% of the substrate is covered by plants (when viewed from above the tank), then more plants would likely help. If you have enough light and ferts and too few plants, algae will step in.

[timwag2001]

csm+b is a fert that has all of the trace nutrients including Fe.

dont waste your money on that yamato crap. first of all they dont have any phosphate, at all. phosphate is a macro nutrient. its needed.
you can buy the dry ferts where i showed you for a fraction of the price and they sometimes last years. if you want you can put it in a bottle and mix some up yourself. when you purchase bottled ferts you are paying for bottling, water, employess, shipping, distributors, etc. by it dry and dose it dry, or mix it with water yourself and save yourself the money. i'm sure you have access to all the water you need, you dont need to buy it from yamato.

chuck gadd's calculator was ok. i've heard of a lot of people having trouble finding it lately though. i found errors when i started using it so i quit and started using this one http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... ilator.php. you have to become a member of aquatic plant central forum for it though.

you arent buying the products for the nutrafin system are you? you can make the mixture yourself

[Lil' Swimz$]

My DW leaches tannins, slowly, but it turns the water yellow. I like it Looks more natural then crystal clear water.