HELP!!! Water in newly setup tank is brown

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
L

LArifleMAN

Exodon
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2011
62
0
21
SoCaL
OK, so my wife and I set our new 65gal last night and this morning the water was super cloudy, highly acidic, high nitrites and high nitrates. We did literally nothing different in setup from the other 2 tanks that we have. The only thing I can think of is the large piece of mopani wood that wood that is in there but that wouldn't explain the chemistry change.

We are running a Pen Plax 1000 currently and I just popped in an internal filter to see if anything changes. I just find it really weird that the chemistry is so off from the other tanks.
 
That is really weird to be happening so fast. Did you put any chemicals in the tank when you set it up. I always use prime and stability when setting up a tank.
 
I used the same water conditioner I have been using. Could it be that I used water from the upstairs bathroom instead of the kitchen sink, forgo to add that.
 
Did you boil or soak the mopani wood before placing it into the tank? If not, the tannins most likely dropped your pH and tinted your water a brownish color
 
No, this is the first time I've used mopani. The other driftwood I have in the other tank did tint the water, but it didn't do anything like this, I mean they tinted the was yellowish, but this water is completely clouded to the point where I can't see the back of the tank.
I just took it out and did a 50% water change, and I'm going to try and boil the wood, it's big though.
 
:ROFL: Hmm... perhaps a bacterial bloom made the water cloudy while the tannin made the water brown? Also, every piece of driftwood has a varying amount of tannin in it and the mopani wood may have contained enough of it to make the water noticably brown. Carbon will remove tannin in the water during the period in which it is still effective which isn't too long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom