When doing water changes, anyone elses old water have yellow tint?

[roper512]

Every time I do a water change, the water I take out of the tank has a yellowish tint to it.. Next to the bucket of fresh water it looks downright nasty!

What is contributing to this tint? Anyone else experience this?

Thanks

[plateboy3293]

Try running carbon that should clear it up.

[xenon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13452465#post13452465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by plateboy3293
Try running carbon that should clear it up.

Took the words right out of my mouth... or should I say fingertips. lol

[LulusMoogle]

Yep. Run some carbon.

[Rueg]

A little ozone will clear it up as well. I used to have yellow water. Running ozone just 10 minutes three times a day took out the yellow. It is injected into a protein skimmer. Carbon will work as well. The yellow color is caused by dissolved organics.

[roper512]

Interesting... I'm running a decently powerful skimmer for my size tank (Deltec MCE600 on 40 gallon).. I don't feed much either.. What would be causing the Dissolved Organics to stay around so much when I'm doing regular water changes, skimming 24 hours, etc?

I will try carbon as you've all suggested but is that putting a bandaid on a bigger problem? If my tank water is yellowish does that mean that there's trapped food somewhere rotting?

Thanks for all your help and advice :)

[second_decimal]

that is kind of interesting, following along.

[Kannin]

I had the problem and running carbon fixed it. It's called polishing.

[Surferlopez]

do you feed flake food? usually flake food will release food dyes into the water column and stain the water...
Good quality carbon should do the trick for you
Danny

[bubbly]

The yellowing is a natural result of all those creatures eating and going to the bathroom in that small amount of water. There's a ton of life going on in our tanks!

If you had to eat and go to the bathroom in a small amount of water it would start to get kind of yellow too! The LR and sand help a great deal, but it does start to build up.

It's natural, and that's part of the reason that water changes are a good idea. It is also the reason refugiums can really help -- the dirty water acts as fertilizer for the fuge.

[jdieck]

The most common cause of water discoloration aside of colorants in food comes from tanins released by algae. Tannins are not removed by skimming as they are not atracted to the bubble air-water interface.
Carbon as mentioned above pretty well absorbs the tannings rather easily. Also as mentioned, Ozone breaks the tanning molecule into molecules that are skimmable.

[masonicman]

Is purigen just as good as running carbon.

Also How long do you run the carbon before you take it out?

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13454623#post13454623 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by masonicman
Is purigen just as good as running carbon.

Also How long do you run the carbon before you take it out?
Not really, they target different organics. IMO you can run carbon 24/7 but initially you need to replace it every two weeks. After a while you can replace at least once a month.