Waterchange water

[MattW]

I noticed this morning that the buckets of old tank water I'm throwing away seem to be differnt colours every week depending on the tank. I know the water from my 60L will be darker/brown coloured because of wood tannins. My 90L is different every week, it seems. The water was green this morning, while last week it was a yellow colour, and in previous weeks Ive had almost clear water. All of this water is put in a white bucket, so I notice the differences quite easily. Do these colours mean anything to the quality of the water/parameters? I'm interested to know if they can be used as an indicator for something missing/needed in the tank, or if the water just needs changing

 

[GaryE]

That's interesting. With regular changes, you'd think there's be no difference. Maybe changes in lighting or food?

 

[MattW]

That's interesting. With regular changes, you'd think there's be no difference. Maybe changes in lighting or food?

I will admit that with recent things happening, I haven't been totally on schedule with my tanks. I have missed a few feedings and dosing of ferts. The most recent change to this tank, which was around 2-3 weeks back was the intrduction of CO2. That has depleted quite quickly. Another job for me to sort out..

This was the bucket this morning

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

If I clean the glass right before a water change, often the water will have a green tint because of the algae I just scraped off.

 

[MattW]

I did scrape the glass the day before. I guess some of the algae could have still been floating around?

 

[Archerfish]

I will admit that with recent things happening, I haven't been totally on schedule with my tanks. I have missed a few feedings and dosing of ferts. The most recent change to this tank, which was around 2-3 weeks back was the intrduction of CO2. That has depleted quite quickly. Another job for me to sort out..

This was the bucket this morning
View attachment 376768

The introduction and then the sudden elimination of CO2 could certainly be affecting your water. A whipsaw effect. What do you have in the tank that requires CO2? It is easy to throw a tank into chaos with the introduction of CO2 and then not dosing additional nutrients. Unless really needed, I would eliminate the CO2. And I would 'reset' the tank as it was prior to CO2 by doing several partial water exchanges over the next week.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Any big change you've made can affect water color. In a younger setup or one in which I've just made a serious change (even something as minor as cleaning the sponge filters or stirring up the substrate), I'll see changes.

 

[MattW]

The introduction and then the sudden elimination of CO2 could certainly be affecting your water. A whipsaw effect. What do you have in the tank that requires CO2? It is easy to throw a tank into chaos with the introduction of CO2 and then not dosing additional nutrients. Unless really needed, I would eliminate the CO2. And I would 'reset' the tank as it was prior to CO2 by doing several partial water exchanges over the next week.

The main reason I introduced CO2 was to benefit some of my more 'high-tech' plants. I have noticed many of the plants are pearling when the lights reach the highest intensity. At the same time a couple of crypts have had a few melting leaves. I do believe my tank is understocked at the moment, so parameters shouldn't be affecting the fish, as I do 20L water changes weekly. Perhaps the lack of additional nutrients has caused this green water colour.

Any big change you've made can affect water color. In a younger setup or one in which I've just made a serious change (even something as minor as cleaning the sponge filters or stirring up the substrate), I'll see changes.

Interesting, I did clean the canister just over a week ago. I also did a small gravel vac on the bottom right, not long ago either.