Why Is My Tank Brown ?

[confused mermaid]

Over the weekend I took all the decor out of my tank and vacumed the gravel real good and did a 50% water change. ( I vacum and do from 25 to 50% every weekend but usually don't totally remove the decor. ) I used a new water conditioner as I ran out of the old stuff....I believe it's called Tetra Aquasafe. I measured according to directions. I did have to rearrange my carbon filters before I plugged my filter back in. The tank looked beautiful when I finished and went to bed Sunday. When I came home from work Monday night the water and everything in the tank has this kind of brown haze on it. It almost looks like it would be a desert pond. So I freaked out and tested the water right away. Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 5......which is normal for me. The only odd thing was the PH (I have VERY hard water) which usually tests at 8 all of a sudden is down to about 7.2. That has NEVER happened and I've had this tank about 6 months now. All the fish seem fine....I took out both the filters (they were about 3 weeks old, I try to get away with once a month) They were a little brown. So I put one new filter back in so I could monitor it this morning. (I have a marineland biowheel 200) The biowheel is a little dirty and I have been meaning to get out the instructions to see if and how I am supposed to clean it....but it's not discolored enough to cause the whole tank to look like that! I don't know if it was the new water conditioner or screwing with the filters that did it. CAN ANYONE ELSE TELL ME WHATS GOING ON? PLEASE Planning on doing another 50% water change tonight if haze isn't gone.

46 gallon with 24 smaller fish in it.

 

[Tonym]

Over the weekend I took all the decor out of my tank and vacumed the gravel real good and did a 50% water change. ( I vacum and do from 25 to 50% every weekend but usually don't totally remove the decor. ) I used a new water conditioner as I ran out of the old stuff....I believe it's called Tetra Aquasafe. I measured according to directions. I did have to rearrange my carbon filters before I plugged my filter back in. The tank looked beautiful when I finished and went to bed Sunday. When I came home from work Monday night the water and everything in the tank has this kind of brown haze on it. It almost looks like it would be a desert pond. So I freaked out and tested the water right away. Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 5......which is normal for me. The only odd thing was the PH (I have VERY hard water) which usually tests at 8 all of a sudden is down to about 7.2. That has NEVER happened and I've had this tank about 6 months now. All the fish seem fine....I took out both the filters (they were about 3 weeks old, I try to get away with once a month) They were a little brown. So I put one new filter back in so I could monitor it this morning. (I have a marineland biowheel 200) The biowheel is a little dirty and I have been meaning to get out the instructions to see if and how I am supposed to clean it....but it's not discolored enough to cause the whole tank to look like that! I don't know if it was the new water conditioner or screwing with the filters that did it. CAN ANYONE ELSE TELL ME WHATS GOING ON? PLEASE Planning on doing another 50% water change tonight if haze isn't gone.

46 gallon with 24 smaller fish in it.

Have you recently added bogwood to the tank if you have this will release whats called tannins into the water which makes the water brown and lowers the ph. It is harmless and will become less and less brown over time through water changing.

 

[Bebobb]

Over the weekend I took all the decor out of my tank and vacumed the gravel real good and did a 50% water change. ( I vacum and do from 25 to 50% every weekend but usually don't totally remove the decor. ) I used a new water conditioner as I ran out of the old stuff....I believe it's called Tetra Aquasafe. I measured according to directions. I did have to rearrange my carbon filters before I plugged my filter back in. The tank looked beautiful when I finished and went to bed Sunday. When I came home from work Monday night the water and everything in the tank has this kind of brown haze on it. It almost looks like it would be a desert pond. So I freaked out and tested the water right away. Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 5......which is normal for me. The only odd thing was the PH (I have VERY hard water) which usually tests at 8 all of a sudden is down to about 7.2. That has NEVER happened and I've had this tank about 6 months now. All the fish seem fine....I took out both the filters (they were about 3 weeks old, I try to get away with once a month) They were a little brown. So I put one new filter back in so I could monitor it this morning. (I have a marineland biowheel 200) The biowheel is a little dirty and I have been meaning to get out the instructions to see if and how I am supposed to clean it....but it's not discolored enough to cause the whole tank to look like that! I don't know if it was the new water conditioner or screwing with the filters that did it. CAN ANYONE ELSE TELL ME WHATS GOING ON? PLEASE Planning on doing another 50% water change tonight if haze isn't gone.

46 gallon with 24 smaller fish in it.

Have you recently added bogwood to the tank if you have this will release whats called tannins into the water which makes the water brown and lowers the ph. It is harmless and will become less and less brown over time through water changing.

Or anything that releases tannins... Of and you could boil the wood to help reduce this effect.