My tank water has turned blue--why?

[LeahK]

How old is the tank itself? Was it used for anything other than fish? Maybe something is leaching...:huh:

I did buy it used, but I've had it now for over a year, and this blue business only started about a month ago. The original owner used it for salt water.
About 3 months ago I treated the tank with melafix, which also turns water blue, but I've done dozens of water changes since then, and I ran some carbon after I was done medicating. Could the melafix somehow still be around and leaching out

 

[austinpetemo]

does the tums not hurt the water or fish?

 

[leocom2000]

I did buy it used, but I've had it now for over a year, and this blue business only started about a month ago. The original owner used it for salt water.
About 3 months ago I treated the tank with melafix, which also turns water blue, but I've done dozens of water changes since then, and I ran some carbon after I was done medicating. Could the melafix somehow still be around and leaching out

you just answered your question.

 

[Lupin]

does the tums not hurt the water or fish?

Nope. It's for the snails but most fish love it depending on their taste buds.:evil_lol:

 

[austinpetemo]

wow thats amazing. i might have to give that a shot.

 

[red_wall]

If you've had the tank running for awhile, then your only culprit is the water itself, or the melafix, something must've soaked it up and is now releasing it. Take the driftwood out for a while and change the water, see what happens. Take things out until you find the specific thing that's causing it (might be caught in the filter)

 

[SilverDollarMan]

Thats odd, ive used melafix before and its a clear liquid and never turned my water blue.

Must be something else.

 

[LeahK]

Yeah, I'm not convinced that the melafix can make a comeback like this.
But now, I have one more theory: I'd been using the end of a jumbo sized bottle of stress coat, and the last bit of the liquid got really thick. I'm guessing that it had evaporated some and condensed. Maybe, as a result of it being concentrated, I was way overdosing the tank with it, so much so that even after several water changes with a new bottle, I still haven't diluted the tank water enough to get rid of the blue color.
It's possible, at least, I guess.... Like I said, the fish have been fine through this, so I'll run some carbon and wait and see if subsequent water changes get the color back to normal.

 

[Wycco]

Nope. It's for the snails but most fish love it depending on their taste buds.:evil_lol:

Really?

My fish love the Snail Jello I make (I add berry flavoured tums into my snail jello)... but I've never had any of my fish go after the tums I drop in the tank.

I can't imagine how many tums it takes before the water turns pink though!

My Corydoras will go after snail jello before anything else it is by far their favourite food... even over live food... makes it a pain in the neck trying to get it to the snails.




Getting back on topic... blue water... some people believe that if you leave activated carbon in your filter too long and it get's oversaturated it will leak out some of the stuff it had previously bound with. If you had blue medication- old carbon that had sucked it out- and now the carbon is prefering to react with something else other than the melafix- it could be releasing the melafix to bind with something else.

 

[paperdragon]

I can't imagine how many tums it takes before the water turns pink though!

One, maybe 1.5 per week, plus lots of driftwood tannins. I'm thinking most of the color is from tannins.