WHY IS MY WATER BROWN???

porcelaindoll

porcelaindoll

AC Members
Nov 7, 2005
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Denver, CO.
I've never had this problem before. i came home from work one day and noticed that my water had turned a dark brown. so i did a 50% water change and it cleared up. then i come come the next day and it's exactly the same. the only thing that has changed recently with my aquarium is that I upgraded my lighting to about 3-4 watts per gallon but that was like 2-3 weeks ago.
what is causing this???? also, I did have some red slime on my live rock and I scraped it off with a toothbrush. did that cause an algae bloom? my water hasn't cleared up and it's been 3 days.

this tank has been set up for 2 years.
ammonia=0
nitrite=0
nitrate=15
ph 8.2
temp 78
 
The new lights may have caused an algal or bacterial bloom. It'll probably settle with time. The nitrates are probably not helping it and you may have some phosphates contributing to it.
 
yep its most def because of the lighting. Try testing for phosphates and nitrates. If you do have phosphates, you could buy the phosban stuff from ur lfs. If that doesn't clear it up, how long do you have the lights on? Since u upgraded ur lighting, u dont need to have long hours. What I did was use timers so that the lights would go out at a specific time automatically. What I do is use 6 hours of regular white light and 4 hours of actinic lighting. It cleared up the hair algea problem I had and it had no I'll effects on my lps and soft corals. If u keep sps corals, its a different story
 
Maybe its free floating algae...about a week ago my freshwater tank turned RED. I put a new filter pad and did a 50% water change...NOTHING.......I ended up having to do a 100% water change basically...ran it down to about 10% diluted it and changed it 3 times before it got back to normal. I know you probably can't do this with the saltwater because it is much more complex speaking chemical balance wise but ya I had a similar issue as well...hope you get it under control!
 
Yes I agree, some sort of biological bloom. Perhaps a brown free-floating algae.

I think I would be going for a mechanical filter about now. Temporary.

I'd probably drag out a diatomaceous earth filter as they will yank out ALL floaters. But even a less efficient filter would probably work.

What you want, is to control it, not necessarily remove it all. It is life that has suddenly found conditions to be absolutely perfect for it. Hence the explosion.

A good way to deal with this is to allow these critters to eat or utilize so much of the specific things it requires that it runs itself out of business. What you don't want is the stuff to be filtered out into a filter where it dies and pollutes, or returns the very nutrients it thrives on. So you might want to run a filter that will sieve out a good deal of the stuff not all and then clean it everyday or so. you essentially want to farm the critter without helping it. In 2 or 3 weeks the bloom will run its course and likely not bother you again. If it does, then you need to think about what sources of unique nutrients you may be adding to your tank. Something like, perhaps, a food.
 
Ya come to think of it my freshwater tank turned brown today too for a little while...i went to the gym and came back and it was clear. Thought it might be my jealous little betta putting plagues on it since he got distressed when we moved him from that tank to a smaller one so we can put more fish in the bigger tank. = )
 
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