Huh...My water turned yellow. No driftwood.

[pbatoon]

Hey guys, I recently started up a 3 gallons eclipse tank that I "cycled" for about 3 days - though im not sure if I did it correctly since. On the 4th day I added my betta to the tank and a couple days later the water turned yellow? Im trying to figure out whats wrong, I read that the cause may be excess protein causing a bacterial bloom. I dont have a test kit but when I get the water tested at the LFS then maybe I'll pick one up. The way I "cycled" the tank was by setting it up with rocks, water, BettaSafe conditioner and Ammo-Carb wrapped into a coffee filter, then let it run for a few days. I'm not sure if that was correct, but thats what the girl at petco suggested I do before placing my betta into the tank.

Anyway, if you guys can help me out with this dilemma i'd be very grateful and I know a great deal of chemistry and biology so you can be technical if you like. haha. Thanks again

Btw, I removed the fish and she seems fine, seems like shes dying to get back into the tank since shes acting very lively in that small container. I also did a 75% water change and added some conditioner.

[pbatoon]

Just wanted to add that it may be because of the fish flakes that I fed. I just read that you arent supposed to have been feeding the fish tropical flakes and such. I live in hawaii and our tap water is probably one of the most cleanest in the world since we have the natural lava rock, volcanic filter etc... The temp is normally 78-82 since i'm in the tropics.

Man, this yellow water is really bugging me. Its pee yellow, what is it and how do I prevent it from happening again?

[Phoxly]

Questions:

What is your substrate?
Planted, or unplanted?
What kind of lighting do you have?
Is your tank filtered?
Is your filter running properly?

[pbatoon]

substrate are rocks from an old aquarium, bleached, rinsed multiple times, and dried. the tank is bare, nothing but water and rocks, after three days upon introducing my fish the tank became yellow. lighting is a fluorescent bulb that comes with the eclipse3 system. No filter at the moment, went to find filters at petco but not in stock, so what I did was buy Ammo-Carb and wrapped it in a coffee filter, I may put an aquatic sponge as a mechanical filter as well. There is also a biowheel that I had running. I'm gonna go get the water checked tonite at petco to see if anything is wrong, but I doubt it so. My biggest guess was that she didnt eat all the food and the bacteria are just going nuts, esp with the warm hawaii climate.

I removed the bio wheel and fish for now, and added another handmade carbon filter. The water is better now that I changed it, but its like a light tea color.

[Phoxly]

I think you should get a normal filter, but I'm not sure. Weird scenario!

[dr2b]

The bio-wheel removal is just going to prolong the cycling process. What color is the gravel? Did bleaching the gravel maybe make it more susceptible to leeching something into the water? Seems weird that uneaten food would make your water turn yellow that quickly. Honestly, I'd change the water... and see if it happens again. If it does... you know it is something in the tank.

Also, remove any uneaten food... not good to leave it sitting in the bottom like that. :)

[pbatoon]

you may be onto something about the leeching. I'm gonna go test some of the excess rocks by placing it into a bucket, and adding some conditioner to it. It may be that the chelating agents are attacking the rocks and solubilizing the minerals into the water.

The water that I changed became yellow again and I am noticing yellow stuff in my filters. Blehhhhh :(