Pink water?

[666]

Hi, I have red devils in bare tanks with Aquaclear filters and feeding Hikari gold pellets. The water keeps turning pink, would it be coming from the filter sponges or food? I have used both items for decades and not had the problem before. 

[Buccal]

Your gold pellets shouldn't make the water red, unless it's a over feeding issue.

A big one,,,,, How often to you water change ?

Never heard of this before except in cases where chlorophyll pink (discus color enhancing agent I may have spelt it incorrectly),  so it's weird hearing this.

Make sure your missus or partner or kids or anyone aren't playing jokes with you,, do you have a joker in your life ??? Lol,. Food color/dye.

Only explanation that comes to mind,,,,,,,, is that you may be using a glo-lux or similar to light, which eccentriates the red pinks reds and oranges,,,,,,, now possibly over feeding or a after result of over feeding then getting a not often seen and call a bacterial bloom,,,, these bacterial blooms in general are fast to come and fast to go and has no negative effects on fish,, this get very complicated to explain, because certain starch levels in foods trigger the blooms often in very particular circumstances.

But once you get a bloom, it can continue again and again if conditions remain the same.

Reduce feeding and water change weekly minimum, will see this go away (if you have this problem that is),,,  those fish eat a lot of food I know, but just go easy.

Now to get to where I was heading,,, algae bloom making water slightly milky to fairly milky as it does, and your glo-lux light is throwing its pink light into the milky bloom and illuminating it all to be pink,,   Also same thing can occur if your filters aren't mature or there's a issue generating ammonia spikes, as ammo spikes are also milky, this would light up pink to,,,,.........      Yes.    No.    Maybe.     

 

[666]

We do water changes weekly, the water isnt milky its clear but pink. Its been going on for quite a while now. We feed twice daily only what they eat in a few minutes. Also remove any pellets not eaten. It doesnt seem to affect the fish but is annoying me. The foam filter in the aquaclear is quite old in the worst tank and is a red color, its 20 years old plus.

[666]

PS, Forgot to mention there isnt a light on the tanks, they dont like bright light. 

[Buccal]

Well, filter foam breaks down eventually yes, but it would be in debri form,, not color your water.

Sounds like to me someone's putting food dye in.

 Siphon water into a large clear tub, fill another identified clear tub with tap water and drop by drop with food dye and see if you can make it look the same.

[666]

The kids have grown up and left home, only the two of us. I suspect die from the pellets although not had a problem with this brand before. 

[Ducksta]

I'm actually getting some slight discoloration in my tank at the moment. Feeding Hikari cichlid excel. 

I wouldn't say mine is pink... But define stain in the water. 

I've eliminated pre filter, media leaching, etc and became confident it was the food over the weekend.

I've never had this issue with Hikari before either. I'm a bit annoyed as I have a few more bags from the same batch.

[666]

We are using Cichlid Gold with color enhancing. Been using it for decades and never a problem before.

[intangcity]

could any little hands dropped in a red crayon or something?have you added any decor that could be leaching its colour?could it be algae?have you tried a uv steriliser or some sought of algae treatment?any new rocks added?

 

[666]

There are no kids in the house, the tanks are bare. The water is stained not cloudy, the color is close to the color of the pellets. 

[Buccal]

If your water changing enough, your filters aren't blocked and no waiste sitting around and not over feeding, it can't be anything else.

Besides,, none of it sounds right, any water staining from food is always fairly temporary, if discolored water ends up a long term constant, then you can't be doing enough water changes, regardless off the cause.

[666]

We change 10 to 20 percent weekly, sometimes more if there is a problem. This is why I asked. I have kept fish since I was a kid and now I am 58 and its annoying not working it out. I have kept Cichlids the same way using the same products for decades and not had this problem. This is why I questioned the food thinking the quality may have dropped like most things these days.

[LithoMan]

I have seen pink water from some people houses i been too.. that feed tetra colout bit..actual pink

Try differnt food for  month

Next best thing try purigen seachem

[Buccal]

I have display full of tetra/characins and been using tetra bits for over six years, and I've never seen a stain in the water, but Definetely not saying it doesn't occur elsewhere.

But any staining usually dissapears after 1-4 hours, when caused by food colorings.

[Buccal]

I fact, if 666's filter sponges are degrading, it could also be that the sponges have lost ability to fine filter the water.

But a clear staining, and not a particle thing, then most mech medias wouldn't filter that anyway,,, unless we are talking purigen or the likes of which actually draws inwards and locks in super fine stuff like tannins.

It just could be that filters have degraded and fish have now grown bigger putting unprecedented pressure on filters and water quality.

And we don't know tank size.

[666]

The water mainly cleared up with no changes to anything although one tank is a bit up and down. That tank is 2' with one adult female, I do have new larger tanks I am setting up to change over. I did soak some pellets in water a few days and no staining but that may change when it goes through the fish. The only other difference is that tank has a very old filter and sponge, 2 others have fairly new filters and the 4th tank has canister filters.

 

[666]

On Monday, February 29, 2016 at 5:30 PM, Buccal said:

Your gold pellets shouldn't make the water red, unless it's a over feeding issue.

A big one,,,,, How often to you water change ?

Never heard of this before except in cases where chlorophyll pink (discus color enhancing agent I may have spelt it incorrectly),  so it's weird hearing this.

Make sure your missus or partner or kids or anyone aren't playing jokes with you,, do you have a joker in your life ??? Lol,. Food color/dye.

Only explanation that comes to mind,,,,,,,, is that you may be using a glo-lux or similar to light, which eccentriates the red pinks reds and oranges,,,,,,, now possibly over feeding or a after result of over feeding then getting a not often seen and call a bacterial bloom,,,, these bacterial blooms in general are fast to come and fast to go and has no negative effects on fish,, this get very complicated to explain, because certain starch levels in foods trigger the blooms often in very particular circumstances.

But once you get a bloom, it can continue again and again if conditions remain the same.

Reduce feeding and water change weekly minimum, will see this go away (if you have this problem that is),,,  those fish eat a lot of food I know, but just go easy.

Now to get to where I was heading,,, algae bloom making water slightly milky to fairly milky as it does, and your glo-lux light is throwing its pink light into the milky bloom and illuminating it all to be pink,,   Also same thing can occur if your filters aren't mature or there's a issue generating ammonia spikes, as ammo spikes are also milky, this would light up pink to,,,,.........      Yes.    No.    Maybe.     

 

 

[666]

YES, it looks like a algae bloom. I done a strip and clean on the filter and found pinkish slime around the impeller. I don't have a light but am using tank water. Maybe without the water being nuked it's already there and the tank conditions suit it. On the previous post I tried to edit and add but it didn't work.

[Buccal]

At least with coming and going algae and bacterial blooms, your fish aren't effected to much,,,, it usually just involves slightly changing your feeding habits, like reduced feeding but more often if the amount is needed, otherwise just reduced feeding.

missing a day or two of feeding through out the week can help a lot.