Why is my water turning brown after less....

[Mustangman11224]

Why is my water turning brown after less then a week? I have a 36 gal that is fully cycled I have an aqua flow 50 filter... All permitters ammonia nitrite are zero nitrate was a little elevated. I have 1 pleco (common) 5 fancy guppies and 3 neon tetras... Any ideas... This just started up, I feed my fish twice a day... In my filter I have this thick brown stuff almost like algae... It's really thick... Is that causing it... It's in my whole filter and made my filter media turn brown...
Thanks for the help
Dan
Here's a pix of my filter

 

[Coyne]

Have you added anything new to the tank recently? Driftwood or something that could be leeching tannins or a dye into the water?

 

[Mustangman11224]

No all the drift wood inMy tank is all the same as when I started it... And that hasn't leached tannins for a while... Should I scrub all of that stuff out of my filter or is that all the colonized bacteria.

 

[Coyne]

I have a smaller version of that filter and I believe that's where the BB is supposed to be housed. I also doubt it's causing your water discoloration anyway.
I've never used driftwood, but I've read posting from others saying it can take years for the tannins to leech out completely.

 

[Mustangman11224]

Ok thanks maybe the big thick log I have is leaching more out of it...

 

[angelmisty]

Did u ever boil the driftwood ? I jade the brown water problem. But not the sludge.

 

[Mebbid]

No all the drift wood inMy tank is all the same as when I started it... And that hasn't leached tannins for a while... Should I scrub all of that stuff out of my filter or is that all the colonized bacteria.

Could your carbon have become exhausted? The tannins seem to leach from drift wood FOREVER and if the carbon isn't pulling it from the water anymore it will build up quickly.

 

[Mustangman11224]

Yea my aqua flow filters don't have alot of carbon in them, I added a new filter a couple days ago so tomorrow I'll take the old one out... And I'll see if it does it again this week :/ and I never boiled the drift wood, I do t have a big enouph pot for that log... I let it soak
In a bucket for a month befor putting it in
My tank.