Was wondering if anyone here has come across a reason for a fish tank going red in colour?  Tank been set up a while with Guppy's and Platey's.  Blue coloured gravel and afew grassy ornamants, all fully washed prior to being put in tank.  No bogwood.  The filter pads have been died red in colour from the water and process takes about a week.  I have no idea what could be the problem.  If anyone has any idea's then please share.

Thanks

Is the water red? or just the filter pads.  What kind of red?

Assuming the filter pads,
Only thing I can think of, is the colour of the food - if it's a colour food ??  but that would be more pinkish I would have thought ?

Other than that, either algae - diatomaceous (usually browninsh) or blue-green (usually blue green but can be reddish too) or bacteria?
or has the water company put something in the water or has the water been discoloured recently?

What are the water parameters?   is it affecting the fish?

Sorry, not much help :(

The water goes red, not sure on the exact colour.  I'm asking for a customer (Pets at home) who hasn't got access to the interent but I ave never heard of tank water going red so was intregued and said I will try and find something out, googling came up with nothing!

Have looked at algae but they tend to be salt water and not in fresh water.  Will do some more research and see.

Thanks for the idea's, will be able to sugest them and will see about water company.

Fish arn't affected, all seem healthy and happy, non dieing and all eating wel although some female guppies are looking bloated but not having babies.  Other fish fine though.

You've been alot of help thanks :)  Will get customer to do a water test and see if anything is wrong there but tanks been doing it for a while and all fish seem healthy.

Hmmm

wonder if there's something leaching into the water?      What type of tank is it?   Something in the back of my mind about a new type of filter that changes colour, but can't for the life of me remember where I read it ?????

You've got me intrigued now too :)

ETA - just  thought but are they students??  I'm thinking food dye as a practical joke ;)

Can't remember tank but the filter is a fluval.  Nope not students, More looked like a upper class older couple.  Can't see it being a joke.  Seemed quite knowledeble on fish and said his father is an experianced tropical fish keeper and has no idea!

Hi

I owuld firstly get all parameters checked. fish my look well but you can never tell unless the readings are all correct and the majority of tropical keepers dont regularly test.
ask how they do the water change, how often and do they use any treatments in the top up water?

Diatoms can appear red and will cling to filter wool and while they are not harmful in small quantities, when it has started to effect the water colour, something is very wrong.

when they clean the tank, do they wash the filter media out in tank water or tap water? the idea of the filter is to build up the good bacteria on the surface area, but rinsing the wool in tap water is bad as the chlorines in the tap water just kill off all the good guys.

How many fish do they have in the tank compared to the literage? too many fish can be very bad for a tank..
where have they got the tank placed? is it in sun light? or other form or lighting?

Do they have any real plants in the tank? cabomba is a great way of natural filtering in a tropical tank and is very cheap. the fish will love it too.

also, what temperature are they running at?

sorry for the millions of questions,
basicaly, i would make sure they are not washing the media in tap water, that they are allowing water to stand and treat it before doing a water change and make sure they are not over stocked, too hot and have some natural plants in.

pm me if you wish
kate

Have they done a half tank water change? if so have they still got the problem?
Cant remember where i got it from but i got hold of a chemical testing kit for my tank when we were having probems. You take a sample of water and dip the paper in which changes colour. Each colour means something, and you get bottles of chemicals to add. For example, paper turns red which means you are lacking potassium. So you add several drops of one of the solutions which should rectify the problem.
Hope that makes sense?

Hi kate thanks for that.  Will print off your post and take it in with me :)  I was going to ask for them to bring a water test in so I can check (Don't know why I didn;t say that to them last night)  They don't use any chemicals when doing a water change apart from a declorinator.  At the moment they are doing a water change every week due to the tank water becoming red!

Sorry to sound stupid but what are diatoms? Never heard of them before!

They don't have too many fish as per Pets at Home recomendations. 

They don't have real plants and I did think about suggesting this but didn't want to as with having no idea why the water is changing colour I wasn't sure but might suggest it tonight.

Again thank you very much :)  Really has helped and given me some things to think about.

Freds Mum.  They are doing water changes weekly and I am going to ask them for a water sample to test it for them or encourage them to buy one :)  P.S I would personally use drops into tubes rather then strips.  Seem to give better results in my experiance. :)

no problems, i used to look after an aquatics dept in a pet shop and have OATA certificates which are really good to have a go at if you are interested in fish keeping.
I also had a 500l marine tank for a number of yrs before i discovered dogs and couldnt keep 2 expensive hobbies!

I would make sure the phosphate levels are ok 1st and foremost. also, see if they can test the tap water 1st as it wont help if they already have hi levels in the tap water. do they live in a rural location as my phos used to go high when the farmers were spraryign as it seemed to leak into the mains water, god only knows what else we digest!

have a look at doing the OATA course, (ornamental Aquatics Trade association) they have a web site somewhere!

kate

OATA miht be something I have ago at in the future :)  Got too much on my plate at the moment with Uni and won't be working at Pets at Home much longer ;) But one day I would love to own a 400-500 litre tank for tropical fishes (Don't think I could cope with Marine!) But of course it all depends on money and space in future!  Dogs will always come first!  And it's harder to move house with fish then it is dogs!

Ask how long their lighting is on for and when they last replaced the tubes, and also is their tank near a window.

Really if its not something leaching a colour into the tank then it must be an algae and for algae you need to look at excess nutrients in the water and too much lighting.

Are they sure they have not put anything in the filter - im sure i had a similar problem and i had put a bag of what looked like orangey clayish granules in the filter (cant remember now what they were supposed to do).

For the course of action least likely to cause any problems.. i would make sure they are using no treatments in the water for their fish, other than the dechlorinator.... advise that they use an activated carbon insert in the filter (if its a leaching thing that will strip it out of the water), and limit their lighting to under 8 hours a day,possibly splitting the lighting into 4 hours on, 2 off, 4 on...

Check that their lighting tubes are not old and ineffective (i think most are good for a bout a year), and make sure they are not over feeding the fish they have inthere.

If that fails, I would be quizzing the water company as to what is in there and could there be levels of something that are reacting to the dechlorinator maybe?