# Water Turning brown?



## Danny7

I have had a 10 gallon fish tank for the past 2 months. I have had 2 mollies and one platy. The mollies had babies and there are around 30 of them in a little floating breeder. They have been alive for a month. Just recently like past week the water has been turning brown. I cleaned the gravel with a gravel cleaner and changed 80% of the water. I put new water in with conditionor and the next day it was cloudy again and it is getting worse. What is happenning and why is it happening all of a sudden. OH and i have a baby pleco


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## BEARitone

Do you have driftwood in the tank?

If so, driftwood releases tannins and turns the water a yellow/brown color for a while, it can even start to happen days after adding it. It won't hurt your fish but it doesn't exactly look great. You can eaiter deal with frequent water changes to get rid of tannins or remove the driftwood and let it soak for a few weeks.

If you have no driftwood then I am stumped and I am sure someone else can help you out.


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## Redknee

If it is tannin it should have hit sooner. The tank is 2 months old. Also tannin can harm fish as it tends to lower the Ph of the water.
Do you perhaps overfeed? Is there a lot of poop in the tank(on the bottom)? That placo has no place in a 10G tank and if there is a lot of dirt on the sand the pleco might swing his tail and make the gunk on the bottom come up and mess your water. Even if you did clean the sand it might still have gunk in it.
It might also be that your tank is not cycled anymore. Perhaps you washed the filter media with tap water? That is a known killer for the beneficial bacteria in the filter.
What else did you do? Change comething? Any chemicals in the water? Was the filter of for to long?
You need to get a test kit and test the water and post the data. Might help us in finding your problem.
Test Ph, Gh, Kh, NO2, NO3, NH3 and post the data. Do not use the strip testers, get a kit.


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## Spooki

After changing 80% of the water your tank is probably cycling again and the cloudy water is a bacterial bloom. As for why it was brown in the first place, I can't say. More information is needed.


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## Redknee

80% water change does not necessary mean that the tank is decycled(is that even a word???).
It is not the water that contains the bacteria but the sand, mefia filter, decor.
BUT if you did not dechlorinate the water than you did mess up your cycle.


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## Russell

What are you feeding the fry? A lot of commercial fry food is too fine for a filter to pickup and isn't formulated to not could the water like many adult foods now are. Also, 30 fry plus 2 mollies, a platy, and a pleco is approaching if not well past the load limit for your aquarium and could be contributing to a diatomic algae bloom. Diatomic algae blooms are common in the first few months of tank being set up and usually pass on their own. If it's diatoms there should be brown algae somewhere else in the tank to verify this. If you are using fry food, at one month they should be ready for adult flake and you could switch after the next water change to see if there is a change in the cloudiness.


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## Redknee

Russell said:


> Also, 30 fry plus 2 mollies, a platy, and a pleco is approaching if not well past the load limit for your aquarium.


It is well past by about enough to not be good.


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## fish joey

Not every one is prepared for babies ...when some one asks for help it would be nice to be a little nicer...sorry thats my two cents ...I myself have been waiting for driftwood to stop seeping ...maybe there is something wrong with your filter.....have you added any other new things? a baby pleco cool!!!


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## Redknee

fish joey;493931when some one asks for help it would be nice to be a little nicer...sorry thats my two cents ...[/quote said:


> Mind expanding that? There is nothing in this topic that can be considered not nice, it is just advice and questions that are ment to help.
> Also a baby pleco is not cool in a 10G tank. It is about as cool as you living in a prison cell considering you are about as big as a basketball player. Picture that kind of living and imagine that is how that pleco will soon feel.
> People need to become a tad less sensitive when it comes to internet answers. There are times when someone does not have the time to play nice and warm and just posts the helpful part and skips the be the nice guy thing to save time for both him and the person he is addressing to.
> The OP needs help fast to solve the problem, when i have a problem that needs a fast solution the last thing i need is someone posting 20+ walls of text just to play nice, while i kill time reading his hugs and cuddles my problem is geting no better and i am just wasting time.
> Furthermore if you are not ready for babies you should rethink your stock and get only males or only females.
> BUT as usual people are very into the whole baby fish thing and only think the whole thing to the point where they have cute little babies. As for what next... it is a question they do not bother to ask BEFORE having those babies... I find it hard to have sympathy for someone who does not think of the well being of live creatures and only sees the "Hey, they are C.U.T.E! zomg zomg zomg so CUUUTE!".
> DO excuse my gunshot finesse.


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## fish joey

ok redknee perhaps I do get a little touchy feelly.....some how your responce struck me wrong... I not only appoliges to you but original poster


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## Redknee

fish joey said:


> ok redknee perhaps I do get a little touchy feelly.....some how your responce struck me wrong... I not only appoliges to you but original poster


There is no need for appologies. When lives are at stake, be it human, animal or insect the only thing that is important is saving it. Feelings are last on my list.


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## fish joey

okey dokey ...now back to the original problem...... the brown water is it any better?


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## Danny7

This is my girlfriends fishtank in her dorm.... Baies just happened the molly came prego like always. Uhm we havent done anything to the water besides adding conditioner. We are going to get a test kit. And ps the pleco is doing great actually....


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## Redknee

Danny7 said:


> And ps the pleco is doing great actually....


This is exactly the kind if answer that tends to get me started.
Can you read? I guess you can since you can post it means that reading also comes easy for you.
Google the fish and see what kind of tank size he needs.
Sure he is doing great, he's a frikin BABY, thus he is still SMALL.
If you decide to keep it i wish you to live the exact life he will.
And i am done.
Some ppl are just stupid.


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## Russell

Redknee isn't going about it the way that I would. But, he is right. First of all plecos are high waste producers and shouldn't be kept in overstocked or highly stocked tanks. Next, they are grazing fish and shouldn't be put in an aquarium that hasn't had a chance to establish algae colonies. Lastly, fish drink water, breath water, are in constant contact with water so housing a fish in an appropriately sized aquarium is essential. Imagine if everything you ate, drank, or breathed contained urine and feces. That is the world aquarium fish live in. As enthusiasts we do all we can to make sure that the waste levels don't exceed certain levels. That is where the recommended tank sizes and stocking levels come from. You might not like someone telling you that your tank or Gf's tank is completely out of whack but to us fish are pets not decorations. They are no different than our dogs or cats. There are other algae eating options besides a common pleco that will grow to be as long as a 10 gallon tank. A larger tank should be obtained or the fish should be rehomed. You will continue to have water issues until you correct your stocking.


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## Danny7

Uhm well i have a 45 gallon at my house full of cichlids so i am not stupid thank you very much. I do know fish i have had fish for a long time. There better than they were at the pet store so yeah lay off. And i we feed the babies crushed flake food sorry for not answering,


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## Danny7

and we got the pleco after thr babies were born so it was a good month after. we first started so the tank did cycle.


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## Russell

Its not food so unless you have some piece of wood, decor, or substrate that picked now to leech into the water it is an algae bloom. Short of rehoming some fish or upgrading to a larger setup I would test the water and do whatever water changes were necessary to keep your parameters in check until you can find a home for the fry. Blackouts and light reductions don't have much effect on brown strains of algae so the only remedy is nutrient removal. As I said brown algae blooms are common on new tanks and usually dissipate on their own and yours should to after the fry are gone and before the pleco grows. I wish you the best of luck with your situation.


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## Danny7

I have a little 2.5 gallon with a filter and stuff built into it so we are going to throw the babies in there for the time being. Maybe a make shift divider also so they will be easier to feed untill they get a little bit bigger. Tanks are cheap so possibly a different tank down the road. Thanks Russel i wish some other people were more understanding. Yes talking about you redknee. stuff happens and you need to change things around a bit. Stuff Happens!


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## Redknee

Danny7 said:


> stuff happens and you need to change things around a bit. Stuff Happens!


Stuff happens? Yes it does when you have little to no respect for living things. It also happens when you do not have the common sense to buy the animal AFTER you research it a bit. Yes it happens when you only think 2 steps ahead and not the whole way, it happens when you go ballistic about how cool and cute it will be to have babies(fish or any other animal) without thinking "hey, after they come into this world what the heck am i going to do with them?".
How about stuff happens when you are told that your fish is TO BIG for your tank and you reply with ignorance "And ps the pleco is doing great actually...." How do you know? Can you talk to him? Does he reply? Causse you sure have no understanding of fish so it is clear to me that you actually do not know he is doing great from his behaviour.
You want some kind of sympathy for acting like a spoiled brat? Xcuse me what are we 10?
Want a hug or something? Let me give you one!
Redknee hugs Danny7 for being ignorant and not giving a %%%% about his new pets.
There, happy?
You want people to be more understanding how about you show it back and say "Oh, i understand, the fish will soon be to big, sorry i did not know, i will see if i can rehome him or get a bigger tank".
I just love how people come and ask for advice and when the solution is a bit to much for them they just rather ignore the facts and hope for the best.
And yes, now i'm the bad guy for sending him to his room.


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## 1077

Danny7 said:


> I have had a 10 gallon fish tank for the past 2 months. I have had 2 mollies and one platy. The mollies had babies and there are around 30 of them in a little floating breeder. They have been alive for a month. Just recently like past week the water has been turning brown. I cleaned the gravel with a gravel cleaner and changed 80% of the water. I put new water in with conditionor and the next day it was cloudy again and it is getting worse. What is happenning and why is it happening all of a sudden. OH and i have a baby pleco


At around four weeks ,the fry should be large enough to be released from the breeder net,box,etc without being viewed as food by the adults but some fish grow slower than others. A good vegetable flake food for the fry three times a day (tiny amount) will help and is also good food for adults a well.
What sometimes happens when fry arrive is that we tend to offer a bit more food sometimes,,too much. With the additional fish load on the filter from waste created by fish and breakdown of uneaten fish food,the water quality can suffer =( sick fish.)
Increased frequency of water changes perhaps twice a week at fifty percent can help.
As for the brown color of water, tannins from driftwood,or diatom bloom could be the culprit.Both are harmless for the fish. Might try cleaning the filter material in bucket of dechlorinated water or bucket of old water you take out during water changes (not tapwater) that should be performed each week.If you recently replaced the filter material, then twice weekly water changes of 50 percent may be needed to help keep water quality good = no ammonia or nitrites but then simply cleaning it as described is all that is necessary. Sometimes replacing the filter material can cause bacteria bloom until the filter can re-establish good bacteria to process the fish waste.
If you placed some wood in the tank, boiling it can help rid the wood of tannins that color the water and then you should see some improvement.
Plecos are often chosen as cleaner fish but as others have mentioned,,they produce much more waste=(poor water quality) ,than any benefit that they may provide with respect to cleaning up excess food which should not be there unless you are overfeeding=(poor water quality.)
There are a couple plecos that would work for ten gallon tank but they should be purchased not for cleaning ability but because you like them for as mentioned,,they ALL poop quite a bit compared to other fishes or even a group of some fishes.Pleco you have will prolly be ok for a couple months, but WILL need larger tank sooner rather than later.
Were it me in your situatiuon, (and it ain't) I would place the fry in a bucket of aquarium water from the ten gallon tank, and take them to the local pet store or fish store after calling and asking if they would be willing to take the fish. The mollies will continue to produce fry every few weeks and your ten gallon tank will soon be overpopulated with fish and ten gallon tank is much less forgiving than larger tank with respect to maintaining water quality = (happy fish).Good Luck.


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