Yellow water in brand new tank

dave1424

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Hi everyone,

I have just begun setting up my new Waterbox Cube 20 and my water looks yellow without the lights on.

So far, my process has been adding the below things last night:

- added the dry sand (Aqua One Pacific Coral Aragonite), which I rinsed with RODI water before putting in
- added CaribSea life rock (in Australia, this gets wiped of all bacteria before being sold, so is essentially dry rock)
- added the RODI water

This morning, I am going to add the salt to mix in tank, but am concerned that my water looks so yellow. When making the RODI water, it looked crystal clear in the buckets, so not sure why it looks like this and if I should be worried. It's been in the tank for about 12 hours.

In the back chamber, I am running the standard Waterbox Cube 20 filter media: sponges, bioballs and carbon. I also have an AI Nero 3 wavemaker on a low setting. The water is sitting at 25 degees C.

Anything to be concerned about?

Yellow Tank.jpg
 

blaxsun

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Assuming it's not a new RODI system? Tank water will always have a little bit of a yellow tinge to it, but it could definitely be from the substrate. Typically carbon will clear your water out in a few days as well. You could either leave it and see if it clears up in a few days -or- siphon most of the water out and replace it with new RODI water and see if that makes a difference. Do you have a heater going on the tank?
 
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dave1424

dave1424

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Assuming it's not a new RODI system? Tank water will always have a little bit of a yellow tinge to it, but it could definitely be from the substrate. Typically carbon will clear your water out in a few days as well. You could either leave it and see if it clears up in a few days -or- siphon most of the water out and replace it with new RODI water and see if that makes a difference. Do you have a heater going on the tank?
It is a new RODI system, but I followed all the set up instructions for the system, including flushing out the carbon and sediment chambers first, then ran about 30 gallons through the system with the membrane included, before starting to make water for the tank.

I do have a heater going, which is set to 25 degrees C (77 F).

If the yellowness is caused by the substrate or having not rinsed the carbon enough, do you think it should clear up by itself?
 

blaxsun

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It is a new RODI system, but I followed all the set up instructions for the system, including flushing out the carbon and sediment chambers first, then ran about 30 gallons through the system with the membrane included, before starting to make water for the tank.

I do have a heater going, which is set to 25 degrees C (77 F).

If the yellowness is caused by the substrate or having not rinsed the carbon enough, do you think it should clear up by itself?
Over a long enough period of time and frequent water changes, it should. Since it's just RODI at this point (and you haven't added salt), you may want to just change some or all of the water out to see if it makes any difference in color.
 
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dave1424

dave1424

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Was the carbon old by any chance? You might want to give Seachem Clarity a try. I always keep some on hand to clear up the water but that is due to vacuuming the sand.
Thanks for the suggestion!
The carbon is brand new - everything straight out of the box as part of the Waterbox kit. But I'll keep that in mind, thanks.
 
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dave1424

dave1424

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Was the carbon old by any chance? You might want to give Seachem Clarity a try. I always keep some on hand to clear up the water but that is due to vacuuming the sand.
Thanks for the suggestion!
The carbon is new - everything was straight out of the box as part of the Waterbox kit.
I'll keep the Seachem Clarity in mind though, thanks!
 

Sebastiancrab

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Thanks for the suggestion!
The carbon is brand new - everything straight out of the box as part of the Waterbox kit. But I'll keep that in mind, thanks.
The thing is you don't know how long that box has been sitting in the warehouse. :)
 
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dave1424

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Over a long enough period of time and frequent water changes, it should. Since it's just RODI at this point (and you haven't added salt), you may want to just change some or all of the water out to see if it makes any difference in color.
Thanks for that, I'll give it a try and see if it makes a difference.
 

Gp!

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You get all sorts of gunk off rock and sand. Since it's just rodi, my vote would be drain and refill then forget
 

Idech

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It’s probably the sand. Rinsing with a limited amount of RO/Di most probably wasn’t enough. Sand needs to be rinsed for a good 15-20 minutes non-stop with clear water. It needs to be rinsed until the water in the bucket is translucid.
 

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