Food color in tank

Egg · Mar 5, 2016

I put food coloring in my tank a few weeks ago thinking it will fade away after a while. It didn't. I did a few water changes but I still have an orange tint to the water.

How can the food coloring be removed? Carbon?

How will this affect my salinity reading on hydrometer? I can't test my other parameters because of the color.

thenanoreef · Mar 5, 2016

Question. Why did you put food coloring in the tank? They only way I can see getting rid of it is doing water changes. Keep in mind this could take dozens of water changes as the new water will mix with the dyed water each time

Duke4Life · Mar 5, 2016

thenanoreef said:
Question. Why did you put food coloring in the tank? They only way I can see getting rid of it is doing water changes. Keep in mind this could take dozens of water changes as the new water will mix with the dyed water each time

+1 if you are just setting up, I would drain and start over, it will be hard to ever remove, plus my guess whatever is in your tank needs cleaned.

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 5, 2016

what the heck...food coloring? Frat party?

Egg · Mar 5, 2016

I thought it will look cool and it did. I now want to turn my tank into an sps tank and want to keep track of my tank specs. Because my water has an orange tint to it I would think the tests will not be accurate.

Does food color evaporate?

Will this affect my hydrometer?

It looks like I will be doing a few more water changes.

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 5, 2016

Changing the color of your LED's adds the same effect...just saying.

Duke4Life · Mar 5, 2016

Egg said:
I thought it will look cool and it did. I now want to turn my tank into an sps tank and want to keep track of my tank specs. Because my water has an orange tint to it I would think the tests will not be accurate.

Does food color evaporate?

Will this affect my hydrometer?

It looks like I will be doing a few more water changes.

It does not evaporate. You can change all the water you want but it's now on/in everything in your tank and will be there until you clean because with water changes all you're doing is diluting.

chefjpaul · Mar 5, 2016

Ummmmmmmm.......

mfinn · Mar 5, 2016

Going from food coloring in the tank because it looked cool, to keeping sps.
I see a very long road in between.

Duke4Life · Mar 5, 2016

mfinn said:
Going from food coloring in the tank because it looked cool, to keeping sps.
I see a very long road in between.

I'm really hoping this thread is a joke.

Zoey · Mar 6, 2016

Please tell me nothing was living in your tank at the time?

Egg · Mar 6, 2016

I did another water change and the water is now re clear. I read a few threads online about people using food coloring with no problems. It did look real nice but I couldn't test my water.

Zoey · Mar 6, 2016

LED bulbs will do the same but without causing any harm to anything living in your tank.

k_dog345 · Mar 6, 2016

*opens a bag of popcorn*

Egg · Mar 6, 2016

I have 2 clownfish, Kenya trees and toadstool. Everything looks fine. I thought the Kenya tree might turn orange but it did not. Before adding the food coloring I looked online and other people have done it with known negative effects.

rayn · Mar 6, 2016

Maybe carbon can help take it out, but a large water change would be best. I have thought about it in the past, but on a useful purpose. If diluted and dripped around piping joints, one could find a possible leak.

Nick92515 · Mar 6, 2016

Yeah.... i see a for sale thread on craigslist soon.... ill stay away though. maybe try a beta fish...

Retro Reefer · Mar 6, 2016

So he made a mistake and is asking for help, I don't really see any of the "snide" comments being helpful.. My advice would be continue doing water changes, carbon could help and maybe try a poly filter.. I don't think the food coloring will actually hurt anything. Good luck!

Nick92515 · Mar 6, 2016

Just a joke, it will be ok. As I am no veteran reefer, but when ever you do something you need to research what your going to do before you do it, whether it be fish related or not. If due dillagence was done, the op would have never done this, and to be thinking about sps before he gets the coloring out of the tank tells me they need to do more reading. We all make mistakes, but I would drain all water and do 100%water change. Also op, read all u can it's worth it, and patience is key. BTW would you like it if someone put food coloring all over u, the fish were probably not feeling the love lol.