Tank water tinted red a few days into cycle. Help!

[cmu6]

Hey there! I’m new the the hobby.

I started cycling the tank about a little over a week ago. On day 4 i notice the tank water went from clear to a red/rusty colored tint. It’s still pretty clear but in not sure what went wrong here. Since then I’ve only added rodi water to top off for any evaporation.

I’m waiting on a full test kit to arrive tomorrow to test the water levels.

Not sure what to do. Would a massive water change help or do i need to start all over? Could it be something in the sand or the rock?

My current setup on an IM 20 gallon peninsula AIO:

Mightjey return pump
IM helio 100w heater
Media basket with media balls, carbon and coarse GFO pouches
CaribSea Aragalive Bimini sand
Dry rock and 1 live rock that was bleached and dried about a month prior to cycling
Ocean water purchased from LFS

 

[The_Paradox]

GFO and why are you running that during cycle?

 

[CasperOe]

Yeah, I reckon that's from the GFO. Did you rinse it first? If not, that's the brown/red-ish dust from there.

Take it out, it has nothing to do in your tank during the cycle. Neither has the carbon.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Dry rock and 1 live rock that was bleached and dried about a month prior to cycling

In other words, all dry rock

 

[brandon429]

gfo is fractioning off into the water = the bet, nice call.

just remove the gfo, cycles need phosphate, don't run it for a long time. learn to reef without gfo. do a 50% water change and add in one small pinch of fish food ground into powder and any brand of bottle bac you buy for reef tank cycling, it'll say it on the label. wait 15 days from the date of those additions and the system is cycled/can carry life.

this is a testless cycle, the addition of the things mentioned always cycles by day fifteen so there's not a need to use cheap test kits to verify readiness, the # of days as compared to the ammonia drop date on a common cycling chart is what you measure. cycle readiness can be solved for time vs parameter measure, it's on a common cycling chart/they're accurate given the ways we tend to cycle in reefing. fish food alone with no bottle bac would have it done in three weeks wait.

 

[7of9]

Hey there! I’m new the the hobby.

I started cycling the tank about a little over a week ago. On day 4 i notice the tank water went from clear to a red/rusty colored tint. It’s still pretty clear but in not sure what went wrong here. Since then I’ve only added rodi water to top off for any evaporation.

I’m waiting on a full test kit to arrive tomorrow to test the water levels.

Not sure what to do. Would a massive water change help or do i need to start all over? Could it be something in the sand or the rock?

My current setup on an IM 20 gallon peninsula AIO:

Mightjey return pump
IM helio 100w heater
Media basket with media balls, carbon and coarse GFO pouches
CaribSea Aragalive Bimini sand
Dry rock and 1 live rock that was bleached and dried about a month prior to cycling
Ocean water purchased from LFS

Wow! That's really funky.

What I would do is pull the GFO and add a wavemaker on the far end to add more water movement. Then, check the tests.

 

[The_Paradox]

And people worry because one time they touched a rusty bolt and 6 weeks later put their hand in the tank.

 

[Cell]

Welcome to the hobby. No need for the GFO or Carbon just yet. What media balls are you using? If they are plastic ones that came with the tank, I'd ditch those too.

 

[cmu6]

Thank you everyone for the advice!

I wasn't sure if I needed to run the tank with the media or not and went with it. From the color it is definitely the GFO. Lots of patience and learning.