James Hande

Interesting! Never knew that either.

Wow hydrogen peroxide too!

I probably should invest in a few more test kits including potassium. Like you mentioned, with a 0 GH I don't think manganese is present. Wow I never knew potassium permanganate could form in a tank without adding it. Still goes to show your never to old to learn new things. 😊 I thank everyone for chiming in!

Yes it does sound like that but according to my water company (small locale town) they filter the water through sand, add chlorine and then an unknown (didn't tell me what) chemical to prevent the old town pipes from rusting. What had me stumped is only a few say 5 out of 18 would turn pink within a couple of hours doing a partial water change. Suddenly my 75 turned pink about 3 weeks after the water change. Yesterday I just noticed a 20G turning pink, again 3 weeks since water change. My tap water: TDS = 126 GH = 0 KH = 0 pH = 6.8

For 4 years I have used API tap water conditioner to remove chlorine. Then a year ago I started using Seachem Prime. I have a rack holding 18 bare bottom tanks for fish breeding/grow out. Suddenly within a couple of hours from doing a water change I noticed a few tanks were the water had a definite pink color to it. In a few days it would clear up. This went on for months and always random tanks. But a few days ago I noticed one of the 75G's (which I missed doing a water change for 3 weeks) filled with pink water! The color change does not effect the fish as far as I can tell. I called Seachem and they never heard of such a thing. I called my local water company and they never heard of such a thing. Both claiming it's not caused by them. Which I can certainly believe. I've been keeping and breeding many fish in fish rooms since the 60's and I have never ever seen such a thing! Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

@Sultrysamurai I'm going to address this from the beginning step by step. First start by testing your water source. The reading will/could have a bearing on the tank parameters. We really want to know: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH, GH, KH and TDS could help knowing. For the sake of the following I'm going to say your source water does not contain ammonia. First don't worry about the pH, at 7.8 many farm raised fish would be fine. Second will say your source water has 0 ammonia but your tank has 0.50ppm. That just means something is dying in the tank such as plant leaves. Having an ammonia reading is the start of the nitrogen cycle. Once the ammonia reading starts coming down watch the nitrites as they will rise and then fall. Once both return to zero you will have a nitrate reading which means you have a cycle going. Now it is safe to add 1 -3 fish to the tank. Slowly stock fish or your cycle could reset it self as the beneficial bacteria will have to reproduce to handle the higher level of ammonia. If the fish you get are coming from water close to your 7.8 pH then no problem. But if they're coming from let's say 6.8 or 8.5 they will struggle and possibly die. Slow gradual changes in pH are best. Water hardness is a concern regarding what fish species you want to keep. Soft water fish have an easier time adjusting to harder water. But hard water species can not adapt to soft water. Has to do with dissolved minerals and what the fish need through osmoregulation. As for plant problems... as mentioned most plants have to adjust to under water growth. It will look like they are dying when the are just converting. The old leaves can not adjust to being under water so they will die and fall off the plant. Just be on the look out for new leaf growth. What most new to the hobby don't realize is that you are actually buying the plant roots. So in closing... just keep watching the ammonia level every 3 or 4 days, then the nitrites until they both drop to zero. Watch the plants for new leaves.