Yellowish tint in my african tank

[jenn_zep]

in my 90 gal the water always has this slight yellow tint to it. even with water changes and carbon its still a bit yellow. its almost not noticable if i run carbon always but if i remove the carbon it gets darker. is it from anything in the tank, decorations, drift wood, rocks maybe? all the preameters are fine and my fish are breeding....should there be any concern??
thanks for any info!!
jenn

[BigDaddy]

Tanins from your driftwood will give the water a yellowish tinge.  The longer you have it in the tank, the fewer tanins will leach.

[jenn_zep]

awesome thanks for the info !!

[Dorrie]

I agree with BigDaddy, must be the driftwood
Some people actually like that tea-like tint and filter through peat to get it

[Brine]

One lesson I learned about wood leaching tannins is that the tannins leach from the surface of the wood. The deeper within the wood the more tannins are found. What I mean is that if you decide that the piece of driftwood should be cut in a few pieces or maybe it should have a few big holes drilled in it (this is what I did) the tannins will start to leach again from the newly exposed surfaces.
As was noted some tanks try to replicate this for different reasons. Sometimes they are known as black water tanks. Look them up for more info.