yellow water

Question
I recently lost my saltwater tank due to the recent midwest storm about a month ago.  we were without power for over a week.  I decided to convert my tank to freshwater.  I disassembled the whole tank, cleaned it, an decided to use the same fluval 405 filter.  i ran the filter for almost a week with nothing but freshwater in the tank., drained the tank and washed my new gravel. Added a piece of real driftwood from an aquarium shop.  within a day my water was a yellowish brown.  completely drained and refilled, it happened again.  i removed the driftwood for fear of leaching color, it did it again.  I added algae remover, i added water clarifyier, it kept turning yellow with a brown tinge.  finally i readded the driftwood, and it held for about a week, and slowly yellowed.  I decided to add some live plants to compete against any algae, did a 50% water change, it looked great last night.  This morning it was so cloudy yellow i couldnt believe it.  it changed within 12 hours.  I'm at a loss, iv'e never had this happen before.  any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Tim:  I would check the filter media to see if it is also yellow.  Sometimes with driftwood the tannins will get into the filter media and then just continue to color the water... It is not a bad thing just not great to look at.... You can also add a particle or biological clarifier which will help to remove the yellow from the water....  let me know... dave