Yellow Tinge and red particles in water - HOT water only

[Seiber]

Hi all. Looking for some advice on my water heater.

We are on a well at our place and water is treated through an iron filter and water softener and is then fed to the rest of the house including the water heater. All water coming from cold taps is clear and I took samples to get tested from non treated and treated taps, which showed the iron filter and softener removing iron and providing soft water. The hot taps at all locations are producing water with a yellow tinge and red particles sinking to the bottom of sinks/tubs when hot water is run.

I have attempted to flush to hot water tank multiple times now with no luck getting the water to clear up regardless of how long I flush and how much water I use. As soon as I flush with cold water in the tank it stirs up more rust(?) and continues to flow out the drain valve without ever running clear. The yellow tinge will get a bit better after that for a couple of days but does not last long. the Water heater is just under 3 years old and has a powered anode rod due to problems we were having with off-gassing and air in the hot water lines when we first moved in. The LED is green for the powered rod so I'm assuming it is working as intended but really have no way to tell.

At this point I have booked a company to come in and replace the water heater on Thursday this week as I feel like I have narrowed it down to that being the issue. I'm guessing the inside of the tank is rusted and no amount of flushing is going to fix it. Again this is only a hot water issue, the cold is clear as day with no particles but the hot has this problem. Just wanted to see if there were any other ideas before I have the tank replaced.

Water heater is a Gas AO Smith 50 gallon
Corro-Protec powered anode rod

 

[Taylorjm]

I actually just had the same issue except my water heater is an amtrol boilermate so it's heated by a coil inside the plastic lined tank that is fed by the boiler. So no burner, exhaust or anode rod to rust. I installed a peroxide injection system and backwashing carbon filter and noticed the particles when draining and refilling the water heater. I kept draining and letting it fill slowly so everything coming in was also coming out. I probably did that for an hour before it had less particles then before and was clearer. Still didn't get everything out but I gave up after that. I'm not sure what it was or where it came from. It could have been before we bought the home and installed a new softener and filters. I'll probably drain it again in the fall and see how much there is. The water did clear up though so that's good.

 

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[Reach4]

Is there any chance the two wires to the electrode are reversed? The electrode should have a small DC positive voltage with respect to the water heater metal.