I didn't know that the plug had the stoppers when I drained mine, and it was ridiculous until I finally figured out how to get it all the way out.
I was shooting coolant all over everything, not in a stream at all, it was more sprinkler type accuracy. Once I got the plug out it wasn't too bad though.
And about the tank being brown, mine was pretty dirty too, seemed to be a sort of dirt/slime who knows what. It's kinda hard to clean the coolant tank though, it has too many inner compartments.
