Made my first batch of “pure” iron oxide with electrolysis, couple questions.

Why is it brown? Videos I saw showed their product as a bright red, maybe I didn’t get the iron hydroxide hot enough?

I’m using salt for electrolysis, does this create chlorine gas? Does this make acid? How do I minimize this, is there anything else I can use other than salt

I’m just starting Chem 20 in like a week, so sorry for the dumb questions

I’m using this for thermite hopefully