Water clarifier, Are they really useful?

[Spiritofthesoul]

I have been using API Accu-clear whenever my tank appears cloudy without knowing what is really happening in my tank. All i know is that I just pour the recommanded dosage, the tank appears cloudy and about an hour or so, everything clears up. So i decide to do a little research to find out what is really going on inside my tank.

Everything stated here is base on my knowledge so do correct me if I am wrong.

From what I have heard, Accu-clear or any other clarifier such as Seachem's Clarity is simply just a coagulant.

Now I have learn about coagulant in my studies before. There are always colloids in the tank which are small enough(1 - 500nm) to bypass the mechanical filter media in our filters. Colloids affect the turbidity and colour of the water, hencing making the aquarium look cloudy.

Coagulants are added to allow coagulation to occur where the colloids are destablised. Then flocculation takes place where the destablised colloids approach and adhere to each other, forming larger particles.

Given time, those larger particles would either sink to the bottom and settle in the substrate or enter your filter intake and get trap by the mechanical media. But most of the time they settle in the gravel.

Are this really true? And does the hazy cloud-like thing that appears whenever I stir the gravel the floc containing the colloids? If so, does it mean that adding accu-clear and regularly vaccumming my gravel would effectively remove those colloids and make my tank water more clear?

 

[aclockworkorange]

I think using clarifiers like this without knowing why you're getting cloudy water is kind of like just taking pain killers if you have a broken leg. Sure, it will help for a bit, but you still got that broken leg when the pain killers wear off...

I think they can be useful for certain situations, like you set up a tank and the new sand is clouding the water (I recently used clarity for this, it didn't work so well actually).

 

[CLDarnell]

When I first started out, I bought a pretty big bottle of this stuff. I didn't know what I was doing and I kept trying to get crystal clear water. I was "cycling" my tank, but I didn't have any ammonia ( ) so nothing was really happening besides some basic mechanical filtration. I kept adding clarifier, but my water only got cloudier.

I finally quit trying to use it and my water cleared up. I figured out how to properly cycle a tank and my water's been clear ever since!

 

[Chefken]

^^ In three years I have never used chemicals in my tanks! Water is crystal clear....I do not believe any chemicals are needed in a healthy tank. i would use meds for a serious issue but I would never treat the whole tank.....just the fish in question in a hospital tank. Salt and high temps when i see some torn fins.....everyone heals just fine. I believe chemicals ruin the balance of the tank.

 

[Dr_Shakalu]

When I first got started, I used coagulants like Acc-Clear to clear up my cloudy tank. That was before I heard about cycling. I used it while the tank was with fish while my tank was cycling and whenever my water wasn't crystal clear. Now that I know better, I don't use chemicals anymore, just a couple of water changes. The chemicals will work but it just solves the problem but you don't kn0w what caused it in the first place, The Doctor

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Is everything I researched upon true? And im not talking about using clarifiers to counter bacteria bloom like most of u misinterpreted. Im referring to those micro small annoying particles in the water which comes from breaking up of foods, very fine piece of substrate which refuse to settle down at the bottom under stale conditions, let alone my tank has a strong output from the FX5 and even bits and pieces of slime coats.

Im not talking about the normal bacteria blooms that is the cause of cloudy water most of the time. If you stick your eyes on the tank walls and look really deep, you would see those particles floating, which kind of annoys me.

So I was thinking instead of doing large ineffective w/c to remove those particles. Would using clarifiers to make them into large flocs and settle down into the substrate so that I can vac them out all at once a most effective method?

 

[Laticauda]

If it has that effect on the particulates in the water, what's it doing to the fish? Maybe nothing, but it may have lasting effects.

Could it just be OCD? Not to be insulting or anything, but the natural microscopic flora and fauna is just a sign of a healthy thriving aquarium "genome."

 

[tellemuno]

When I first started out, I bought a pretty big bottle of this stuff. I didn't know what I was doing and I kept trying to get crystal clear water. I was "cycling" my tank, but I didn't have any ammonia ( ) so nothing was really happening besides some basic mechanical filtration. I kept adding clarifier, but my water only got cloudier.

I finally quit trying to use it and my water cleared up. I figured out how to properly cycle a tank and my water's been clear ever since!

i agree

 

[leeishom]

Sponge prefilter over the intake, cloudy water no mas.

 

[Laticauda]

Sponge prefilter over the intake, cloudy water no mas.

You can also buy some polyfill (pillow stuffing) at walmart, and put that in your water to "polish" it. You would have to replace it often, but how often would you add "this stuff" to your water anyway.