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Seachem clarity

8K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  AbbeysDad 
#1 ·
Anyone used this before? I put in a large piece of drift wood, it immediatly stained the water. Took it back out and used the clarity. Dosed the correct amount, and the water is still a cloudy tan looking. Says it should clear in 2 hrs, but is still the same. Also, after adding the clarity, the water was stained even worse.
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#2 ·
The wood is out of the tank, literally put it in, and took it right back out after 20-30 min
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#3 ·
Assuming the wood is a normal Mopani or Malaysian wood the tea color is normal. It doesn't hurt the fish and should disappear after a few water changes. I have never used Clarity. Did you boil your wood first? That will usually help with the leaching but it still may leach some tannins in the water. Again, they are not harmful to the fish.
 
#4 ·
No did not boil, way to large. I put the wood in the tank, and literally took it right back out, not because of the water, more because I just wasn't pleased with the way it looked. I'm in the process of cycling, and I havent did any water changes because I want the benificial bacteria to build. Going into my 3rd week of cycling now, an have bren using Seachem's stability. I got this combo pack of seachem products which is why everything I am using is Seachem.
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#5 ·
I have never had any luck with clarity products by any company, water changes seem to the best. In your case, i might just wait a little bit and see if the filter catches up in the next few days. doing a bunch of water changes might set you back in your cycleing process......
 
#7 · (Edited)
If you removed the wood ,then two or three water changes of 40 to 50 percent should clear the water.
Water changes won't affect cycling to any negative degree, for the bacteria we are interested in cling to hard surfaces in the tank like filter material,rocks,gravel,glass,plant's.
I have next to no confidence with bacteria in a bottle product's and would, were it me,,be adding some type of food for bacteria in the way of fish food ,dead prawn,or liquid ammonia to help build biological filter /bacteria colony,, but some swear by these product's (can go to hell for this:lol:).
Live plant's and lot's of them can also be of benefit while establishing the tank and could allow for a very few,,smal,, fish with additions every two week's or so without harming the fish.
Plant's will take up ammonia created by these small fish along with waste,fish foods, and tank can mature slowly but surely so long as not too many fish are added at once,,not too large of fish are added at once,and fishes are not fed too much food.
If you know someone who already has a mature,established aquarium running,you could maybe ask them to let you have some filter material from their tank and possibly a cup full of gravel, and place these in your tank and this too would help the bacteria colony get established assuming some food is present for bacteria to feed on as mentioned previously.
More than one way to achieve the result's desired :cool:.
Agree with those above,tannin's staining the water may be unsightly to you or me ,but fishes could care less, and eventually the wood will stop leaching without any extra effort other than weekly water changes.;-)
 
#8 ·
Products like Clarity will bind to floating particles and make them into larger particles that your filter can more easily catch and thus remove from the water.

The problem is, it also binds to the fishes gills and is harmful to them. I wouldn't recommend using it in the future.

The tannins are dissolved in the water, so there is nothing for the clarity to bind to. A lot of fish come from tannin stained water, so it is very natural for them. However, if you don't like the look you can either soak the wood for a few weeks or boil, but as you mentioned it is too big to boil.

Activated carbon can also remove the tannins.
 
#9 ·
If it was me I wouldn't fret too much over tannin tea stained water. If you find it upsets the aesthetics, as Geo mentioned, activated carbon will adsorb tannins.
Otherwise, many partial water changes (over time) may be required.
 
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