Acurel F Question

giambi4343

hey everybody.
i just set up my first blackwater tank. its a 29 gallon with a aquaclear 50 and a penguin 100 filter on it with modified filter cartridges for the penguin (cartridges without carbon in them). i have planting substrate and a marineland LED light fixture. i dont have a heater in there yet since i am waiting for it to arrive in the mail. it has been set up for about a week now and i have a few pieces of driftwood in there to start building up the tannis. the tank seems a bit murkey though. not as clear as a blackwater tank should be. so i was wondering if i could use Acurel F in my tank even if it is blackwater? i wasnt sure if it is going to act like carbon and suck all the tannis out. any help would be great. thank you!

Byron

First, I would like to welcome you to Tropical Fish Keeping forum. Nice to have you with us.

I would not use Acurel F or similar water clarifying products. I tried to track down what is in it, but no luck. I suspect it is a flocculant [one reference I came across did so call it], like most "clarifiers," and these are very dangerous to fish in spite of what the manufacturers may say.

A flocculant is a chemical that binds particulate matter together; the idea is that the "cloudy" water is due to minuscule particles and these clarifiers bind them into larger particles that can then be removed by the filter media (pads, floss, etc). Problem is, the flocculants also bind together the gills of fish. At the very least this is extremely stressful to the fish that will have difficulty respirating, and this can weaken them and even kill them. Even if you have no fish in the tank, I would not risk it. When it comes time to add some fish, the lzast thing you want is additional stress from some chemical.

No water clarifier should ever be added to an aquarium. Find the source of the cloudiness and resolve that. In this case, it is simply a "new" tank and it will clear. I have one tank with an enriched substrate, Flourite, and I noticed it took several weeks to fully clear. This cloudiness is not harmful to fish or invertebrates.

Byron.