# Seachem Clarity made my tank worse!?



## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

I am in the process of setting up my new tank. I had cloudy water in it, have not even added my plants yet. I thought "hey, why not buy this seachem clarity and clear up my water" I put it in and it made the water horribly more cloudy. It says on the bottle that after 2 hours it will clear up. Well, it has been longer than that, and it still looks horrible.

Have I completely screwed up my tank, or can a water change make it better?

Please help?


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## Hyzer (Mar 9, 2010)

Cloudy water is normal for a new tank beginning it's cycle. Just wait it out.


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## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

Hyzer said:


> Cloudy water is normal for a new tank beginning it's cycle. Just wait it out.


After adding the seachem clarity though, I cannot even see through the cloudiness now. It is 10 times worse. Can I wait it out, or do I need to do something drastic?


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## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

I did the same thing with my first tank, bought some Seachem clarity which helped none at all. Later I discovered Seachem Purigen. Now that is some good stuff!


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

clarity is a flocculating agent, all it does is clump the particulates which cause cloudiness together. if you dont have good mechanical filtration, this is useless. if you do, it should help.
clarity doesnt hurt the tanks ecosystem, and you can remove anything suspended in the water column with water changes. 
if you want to clear up the water ASAP, do a few 75% water changes.


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## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

BigCountry said:


> After adding the seachem clarity though, I cannot even see through the cloudiness now. It is 10 times worse. Can I wait it out, or do I need to do something drastic?


The folks at Seachem are really good people and they make great products. My guess is, do a water change at most. Contact Seachem at their support site.
http://www.seachem.com/support/Support.html
They will give you a straight answer.


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## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

I just added 1 1/2 trays of fluval polishing pads to my Fluval 405, and 1 tray of fluval clearmax bags (because I couldn't find purigen) yesterday, and did the clarity today.

I guess I will let it sit overnight and then if it is not somewhat better in the morning, I will do a water change.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

clarity will make it much cloudier when first added, I've found it takes a longer than two hours to clear up...depends on the substrate you used. like mentioned, lots of mech filtration will help as it clarity clumps all the tiny particles into larger ones that can be handled by the filter. i think its recommended to clean the mech portion of the filters after using, once things clear up.


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## Hyzer (Mar 9, 2010)

BigCountry said:


> After adding the seachem clarity though, I cannot even see through the cloudiness now. It is 10 times worse. Can I wait it out, or do I need to do something drastic?


As long as you have filtration, you can wait it out.


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## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

Update: a 70% water change got me back to the slightly cloudy water I had before the addition of the clarity.


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

If the tank is cycling, what's the big deal?


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## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

TexasCichlid said:


> If the tank is cycling, what's the big deal?


No big deal, I was just paranoid at first. :icon_redf


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## BigCountry (Oct 8, 2009)

Update 2: Got home from work yesterday and the tank had magically cleared itself up during the day. Thanks to all who let me know it was just a cycling deal.


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## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

When you stop learning about everything going on inside your tank, it stops being fun. Good thing there's more going on in there then I'll ever know. 


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?rmkxl3
Sent from my iphone while reading this thread and driving a 18 wheel big rig up I-5.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

YOU may eventually know more than you thought you would know. depends on how deep you dig

i still haven't figured out the synaptic firing sequence of a fish brain yet


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

I think you had a bacterial bloom, which results in cloudy water. All you can really do in that case is just wait it out. From what I remember when I had one, water changes didn't really help. Yes, it cleared it up, but after a day it would be back to very cloudy.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Add daphnia


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