# DIY Flocculent - Kindly help me



## nagukush (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi Friends,

Here in my place, it is very difficult to find Flocculent products like API Accuclear etc and just wanteed to request you to kindly guide me if I there is any chemical that can be used as a DIY Flocculent for my tank.

Kindly guide me Friends...
Thanks !
Regards and Care
Kush


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

There are many reasons there may be cloudy water in an aquarium. I have probably seen just about all of them over the years.

I have not used flocculent types of products to solve any of these problems. My tanks are clear.

Organic and other debris falls to the bottom, and is easily vacuumed. I have a lot of water movement in the tanks, and in some tanks the blast even hits the substrate. Still, no clouding. Let the system stabilize itself. It may cloud at first, then stop. All by itself. When I do water changes there is occasionally a cloud of particles for an hour or so, then the filter traps these remnants and the tank is clear.

I have seen cloudy tanks from pH altering materials. I got a tank for free from someone who was tired of the cloudy water. The fish could not be seen! There was so much pH altering material in the substrate that it took several water changes with very thorough gravel vacs to get rid of it all. 
I do not play around with altering the pH, _without knowing what I am doing_. Flocculant is not the answer if this is the problem. Do more research before using pH altering products. I have tanks where I DO alter the pH of the tap water, both higher (more alkaline) and lower (more acidic) and these tanks are clear.

The substrate can contribute to cloudy water. Cloudy tanks from fish that are constantly digging can be fixed by using a different substrate that is less clouding under these conditions, or better rinsing before adding this substrate to the tank. This is not usually good material for plants, though. Plant in pots in these tanks. When I set up a new tank the substrate may cloud for a day or so (rarely this long, usually just a few hours) then it settles. There are a few tricks to setting up a tank with the minimum of clouding. Does not include flocculent, though.

If the clouding is the early sign of green water algae, again, a flocculent is not the answer. Solving the problem of why this algae is growing will solve the cloudy water issue.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Chlorine is added to most municipal water supplies to kill or suppress the harmful organisms in the water. After the chlorine gasses off (it is not stable in water and we use it because it is cheap, not because it is the best) which it does rather quickly; various (generally not the kind we want) bacteria will grow, seemingly very fast, and then starve because of lack of food or other nutrients leading to cloudy water. This is another possibility for you needing a flocculant. Flocculants are usually used for municipal water supplies not for aquariums although various concoctions have been offered in the trade over the years. As Diana has mentioned; do not get sucked into using them or any other snake oil.


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