20 Best Water Clarifier For Aquarium (2023 Updated)

I have had nothing but cloudy water in my aquarium since I started it 6 months ago. I have tried every kind of conditioner, filter, testing kit, etc. I have tried cleaning it almost daily — nothing works! The other conditioner I used merely turned the water orange.

Today I put 20 drops into my 5-gallon tank that looked like it had skim milk in it and within an hour — voila — it’s 90% better! I’ll never use anything else again and will continue to do the preventive drops daily.

Use to get this from my pet store down the street until they closed awhile back. I like this better then the others I’ve tried in the past. It’s the best to me for my 10yr old turtle as far for clearing her water.

Also she just uploaded to a 30 gallon tank not much maintenance cause can’t add decorations. She barely likes her filter in her tank but she needs it. Will buy this product again it works for us but remember we don’t all take care of our tanks the same way.

First time fish owner. Have a Betta. The fish has fin rot and losing fins. I called my local Petco. They told me to use Spring Water and Betta water with almond extract only. In addition, I should be using aquarium salt and Melafix.

I followed the directions on the bottle, removed the carbon filter and doing what I can. After the 7th day, I did the water change. However, I am still using the medicine. I am not seeing any results as quickly as the other reviewers have experienced.

Don’t know if I am doing something wrong or if the medicine is just not as effective as I was hoping it would be.

I’ve had an ammonia problem for 2 months in my tank. No matter what I did it never got below. 25 ppm. I tried water changes and several types of ammonia neutralizers. I’ve added so many different brands of bacteria.

It helped but never got it to 0. My ammonia was 0 less than 24 hours since adding this block. I measured before I added this block and I didn’t add anything else. I also added driftwood to my tank a few days ago that was clouding up the water and this helped clear the water up a lot in not even 24 hours.

I know it can take weeks for full effects and I can’t wait for it to be at its full potential. The only downside is that it is kind of big and ugly, but I’m gonna hide it behind some driftwood so it won’t be an issue.

I’ve kept freshwater and marine fish for over 40 years and currently maintain six large tanks. I have one tank that recently started having issues with cloudy water. Water parameters were within normal limits, no new fish or plants, excellent filtration, not overcrowded and I do regular water changes.

I was and remain mystified as to why this aquarium has suddenly developed this issue. So I decided to try this EcoBio-Block. It hasn’t helped at all. If anything the water is more cloudy. Fortunately this EcoBio-Block hasn’t caused any ill effects with my fish or inverts, and I am glad it worked for some, but I cannot in good faith recommend this.

I think it’s a gimmick–an expensive gimmick. It also looks like a block of raw hamburger. Not the look I was going for in my show tank so out it comes and into the trash.

Definitely worth the money! I bought the medium size for my 40 gallon and waited in anticipation. My tank is heavily stocked with plants fish and snails and though I do biweekly water changes, I can never seem to keep my water crystal clear, even with adding additives to keep excess waste down, etc.

I put this in and about 3 weeks later it was like magic! I can see everything so clear, even the background on my tank. Everything ripples beautifully and my fish no longer sit at the top out of stress from dirty water, they swim around very happily.

Definitely is a tank life saver!!.

I was starting a new tank, followed all the rules, but when I put my fish in they just weren’t right. After my first water change they were a mess! One of them even started shaking, but all my water parameters were fine and consistent.

I added this to the tank, just the standard dose, and within an hour they had all calmed down. After a day they were starting to swim around, and three days later they’re happy, playing, and eating normally.

I absolutely attribute it to this stuff. I also had to quarantine a fish that just wasn’t right from day one. I added this to his tank as well and I think it helped him survive. I now have this on auto delivery so I can’t run out.

I’m a believer!.

It feels slimy, which is great because this is supposed to replace your fish’s slime coat. I heard that it clogs one’s filter and, so I switched out to a competitor and I noticed that my prefilter and filter don’t get clogged as much.

That said, I will still buy this in a pinch every time because it is readily available at any pet store and it’s so much cheaper than any other option. I hope they keep making this, and I’m 99. 9% certain that they will because it’s so cheap and popular.

This is like the standard of all stress coat replenishers and dechlorinators. Better ones exist out there, but this isn’t going to kill your fish or anything. For record, I have fresh water fish in a tropical setup without plants.

I have a rotating cast of characters that include Corey cats, plecostomuses, tetras, rainbow fish, loaches, and whatever microbes and critters they choose to bring home from the pet store.

API Stress Coat is a phenomenal product. It reduces stress up to 40% by making tap water safe for fish; in addition, it replaces the protective slime coat. The product is fortified with soothing aloe vera which promotes healing from torn fins and skin wounds, reduces susceptibility to disease and infection, reduce electrolyte loss.

Stress coat also removes chlorine and chloramines and neutralizes heavy metals that are found in tap water. Aloe barbadensis (Aloe vera) contains a colorless mucilaginous gel called aloe vera gel. Quite a few biological effects of aloe vera including immunostimulation, increasing growth performance, improvement of wound healing in fish have been researched and founded.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are continually produced in animals during normal aerobic metabolism that can damage most cellular components leading to death. Fish possess an antioxidant defense system to reduce the negative effects of ROS.

Fish are aerobic organisms that are susceptible to ROS. Therefore, aloe vera is a great healing inhibitor and immune booster for fish and their protective slime coat. I have been using this product for over 15+ years and its a miracle cure that increases the survivability of my fish.

In my personal opinion, I would never use this product to simply condition water instead use a primer to get the job done. However, I do use this product in conjunction with water changes to try to destress my fish and boost their immune system since tap water is damaging to a fish’s slime coat.

Last but not least, I highly recommend pouring in the stress coat after conducting the water changes and not before or during since the stress coat will smear onto the aquarium glass causing the glass to appear dirty and/or blurry.

You can easily clean it up with a scraper, but it is just beneficial to save time and effort.

Let me start by saying. I was suuuuper skeptical of this magical ‘rock’ that was going to clear my ridiculously cloudy tank water. I was researching every water parameter (all fine), filter media (all fine), literally could not find a solution and I was bumming hard.

I WAS DESPERATE, folks! So, I shelled out $17 for this rock (it’s rather bulky in my 9 gallon tank, but. see aforementioned desperation) – a little steep for a skepticism experiment, but I was out of ideas and it is supposed to last for more than a year, so, what did I have to lose?? This is no exaggeration.

I reorganized some plants and driftwood, stirring up my already murky water even further, and made room for the Magical Monolith. I dropped it into the back corner and (no lie) the water was CLEAR. It looks so good – I am forever changed :).

I got these from store pickup, and have used them for about a week. Cloudy water was from an imbalance of something. I have used ammonia limiting chemical, water changes, and adding beneficial bacteria.

Then two of these blocks went into the 70 gallons of water in the tank along with 15 small goldfish and plastic plants, two filter systems. The water is much clearer after a few days. Front to back distance in the tank of 19 inches is very clear.

48 inches of side to side distance is almost clear. If these blocks work well for a couple years, it is worth $38. But some have a problem with ammonia and nitrate and nitrite buildups.

This stuff is a LIFESAVER! We have hard water and no matter how balanced I get it, the cloudiness just would not subside. I used it on a fairly new aquarium and it had no issues and cleared it right up.

Harsh on fish do not squirt it on them directly and it will cause water temp to rise so keep that in mind.

Take care of your fish 🐠 by using this water clarifier by Tetra. It’s simple to use and your fish will love it. You won’t have to change the water as often and it’s stress-free for the fish. Super safe just follow the instructions.

#influenster.

I usually don’t write a lot of reviews, but I was compelled to write this given how horrible this product is. My water got cloudy about 48 hours after setting up my new tank. I immediately went out and bought this product, and trusted it given the brand name.

I used it the minute I brought it home, and 4 days later the water actually looked worse! I did two treatments, and the water was supposed to have cleared up within several hours. As you can tell. no dice.

My mom had some API Water Clarifier, so I figured I would try it instead. TWO HOURS LATER my water was CRYSTAL CLEAR! Seriously – I was amazed. Bottom line is the Tetra is a waste of money, and I will be returning it today.

I’ve already bought a huge bottle of the API, and will continue to use it next time I may encounter cloudy water.

I had milky white/ bacteria bloom type cloudiness from a Nerite snail dying. Water parameters were stable, gravel vacuumed, cleaned filter ( in tank water ) changed water slowly every few days, but the cloudiness persisted for 3 weeks.

I only have 2 nerite snails and 7 cherry shrimp in 10 gallons. I finally got clarity and first night there was no difference that I could see. I put filter floss in the filter and then it immediately cleared.

Over the next couple days and my water is insanely clear! I can see absolutely every detail and crevice perfectly. Have patients with this. You need the filter floss.

4 days after setting up my new tank, the water became cloudy. I was a bit concerned because we hadn’t even added the fish yet. I tested the water and it was perfect. For about 3 weeks I tried everything to clear it.

That’s when I Googled upon Seachem Water Clarifier. The bottle reads you should see a difference in a couple of hours. however days went by and nothing. I was upset and planned on returning it. Good thing about being a procrastinator, on the 4th day my tank was crystal clear.

It took longer than expected, but it did the job.

I have a 20gal tank establishes with 10 fish for two weeks. after day two it devolved a milky cloudyness that never went away. Thought it was just a bacterial bloom. but it never cleared. Bought this, and it did make the molecules in the water expand, and instanstly clogged the filter.

After changing the filter, the water never cleared. Repeated the next day, same thing. After three new filters, the waters still cloudy. Just going to do water changes every week and hope it will eventually clear.

Returning product. Didn’t work for me.

The first 2x I used this, I followed the directions exactly. I didn’t really see much of an improvement. Maybe a little but nothing major. During a water change. my husband accidentally tripled the dose! Let’s just say I have one very clear fish tank but nothing to look at.

It was our fault and not the product but just a warning if anyone gets risky with the dose and thinking they should use more. It most definitely will kill the fish if you aren’t careful!.

We recently had an algae bloom which got out of control pretty fast in our 36 gallon bowfront tank. I went ahead and ordered a UV filter, but to take quick action, we decided to try this product out in the meantime.

HUGE MISTAKE, we used the recommended amount and within 2 hours most of our fish were all sucking at the surface for air. A few hours later we noticed most of them were just being sediment at the bottom of the tank, we woke up today and found 6 of our fishy friends dead.

I’ve now moved the remaining fish to a quarantine tank, drained all the water again, and am starting completely over when my UV filter gets here. Already threw the rest of the product away and recommend you do the same.

Do not go by instructions on the red and black boxes this product is currently sold in. This needs to be diluted first, not added directly to tank as the box indicates. Unfortunately I did not know this until after the death of my fish.

After researching reviews on this product after the fact, I noticed more people had fish loss after using this. I checked to see if it was discontinued on their website. Upon seeing it on there I noticed the instructions were very different.

These online instructions say the powder must be diluted in a cup of tank water and stirred around. You then add the liquid substance into your tank. There is no mention of any of these instructions anywhere on or in their packaging.

It also does not say to add the powder directly to tank, as it does the box. Aquatop claimed to me it does not need to be diluted when I reached out to them, but take my word for it, it does. It does not simply dissolve in your tank water.

It clumps up. It definitely needs to be broken up and stirred. This is not a light fine powder. From my experience, the powder and possibly gases this released into the water column asphyxiated my young healthy betta fish.

This powder should not be added to your tank unless it’s dissolved first. I’ve never used a product that states it’s directions one way on its packaging and another online. It doesn’t state both on either.

To me, this is a huge oversight on their part. Their negligence took my Buddy’s life.

I bought my tank in January and have had cloudy water since the beginning. I made sure that I did my water changes, made sure my filters were good, my water was healthy. but still cloudy water. I tried all of the water clarifying products.

cloudy water. Last night one of the guys at the aquarium store suggested I try this product, so I bought it. This morning I did my routine water change and filter change and then added the clear magic.

LISTEN!! Within 2 hours my water was crystal clear, it has never looked like this before! This stuff is literally magic!!.

This is a miracle product! I can’t believe how great my aquarium looks after using this product. I have been using it for quite a while and love it. The product takes all those little floaty things that are left after cleaning or if a fish dies and has started decomposing and somehow absorbs them! My tank is always so beautiful now.

It is very easy to use, just mix an envelope with a little water, pour it in. Has never harmed my fish I will never be without it.

I’ve been keeping fish ever since I got my first 10 gallon aquarium in the 5th grade. That was 1981! I’m no newbie to the hobby by any means. Because I now keep heavily planted freshwater tanks, the abundant plants absorb much of the nitrates.

I still do weekly water changes, but since I dirt the bottom of the tanks (under the gravel) I can’t just plunge my siphon deep into the substrate to remove the gunk which invariably causes nitrate spikes.

Still, with all the plants and weekly water changes I’ve got things under control. In the freshwater tanks that is. With my one 55 gallon saltwater reef, things were getting out of hand. No, my tank’s by no means overstocked.

No, I don’t overfeed. Yes, I do weekly water changes. Yes, my tank has more than sufficient live rock. Yes, I run a protein skimmer and it pulls plenty of skim. Yes, I also run Matrix. So tell me why my nitrates stayed at around 100 ppm despite all of this? I would even get so frustrate I’d do 50% water changes EVERY DAY for a week at a time.

Nothing worked. Until now. I drop in one filter pack into my backpack filter about every 10 days and with weekly water changes my nitrates are now a more manageable 20 ppm, which is still way too high but a considerable drop from where they once were.

Oddly enough, my more sensitive LPS corals don’t seem to mind the high nitrates, but the alleged “easy” soft corals have died off with the exception of my Kenya tree. GSP and Xenia apparently need pristine water conditions while ultra expensive LPS can live in gasoline.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the telltale sign that the filter pack has done its job and needs replaced is when it’s brown, slimy, and smells like rotten eggs.

Does not work on my 5 gallon tank with 4 tetras, live plant and a moss ball. I had a little algae in a tank and on plant leaves which I would scrub at every water change so I thought Algone would help me keep it clean.

I’m very disappointed because just the opposite happened. My tank got more dirty with algae a lot sooner. The more often I changed the pouches the dirtier it got. It’s a fail for me.

Algone works for my freshwater, planted fish tanks. It removes nitrates. It has proven to be the best option for that I’ve found so far. Where I live, the tap water is otherwise quite good, except it comes with a high level of Nitrates (presumably due to agricultural-fertilizer run-off into the river).

When a packet of Algone is spent, and I remove it to the trash, it smells of sulfur. Since other Nitrate removal products contain sulfur compounds, I’m guessing that this has something to do with the effective Nitrate removal of Algone.

My current debate is whether to buy the “large” or “small” size Algone packets for my 34 gal tank, since they cost the same. Both cost about the same. Presumably the large size would have a greater effect, but “large” does take up more room than I prefer inside the Penguin Bio-Wheel 350 (hang-off tank) filter.

Stay clear of this product, the filter had only been in 18 hours and had killed 1 fish and a couple of shrimps. The other fish were acting very strange and on removing the filter they picked up within a couple of hours.

Great product, would really recommend. Water fully cleared after 2 weeks. Then I replacement with a standard filter cartridge.

Good value for money removed algae from tank would recommend

Bought because Petco was out of Seachem Clarity and the product was terrible. Followed directions and after 10 days tank was still cloudy. Thankfully Petco received Seachem again and my tank is back to normal.

Dr Tims One and Only purchased with Ammonium Chloride worked out great for me. The Nitrobacter bacteria went to work right from day 1! There were absolutely no detectable reading for Nitrite throughout out the entire 14 day cycle.

And the Nitrosomonas bacteria were removing Ammonia, but had to build up to where they could remove 3ppm of Ammonia in 24 hours. Overall great product, would recommend and use again, it’s not “snake oil” as some would say!.

I used this on my new system. I had never done a fishless cycle and I thought it was high time. But BEWARE! What the add and the instructions do not tell you is that you need ammonium chloride to feed those bacteria.

So this is NOT a one-and-done. If you don’t buy the am-chlo, you’ll end up in my situation, feeding an empty tank for almost a month to get the cycle going. All-in-all, I like this product, but I would not buy it again without the am-chlo and I think that should be mentioned in the description.

There are many great reviews of this product. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been my experience. After 7 days, no drop in ammonia from 2ppm starting level, no nitrite, no nitrates. It is summer and temperature in the 90’s and shipped without any temperature control.

I can only assume that it was stored and or shipped in too high of a temperature and the bacterial were killed. I will be purchasing another product.

I bought this product to use in my high light planted tank. It worked very nicely, just as described. For me, it took longer than two hours to clear up. However, I needed to replace the filter media in my filter, and this will probably vary from person to person, depending on what type of media they have set up in their filter to polish their water.

I use this once a week, usually mid week. Keeps my water crystal clear until my end of the week water change. I think this product helps to control dust algae by lowering the the suspended solids that may be in your water column.

I also us this product along with a UV sterilizer. I would highly recommend this to any planted tank hobbyist.

This product helps your filter become ultra efficient; if your filter is the problem it probably won’t work well. It breaks downs macro-bio-molecular compounds and makes it easier for your FILTER. Usually at first the water will get more cloudy— this is the “break up” of the biochemical matter.

Than your filter takes over and cleans the water. I would recommend following up with a monthly Fluval Bio clear water. These working in concert will keep water crystal clear!.

Doesn’t do what it says on the tin. Water stays cloudy. Followed all instructions. Ridiculous to call it “crystal clear”. Only the label is for sale. Can hardly see the fish after treatment. Expensive and disappointing.

Was a bit dubious about this product. After a reset the water was stubbornly cloudy but a recommended dose of this cleared it up within 12 hours. Water is now crystal clear, and the fish are fine.

Had to use this product twice to get the water clearer. When I cleaned the filter I couldn’t believe the dirt that came out of it. Will use this on a regular basis.