Question about water clarifiers

beachsidereefer · Jan 9, 2015

Yesterday I did a 20% water change on my 200 G DT. The water was pretty cloudy so added some Bio Magnet Clarifier as I've done in the past when I've had this happen and now my glass is coated in a white film . I must say it's stuck like glue as my magnet cleaner is having difficulties removing it.

Appreciate it if the experts can tell me what went wrong and to avoid scratching the glass can I just leave it and it will eventually disolve? Is there another adative I could add that would counter act the clarifier and release the film from the glass?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

beaslbob · Jan 9, 2015

IMHO what went wrong was you used water clarifier.
I had the same experience.
If you had just killed the lights and stopped feeding it would have cleared up in a few days with no film on the glass.
But that's just my .02

beachsidereefer · Jan 9, 2015

in your experience did you have to scrape the glass or did the film eventually dissolve on it's own.

beaslbob · Jan 9, 2015

beachsidereefer said:
in your experience did you have to scrape the glass or did the film eventually dissolve on it's own.

I think I tried both.
eventually it seemed to clear up. but is has been a long long time since I used that.
my .02

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 9, 2015

I believe that product is a positively charged polymer that binds to various negatively charged particles in solution, binding them together and causing them to precipitate as larger particles. The process is called flocculation.

I don't know how to get it off the glass except by scraping. I'd think a razor blade would make quick work of it. I can't think of a way to reverse the effect.

beachsidereefer · Jan 10, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I believe that product is a positively charged polymer that binds to various negatively charged particles in solution, binding them together and causing them to precipitate as larger particles. The process is called flocculation.

I don't know how to get it off the glass except by scraping. I'd think a razor blade would make quick work of it. I can't think of a way to reverse the effect.

Thank you for the detailed explanation and by the looks of this pic I have a lot of scraping to do!