Loving Pets F50 Millimeter Water Clarifier, Treats 530 Gallons

After months of disappointment, bordering on discouragement, I finally found the product that makes me love my aquarium hobby again. My freshwater tank, since day 1, has always been cloudy. I understood that it would take a few months to cycle and stabilize, so it didn’t bother at first. But it’s been over six months, and until yesterday, the water was still milky white and cloudy. Could see millions of little particles floating past the LED lights when the pump/filter was on. Internet boards and personal contacts said: “it’s a bacterial bloom”–it should settle down within a few days. Never did. Who wants to keep an aquarium when you can’t see the fish? I was getting close to just giving up. Parameters were all good…ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, ph 6.8-7.0, slightly soft water. Have been doing weekly 20-25% water changes, using water conditioners to prep the tap water. Always adding nitrifying bacteria at each change. Changing filter cartridges and rinsing out pads regularly in canister filter. Eventually, tried to use a water clarifier by Aqueon (yes, I know, I don’t like to add “chemicals” to water to mask an underlying problem. I should take care of the problem and the water should clear up, I know)…and that made absolutely zero (0!) difference–still milky white cloudiness. OK, so maybe it was: “Overstocked with too many fish, and/or overfeeding”. I have been under the rule of thumb of “one-inch per gallon”, so at least by that rule, it was not overstocked. Perhaps overfeeding? Could be, but most of the time, I fear we may be underfeeding, but definitely there have been times when the “must eat all food within 3 minutes” rule has been broken. Anyway, all of the above is to set up this review of Acurel. I had read everything, tested everything, tried everything…and still no results. Until yesterday when the bottle of Acurel (250ml) arrived. I did another partial water change, turned on the filter to remove all the large particles floating from the change, and then took some “before” photos to document if this product would really work. I added 2 drops per gallon as instructed (120 total drops). The instructions say “2 drops/gallons or 1 tsp/60 gallons”. According to my math, that means the instructions are equating 120 drops with one teaspoon. I find that hard to believe that only 1 tsp = 120 drops, as the drops are quite large. Anyway, I followed the “drops” ratio and put in 120 drops. And then, I went to get some work done and watch some TV. One hour later, I was stunned. The aquarium had not looked this good since…ever. I went to bed pretty excited, and then woke up to pretty much a “brand-new tank!” I don’t know how the fish feel about the clear water–although they are happily swimming around as before when the water was cloudy, but I was totally stoked this morning–so much that I had to write this review. No, Acurel hasn’t paid me a dime (in fact, it cost me quite a few dimes for a bottle of this stuff!). My filter floss is really brown–never seen that color ever on the pads (the Acurel is also brown). Brown pads = clear water. Totally love this stuff. I’ll have to post the photos later when I get home!

Feedingy fancy fantails fresh red lettuce left the already slightly cloudy water tinted green, presumably with chlorophyll. I had already tried accuclear with limited results, and took a chance on this after research and recommendations. The first treatment was with two larger hole sponges that caught some of the larger particles, the second treatment was with the carbon filter that goes with the aqueon 10 gallon filter. In just over 24 hours the water is so clear you can’t even tell there is water in the tank. That’s with three large hoodies that are too big of a bio-load for a ten gallon, I didn’t think crystal clear water was a possibility. Here are some tips I read or came up with on my own
1. Be prepared for frequent filter media changes, every few hours. I started with courser media, and worked down to fine media.
2. If your filter speed is adjustable, youay want to turn it up a bit to cycle the water through faster. I wouldn’t leave mine rolling that hard all the time, but two three hour windows worked well.
3. If you have airstones/bubblers, use them to keep the water circulating well.

Again, please look at the dorsal fins on my Bois, they are totally healthy after two treatments in 24 hours, just under 2 drops per gallon.

This review will be rather lengthy, but wanted to let you know everything I did to turn a very cloudy aquarium into a clear aquarium again. So, after doing a 50% or so water change my 8 gallon aquarium got super cloudy within two days and I did a very good cleaning of the gravel. Well by the third day it turned in to an all-out algae bloom. I have a water softer on my home, but at the well I use my regular hard water which is pretty hard for the aquarium since I’ve read a lot of online tips as to why you shouldn’t use softened water. Anyhow that being said my pH of the water is pretty alkaline and using my aquarium pH test kit it is always super blue which I would think my pH is pushing an 8. Since the Acurel F is acidic (it says on the bottle), I not only hoped it would clear my algae bloom, but also lower the pH down some to a more desirable range.
Upon receiving my Acurel F in the mail about 3 days after ordering it my tank was on the verge of not being able to see anything and I already prepped my kids to tell them I wasn’t sure if our fish were going to make it. I thought about changing the water again, but I really wanted to try the Acurel F first since there were so many glowing reviews on it to see if it really was a “miracle” worker. Well to save you some time and give you a quick answer it worked, but not as quickly as I hoped and not as fast as many said it worked. I had to have patience and also it required frequent water filter washing and a lot of “extra” drops in between a 48 hour period. So let me tell you exactly what I did to clear my tank up.
Starting point: I added 16 drops and waited 3 hours.
Hour 3: I had a lot of “brown to green gunk” in my filter and washed it out and then added 16 more drops after washing filter and reinstalling it.
Hour 4: Filter wash #2 (a lot more gunk)
Hour 5: Filter wash #3 (some gunk, but much less).
Hour 6: Filter was clean so I added 12 more drops of Acurel F.
Hour 15: Filter was full of gunk again and washed filter the 4th time. After Filter Wash #4 I added 16 more drops of Acurel F. Also at the 15 hour mark I started to see physically that the tank was a little clearer.
Hour 24: Washed filter for 5th time. After 5th filter wash I added another 16 drops of Acurel F.
Hour 31: Washed filter for 6th time. Filter is still producing a good amount of gunk every time I add more Acurel F. After 6th filter wash I added 16 more drops.
Hour 39: Washed out filter for 7th time and added 20 more drops of Acurel F after.
Hour 40: Water is a lot more clear, but still a little cloudy. I can now see the entire aquarium from the front and all 4 of our Glow Tetras, my small pleco (algae eater), and two snails are alive and fine.
Hour 42: water cleanest it has been in a while. Continuing to wash filter and washed out filter for the 8th time. Still removing a good amount of gunk (mostly brown gunk now). Added 16 more drops at the 42 hour mark after washing out filter for 8th time.
Hour 48: Clear water. Looks almost crystal clear. I couldn’t be happier and we can enjoy our fish again (they probably enjoy it more too).
During this 48 hour period I used about 128 drops in all and did 8 filter washing/cleaning with the same water filter. My water filter is an Aqueon Quiet Flow 10 and I have an Octagon 8 gallon glow aquarium. I also have an Aqueon preset aquarium heater to maintain a 78 degree temperature since we keep a cool house around 68° to 70°. We feed the fish once a day in the morning and the tank isn’t in direct sunlight, but does get indirect sunlight. Again, I also have hard water and a high pH. I’ve very pleased overall with the product and though I didn’t have that instant miracle that many others say they get, mine took about 48 hours. I really think it all depends on what kind of water you have, how bad your water already is (degree of cloudiness and why is it cloudy) and how often you clean your water filter. I highly recommend this product and hope this review helped you. It has been 4 full days now and my fish are still doing great. I even had one of my fish think the drops were food one day and took a big gulp of the drop and it is still fine too. I would love to add pictures as I took pictures during the whole process, but right now Amazon has pulled the link to add pictures. Not sure why, but as soon as they allow pictures again I will add at a later date. Thanks!
Updated: May 14, 2020
The add picture feature has returned and have added 25 pictures to show the progress using Acurel F. I continue to use it when I see the aquarium get a little cloudy and for my 8 gallon tank add about 10 to 12 drops once or twice a week and now have a perfectly clear tank with very little algae and am very happy about this product. I hope this review has helped someone as it is probably the most detailed review I have done on any forum. Thanks!

Bought this because no matter what I did, my tank was never crystal clear, always stayed cloudy. Used this once and it’s been crystal clear since. This product does exactly what it says and does not disappoint.

Brilliant!
200 litre tank with cloudy water is crystal clear after use – simple to use, quick, powerful and effective within an hour!