Can you see clearly now?

[Tannin Aquatics]

As aquarium people, we were pretty much indoctrinated from the start that our tanks should have "crystal clear, blue-white water", and that this is one of the benchmarks of a healthy aquarium.



And of course, I won't disagree that clear water is nice. I like it, too...However, I would make the case that "crystal clear" water is: a) not always solely indicative of "healthy" or "optimum" , and not always what fishes encounter in nature.

 

Of course, in the aquarium, cloudy water is often indicative of some sort of trouble- typically, bacterial blooms, algal blooms, incompletely washed substrate, etc, so we correctly make the initial assessment that something might be amiss when water suddenly becomes cloudy or 'murky", or just shows turbidity. (click to read more)