Mira

To answer the underlying question directly: clear fire cider would be the unusual outcome. Hazy, slightly murky, golden orange, with sediment at the bottom, is the normal appearance, and you shake it before using it for exactly that reason.

Strain after the steeping period, store somewhere cool and dark or in the fridge depending on your recipe, and stop looking for clarity that was never going to arrive.

That is what it looks like, and the disc is a vinegar mother: a gelatinous layer of cellulose and the bacteria that make vinegar, which forms in raw unfiltered vinegar. Odd looking, entirely normal. Strain it out or leave it, most people strain through cheesecloth before bottling.

The murk has four sources all working at once. Raw vinegar is cloudy to begin with, the roots release starches and fibres, honey clouds it further if you add any, and citrus pulp and oils do the rest.