Flourite Cloudy - How Long?

Booswalia

Booswalia

AC Members
Apr 16, 2003
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Prince Edward Island
www.sonnys.ca
Hi all,
I set up my tank yesterday using 100% Flourite which had been rinsed some, but not enough to wash away all the "good stuff".
It wasn't easy to lift water to the height of my 25 tall, (I'm not very big), and therefore a lot of splashing took place even though I did use a bowl.

I did this yesterday morning and today the tank is still VERY cloudy. I can hardly see the back of the tank.

Any idea how long this is going to take to settle?

Thanks.
Shirley
 
Oh, Shirley, Shirley, Shirley what did you do?! Shoulda washed it more thoroughly. Oh well, now you have to let it sit for another day or so, unless you want to start your filter, but then you'll have a bunch of dust to clean out of it. It's a shame that you didn't have a hose to fill the tank. I just set one up without washing at all, but I put the Flourite into the tank dry, arranged it and then put newspaper across the entire bottom and filled very slowly with the hose. Got a slight cloudiness, but it was clear enough to run the filter and clear it completely over night.
Good luck....
Len
 
Ouch, I REALLY don't envy you. My fourite turned into mud as well, it was horrible! Even though I washed it quite a bit, in small portions too! I can't really tell you how it went away, but it did :) Give it a few days. If you have plants in already (as I did), they will all look brown. I think I just shook it off the plants, and tried to siphon off as much as I could during water changes. It still gets stirred up when I replant something, I find it's a lot of pain to work with.
 
:rolleyes: It was just too hard to hold the water and pour it slowly. (I really never thought I would get such a good workout from this aquarium hobby.)

Luckily my plants are not in there. I have them in a bucket while I wait for the Flourite to settle.

Have I created a monster?????

Is it going to stir up like this every time I move something or disturb it a little????

I can see it now...... dirtly little fish lookin' like they just crawled out of the garden. Oh, man..... (No, the fish are not in there either.)

Shirley
 
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Everyone told me it would be okay once it settles, it won't stir up. Well, they LIED! But really, this is the worst of it. Any other redness you will get will settle within a few hours. And the fish are constantly swimming, so they don't really get covered in it. I hope it doesn't bother their gills. I didn't have any in there at first either, only after it settled.
 
Originally posted by Booswalia
Is it going to stir up like this every time I move something or disturb it a little????
Click to expand...

If you are using a bucket after water changes to refill the tank then this will continue to be a problem. How big is uncertain. I have 50 /50 Flourite and sand. If I pour water from a bucket even in small amounts it will stir it up for a day or two. I use my Python to refill my 20 Tall. I let it slowly refill. This keeps it from clouding.

Dave
 
Vortex it....

american_flag.gif

A Vortex D-1 or the Vortex XL, depending on the size of your aquarium, will quickly and effortlessly take care of substrate cloudiness. :)
 
I started over last night. I removed as much water as I could and then ran the hose from outside through a window and let it trickle into the tank for about an hour. This morning the tank is nice and clear.

As for water changes..... I can't run the hose into the house in the winter.

Maybe I should just buy a long peice of tubing and use the adapter that came with my water purifier on the kitchen sink. It will take an hour or two to fill, but that's okay.

I can see it now..... just like the purifier. I forget it's running and I end up overflowing every time. :eek:

Maybe a Python is a better choice......

Shirley
 
I've had onyx in my 10 gallon now for maybe six weeks. It does float up when I clean the tank or rearrange plants but it no longer clouds the tank. It just floats up then falls back down. The flourite in my 55 gallon had never been a real problem because I put a half inch layer of similarly colored regular small grain gravel on top of it. By the time I got to rearranging plants and disturbing the flourite, it had evidently conditioned in like the onyx has.
 
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