View Full Version : flourite
JoeHemey
08-26-2003, 1:20 AM
i just filled my ten gal up. Flourite was the substrate of choice since this one was going to be my first planted tank. As i was filling the tank up the water was getting pretty brown. Now the whole tank has brown water in it. I hooked the filter up to stir it up but after 24 hours its still brown. was that bad idea? Any suggestions??
caffeine
08-26-2003, 1:55 AM
Did you rinse it out before putting it in your tank? If not, you should have read the directions, and you're probably going to need to either take it back out of the tank and do some rinsing or do a whole lot of water changes.
CHINABOY1021
08-26-2003, 2:42 AM
wait for it to settle down. i never rinsed my flourite. well, i used 5 gallons of water thats it for washing 1 whole bag.
ianjoe
08-26-2003, 7:34 AM
I did the same thing one time. I waited several days with no sign of it clearing up. Just drain the water and full 'er up again. Use a bowl or plate so the water flow doesn't hit the substrate directly.
Next time, your substrate just needs a quick rinse to wash off the residual dust from shipping. If you try rinsing the flourite clean youll be washing forever, and taking away the good stuff.
CHINABOY1021
08-26-2003, 12:31 PM
mine cleared up within 6 hours. i was running a hot magnum on a 10 g though. also i filled veryslowly
JoeHemey
08-27-2003, 9:20 PM
yeah directions what are those. lol so lots of water changes later its clearing up nice. thanks all
125gJoe
08-27-2003, 9:40 PM
I used Flourite in my 10 gallon and it cleared up quick...
Gotta like the look of Flourite! I know I do.. (as well as Onyx too..) :)
Starry
08-29-2003, 8:13 PM
Flourite drives me nuts! Next time I'll go for onyx sand. My flourite mucks up my whole tank every time I have to replant something. Then it settles on all my plants and all over my beautiful tangled globs of algae in the foreground. Yuck! I was assuming that the growth of a biofilm would ease things as the tank matured, but over a year later it's just as bad!
Tempest
08-29-2003, 10:19 PM
Starry== The pic is my 10 gallon after filling with onyx. :D
Starry
08-30-2003, 10:53 AM
Great, so much for that. I heard it's supposed to be less dusty. How does it behave when you replant?
i didn't rinse the flourite at all in my 37 gallon
it was brown for weeks,
but i guess i didn't mind
now it is quite clear and when i do a weekly vaccum there is minimal kick-up
you can tell how much the plants enjoy that brown dust.
dont over wash your flourite.
Tempest
08-30-2003, 11:53 AM
Starry= The onyx cleared up overnight. Somewhere on AC I had pics of the setup on the tank. My only problem at that time was that I should have waited until it cleared to plant cause I then had grey dust on my plants... The onyx still stirs up a little at water changes but falls right back down. I haven't done any major replanting in the tank so I don't know how it reacts to that. I think it should be okay though. I'm going to order some more marseilla to go in it soon so I guess I'll find out.