just got done rinsing my fluorite for my 20 gallon. i thought i did pretty good but when i put the first two gallons of water in, i can't see anything, just brown water. is this normal. i know it is supposed to be a little cloudy, but i can't see throught it. i rinsed it good to.
omg, my water
- Thread starter gman52
- Start date
When you work with Flourite, or with gravel + lateriate, or with with gravel or sand over soil or anything else, there is a technique for avoiding excessive clouding. Place a plate on the substrate and a shallow bowl on the plate, the add water to the bowl which will overflow onto the plate and then to the substrate without stirring it up.
If the water is cloudy already, leave it 24+ hours without any pumps/filters on and most of the cloudiness will sette out.
If the water is cloudy already, leave it 24+ hours without any pumps/filters on and most of the cloudiness will sette out.
Yep, you'll just have to live with the muck for awhile before it all settles down. Interestingly enough, IIRC, the dust doesn't harm the fish at all, it's just aesthetically displeasing to us 
I put a bunch of the stuff in my 55gallon without rinsing. it was really cloudy but I put a few extra filters on there, cleaned the filters every day and it took about 3 days to clean the water!
I have fluorite in my tank and after rinsing it 5 or 6 times it still turned my water a little pink. I was taught to use a strainer and a hose outside in the backyard. This technique worked pretty well and now my tank is nice and clear. The fluorite does make a big difference with the plants for sure!!
When I rinsed a bag, it took about 45 minuets, I did a big two hand scoop at a time. I put that into a bucket, added water and mixed up and then dumped the water... repeated 3-5 times until the water rinsed pretty clear.... then remove to a clean bucket and repeat with a new handful unitl you do the entire bag. The water was a bit cloudy but I could see through it and in about 3-4 hours of the filter running it was clear... after a day it was cristal clear. I also used poured the water onto the plate (I didn't use a bowl).