I didn't rinse my Fluorite...

[ValorG]

I laughed just reading the title of this thread. And laughed again when I saw the pic. LOL Water changes..... start doing em.

 

[londonloco]

Flourite doesn't really have any massive amount of nutrients in it to begin with. It's good because of its CEC. You'd end up having to dose/root tab anyhow.

+1

 

[bigwater]

When I used flourite I rinsed it well and still had brown water, not as bad as the OP. I would do a drain and fill for sure, if you let all that settle it will get stirred up anyway. If I were to set up another tank with flourite I would put some gravel over it. The flourite doesn't hold the roots well for initial planting.

 

[psusaxman2000]

+1 bigwater

I had a similar issue when I set up my 55. I have red flourite and rinsed it a number of times. I still got the clouding. I capped it with some standard white gravel and ran the filter and it eventually cleared up. Since you didn't rinse at all, I would definitely drain and refill, but capping it with something else will definitely help out.

 

[glock115]

Unfortunately, I already have fish in there. That pic was taken probably 5 days ago and since then I have been siphoning the gravel but the water is still very murky. It seems like I can stick the siphon into the same spot over and over and and always pull up a dark plume.
I have a Vortex filter coming today so hopefully that can help clear things up. I made the classic newb mistake of adding fish before the tank was cycled and have had 2 zebra danios die on me so far.

 

[jetajockey]

If you have a clean sponge laying around slip it over the intake of the filter, let it suck some of hte gunk up, rinse it out and repeat.

 

[glock115]

I've been rinsing out the white foam pads in the fluval 405 using old water from the tank. Bad move?

 

[standardbyker63]

It's always a good idea to rinse your filter media with tank water that way you don't have to worry about killing any beneficial bacteria that may be growing on the media.

 

[glock115]

Thank you, considering my tank is still cycling, is it ok for me to rinse the media in tank water?

 

[rockhoe14er]

when i kept a planted tank i never used fert tabs and never had a problem growing from crypts to dwarf baby tears unlike when using somthing like pool filter or play sand i always needed fert tabs to get any good growth

i grow dwarf baby tears in black sand and no root tabs.