Flourite

[knewby]

I got the gravel substrate flourite and when I was washing it, a lot of dust was coming off of it. Do I have to wash it until the water is clear?

[M0oN]

Flourite's a real pain to rinse, stirring it while washign will just create more dust.

I use a small handful at a time in a strainer and run water over it for a few minutes then use the same technique you'd use to flip an egg in a pan and rinse again, repeat until the water runs clear after about 2 seconds of being on the gravel.

Just keep doing that over and over again, go through all of the flourite and do it again, until the water runs clear after a couple of seconds, you'll never get it completely clean...

[discus_nw]

Or, if the tank is void of discus, fill and let settle for a couple of days. That's what I did when I set up a planted tank with Flourite.

[ghettobanana]

Pore some in a buck and rinse it off some. You are never going to get rid of all the "dust". I use Onyx Sand made by Seachem and it is sweet looking. I have used others and they just don't look as good with a lot of plants and a painted black back. ;)

[knewby]

How does this washing take? On average...

[M0oN]

Took me about two hours for 30 pounds...

[knewby]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Scrappi_tt]

Yep, it's a pain in the neck ;D

[Don_Lee]

Being lazy like I am, I have just poured it in after a quick rinse. I then get the filters up and running and let the tank settle in. If you have the time, it is a much easier tactic.

Don

[M0oN]

Oh jeez, it's just two hours of time for a tank that's probably going to be up and running for 10 years.

[Don_Lee]

LOL, to each his own MoOn................. ;D

[M0oN]

LOL, to each his own MoOn................. ;D


Yep yep, nothing wrong with your method as long as you don't have fish in there Don :)

Should let nosenuggets know that every time he goes to pull or plant somthing in the tank it's going to make a dust cloud, though.

[Don_Lee]

I never had that problem, once the dust settles and is good and soaked, no dust clouds at all. I have also heard dong too much rinsing can take some of the good minerals out of the Flourite...cannot remember the source of that information tho.

Don

[Wahter]

Don's experience echos mine too - once it settles, there's no problem. You can always remove the finer particles that "sink" down to the bottom with a gravel vacuum too.

[knewby]

To clean or not to clean, that is the question. What should I do?

[knewby]

Oooh, I found a sweet link on a guy with the same problem. He says that he washed a whole bag of flourite in no more than 20 minutes!



http://members.tripod.com/~andygags/washing_flourite.htm

[delmore]

If you rinse it too much, you might as well get plain old gravel. On the bag it says to rinse it twice, which is what I did. You end up pouring off thick mud, the good stuff that plants like. I had to let my tank sit for an entire week before the dust settled!

It may be obvious, but ONLY use for planted tanks. it is a pain. If you accidentally stir up a cloud later on(which you WILL), it shouldn't hurt the fish.