Flourite

[kakes11]

Any of you guys use this stuff? I just put it in my tank not too long ago and thought it was a good idea. It took about a day and a half to make the cloudy water almost clear, then i planted a few plants in it and boom its freakin clouldy again! How do you guys like it? What do you do to make it not so cloudy??

[gdtrfb]

It will make your water cloudy. Flourite is jsut little balls of clay. I have a vortex diatom filter that I will put on the tank and it clears up in about 10 minutes. I understand spending another $100 may not be in the budget. You could put a thin layer of a natural aquarium stone on top of the flourite to help keep down the dust. My substrate is a thin layer of flourite for the nutrients and then a thicker layer of eco-complete. The eco-complete substrate has the nutrients the plants will need and is a black substrate, which is good for a planted discus tank. The eco-complete may also cloud, but not nearly as much as the flourite.

[Dissident]

You need to rinse flourite before you put it in the tank, otherwise you will have the same problems you are having.

Flourite has worked extremely well for me.

[kakes11]

I rinsed it out a long time before it put it into the tank, o well. I guess i will put a layer of regular gravel over it. Thanks

[ItsGeoff]

its just how it is. do a couple vaccums on it if it bothers you that much

[nacra99]

Yeah.. unfortunately that's how flourite is.... but it is very good substrate.. very rich in iron that'll keep most plants happy.

Using a 5 gal bucket, i'm going to guess that you'll have to rinse and decant at least 30 times to get it to a decent cleanliness, and even so you will have some cloudiness.

I found that if i filter the water through tightly packed paper towels (the good quality quilted kinds that won't disintegrate in your filter) for about 12 hrs, it'll usually polish up the water real well. But remember not to leave to paper towels in the filter for more than 24 hrs... if not it will start to break down and create quite a big mess.

[lhforbes12]

I have used Flourite in a 30 gallon. Three things I don't like are it's color, it's high price, and the differnt sizes of it's grains, of course for others this may be a selling point. I didn't rinse but filled the tank carefully, not much of a cloudiness problem for me. It grows plants for me as well as any other substrate.

Larry

[Alight]

I wash, wash and then wash flourite some more, before using it.

Best to put it in a bucket (about a third full of flourite), use a garden hose, outside, and wash and stir, wash and stir until the water coming out of the bucket is clear.

It will not cloud your tank after that. If you want the clay in your tank, too, I'd cover it with some gravel, or have a complete ground cover plant over all parts of it before I'd add fish.

[discus2010]

Well, I am about to get flourite but am not willing to have this problem?!!!! does it always happen?

[Dissident]

Well, I am about to get flourite but am not willing to have this problem?!!!! does it always happen?

You always have to rinse flourite several times before using it. It is very dusty.

[nacra99]

It's a small price to pay for the quality of the substrate. It's very stable and won't leach. All my tanks are flourite and i think the extra work is more than compensated by the great plant growth.

[Ed13]

Flourite is extremely good at growing plants. I rarely use it on show tanks because personally I don't like the way it looks or the texture it has. But in propagation tanks it rocks!

[gg5190]

Anyone ever have a problem with discus not being able to see the food on the ground because it's similar in color to the flourite? I have 3 bags of this stuff... did I make a mistake?

[willbldrco]

Flourite is the substrate product which seems to have replaced naturally occurring laterite as the preferred iron-rich medium. I've used the Duplarit K Laterite Balls which are just big balls of laterite that you push into your gravel or sand. Here a site that's all about laterite:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/laterama.html

If you want to go in the other direction to a high-tech iron-rich planting medium, there is Eco Complete:

http://www.aquariumguys.com/ecocomplete.html

It doesn't require much rinsing and looks pretty (if you like black or brown), but boy do you pay for it!

Frankly, I've found I get great results by simply adding liquid Fe (cleated iron) to the tank. My hardish tap water supplies trace elements. I've got a few plants which like iron at the roots and they are thriving (although I do use an undergravel filter which draws iron in the water column through the roots).
FYI,

Will