# My Flourite black Sand cloudiness



## PurpleVal (Feb 8, 2009)

I know that this subject has been discussed in multiple posts but bare with me. Over the last few hours i took down my ten gallon tank and replaced the substrate with Flourite Black Sand from Seachem. It is VERY cloudy and i was wondering if this much cloudiness was normal and how i get rid of it, and if i can get rid of it at all. Here are some pictures I took during the process.

OK so I can't upload pictures for some reason. Every time i try to upload one from photobucket this is what it says 
*http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm207/awesomeaustin275/09Aquarium030.jpg*:
Upload failed due to failure writing temporary file. 

 help please


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

Did you rinse it before placing it in the tank? When i buy Flourite Black Sand, I rinse it untill the water is kinda clear(this might take a while). Then I add water in the tank full of Black Sand slowly.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

oh yea.. flourite is notorious for requiring a thorough rinsing. Any sand substrate needs lots of rinsing before adding to the tank. Take a bucket, dump a bag in and fill with water.. mix it up a bit with your hand to get all the dust and debris loose. Dump water. If you have a garden hose, leave the water running and let it overflow til the water is clear. if not, you'll have to keep filling, rinsing, dumping until water runs clear.

As ddtran says, you need to fill your tank very slowly. I've used a paper plate with a low flow. Any remaining dust will be taken care of by your filter and/or will settle over time.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

*New substrate*

All the flourite products (most others too) need to be well rinsed prior use. For the finer products paint stores (what ever company) sell 5gal. bucket nylon strainer bags pretty cheap $2.00 or less for singles. Contractor use they don't last long, pretty much disposable. Their big enough to line an empty bucket some even have elastic around the top to help hold them. They work well filled about 1/2 way hose fill the bucket with water several times working the bag around and you'll lose most of the dust and a few fines.
If you don't drag the bag on rough concrete or snag it on something sharp they'll last you a life time.

Anyhow most times clouding clears in 24-48 hrs.


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## PurpleVal (Feb 8, 2009)

The thing is i've gotten such conflicting advice on this topic that i finally just took a chance and did it. I didn't rinse it at all because numerous people told me not to. People told me not to here in the chat room, and at my aquarists club. Guess I took the wrong advice.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

PurpleVal said:


> The thing is i've gotten such conflicting advice on this topic that i finally just took a chance and did it. I didn't rinse it at all because numerous people told me not to. People told me not to here in the chat room, and at my aquarists club. Guess I took the wrong advice.


Alot of people rinse Flourite products when they first get it. The only substrates i know that you cannot rinse are the ADA ones.


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## azndragoon402 (Jul 13, 2008)

rinse it is much better, i learned it from the bad exp i had, i was using red Flourite i forgot the rense it. but it only took my 25 gallon to clear up in 24 hour.


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## PurpleVal (Feb 8, 2009)

well i guess it won't be very hard to take the gravel out....or i could just rinse it in the tank. I am thinking of trying sticking a hose in the tank an letting the water run clear but won't the sand some out of the tank if i do that?


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## bibbels (Sep 29, 2008)

You can also cut a top corner of the bag off and stick a hose inside and let it run until the runoff is mostly clear. 

I got sick of rinsing when I setup a 125 gal with it. Rinsed or not it's going to cloud up like crazy. It will soon pass however.


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## igotpron (Jan 29, 2008)

not to be a thread stealer, but how much of this fluorite sand would i need to cover a 55 gal tank? was planning on making a black switch but looks like id need 3 15 lb bags right? seems a bit much, money wise.


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## Dan Knowlton (Jan 9, 2009)

Instead of a bucket I used one of those long plastic bins you slide under your bed for storage - VERY cheap a WalMart, Target... It was a lot easier than using the bucket as the depth of the soil was a lot less than in a bucket - but you have to be careful not to blast the stuff out of the bin.

Dan K.


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## NyteBlade (Aug 19, 2006)

I usually wing it and throw it in the tank without rinsing. Rinsing, rinsing again, rinsing yet again. I usually just plop it in and wait a few days for the cloudiness to clear....run the filter for awhile.


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

igotpron said:


> not to be a thread stealer, but how much of this fluorite sand would i need to cover a 55 gal tank? was planning on making a black switch but looks like id need 3 15 lb bags right? seems a bit much, money wise.


Seachem has a substrate calculator on their site for all their gravels. Here is the one for Flourite Black Sand.

For an area of 13" x 48" x 3," it shows 6 bags. 

The sand calculator on this site gives 108 lbs for the same area using silica sand.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I used the black sand twice in a 10 gallon tank, and both times I only rinsed the top layer, not the lower ones. The last time I used a big collander type insert for a pasta cooker, that is about 2 gallon size, I would guess. Then I bought a yard of a polyester, very fine mesh netting at a fabric store, about $3 worth as I recall, and put a double thickness of that in the collander. That let me run water through the sand in pretty big batches, with no problems at all. And, only slight cloudiness in the tank, later.


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## Spachi (Oct 27, 2008)

i had this problem and someone here posted a link that was helpful. they recommended rinsing flourite just a couple of times, then spreading it out and letting it DRY. then get it in the tank and fill slowly. the thought is that overrinsing may wash away some nutrients. even though the dry flourite was very dusty going into my tank, the water was CRYSTAL clear when i filled it slowly. i dont know how dusty substrate leads to clear water, but it does. definitely more work to dry it though.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You can't wash away nutrients from Flourite - they aren't there to start with. Fluorite is a baked clay product, and clay can contain iron, aluminum and other metallic minerals, so those are the nutrients in Flourite. But, nothing that can be washed away.


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## Rigio (Feb 22, 2013)

ddtran46 said:


> Alot of people rinse Flourite products when they first get it. The only substrates i know that you cannot rinse are the ADA ones.


and eco-complete, you're told not to wash it because there's a liquid in it that holds all the nutrients.


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## Bandit1200 (Dec 11, 2010)

Spachi said:


> i had this problem and someone here posted a link that was helpful. they recommended rinsing flourite just a couple of times, then spreading it out and letting it DRY. then get it in the tank and fill slowly. the thought is that overrinsing may wash away some nutrients. even though the dry flourite was very dusty going into my tank, the water was CRYSTAL clear when i filled it slowly. i dont know how dusty substrate leads to clear water, but it does. definitely more work to dry it though.



The key here is the "slowly filled" part. I don't rinse any of my substrates before use. I do fill the aquarium very slowly, basically as a drip acclimation would work. I use an airline tube and a bucket over head to fill them. It's pretty simple:

Place a couple 2x4 pieces across the top of the tank, place the filled bucket on top of the boards. Add airline tube and start the siphon. As the bucket drains, refill it. Continue until the tank is filled. Sure it takes a little longer, but you will keep all the sediments from becoming suspended in the water in the first place.


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## CT89 (Jul 3, 2013)

I've stopped rinsing Flourite when I use it since I find it always clear up quickly. I just dump Flourite ____ in, level and scape, add driftwood and hardscape as I will and then fill the tank halfway with airline tubing. Start that, walk off and do something else while checking periodically.

Start filter with filter floss, seeded with media from another filter and plant the tank, and leave it alone to cycle. Usually clears up in a few hours.

If you're willing to take an even longer view, just fill the tank so the water barely covers the substrate and leave that alone for a few days to a week. Even less cloudiness issues.

The key is using the airline tubing, and patience.


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## Bandit1200 (Dec 11, 2010)

CT89 said:


> I've stopped rinsing Flourite when I use it since I find it always clear up quickly. I just dump Flourite ____ in, level and scape, add driftwood and hardscape as I will and then fill the tank halfway with airline tubing. Start that, walk off and do something else while checking periodically.
> 
> Start filter with filter floss, seeded with media from another filter and plant the tank, and leave it alone to cycle. Usually clears up in a few hours.
> 
> ...



See, I'm not the only one


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