# Petco 6.6 Substrate



## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Well, after scouring the local big box shops, this is what I found.










Not exactly what I wanted, but I figure if it's going to be covered by a lush green carpet (fingers crossed) who cares? Right?


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## tiggity (Feb 21, 2012)

mannye said:


> Well, after scouring the local big box shops, this is what I found.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's a good substrate, however, good luck washing it :icon_wink

I have it on my 10 gal and did a test with a small cup and took me a while to get it clean (mind you this is only a small amount). I ended up putting it in unwashed capped it with regular gravel and filled the water very carefully.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Great substrate. I have it in my 60G as a cap

As tiggity mentioned, make sure you wash it out very well otherwise you will have floating debris in your tank until it settles, and even after it settles, you can still disturb it and have it get in the water column again. I bought 2 of these bags for my 60G and I spent *well over an hour* rinsing this substrate in a 5G bucket until it rinsed clean.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

shinycard255 said:


> Great substrate. I have it in my 60G as a cap
> 
> As tiggity mentioned, make sure you wash it out very well otherwise you will have floating debris in your tank until it settles, and even after it settles, you can still disturb it and have it get in the water column again. I bought 2 of these bags for my 60G and I spent *well over an hour* rinsing this substrate in a 5G bucket until it rinsed clean.


 
I found this article...

http://www.vickisaquaticplace.com/fluorite.html


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

I used a slightly different method to rinse it. 

I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom of a smaller sacrificial bucket. Cut two layers of aluminum screen to fit snuggly in the bottom to cover the holes. That lets the mud through, but not the flourite. Pour the flourite in and start flushing with water. Have another bucket handy and scoop the top couple inches with every couple minutes of flushing. As the link suggests, you can set the bucket up wherever water's needed.

As you've read here and other threads, there will still be some cloudiness but this stuff is just a test of patience in that respect. In retrospect, if I had known about Saf-t-sorb at the time, I woud've gone in that direction.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

I'm patient. I fully expect to run the tank without the fish for several days or weeks until the water chemistry and plants are just right. Gonna suck for the little dude seeing that vast expanse of tank next to his tiny one gallon...


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## mubender (Mar 16, 2009)

Easiest way to clean that is to pick up a paint strainer and slosh it around...i used to use that stuff religiously until my water parameters changed from the source.


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

I've only used flourite in one tank. I didn't wash it and after the initial dust cloud of pouring it into the tank I filled the tank right below the substrate level, then let it settle. Next, I put the hardscape and plants in and finally covered everything with plastic bags and (very)slowly filled it. I didn't have any cloudy issues but it did take awhile to fill. I hope that helps!


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

*Just joined. Flourite in the 6.6*

Mannye,

I just joined plantedtank and saw your thread about Flourite in your 6.6G bookshelf. As it turns out, I have the same aquarium, and I also used Flouriite as my substrate. Like several others have mentioned, I spent a good amount of time washing it out before adding it to my tank.

You might find this picture useful to get an idea of how it will look in your tank.









I am doing a dry start on my tank and have added dwarf hairgrass 'parvula' and microsword at this point. Like your plans, eventually my substrate should be completely covered. I hope the DHG will take in the Flourite. I think it will. It has been in only a week, and I moved one sprig and it had new roots already. Here is an iPhone photo of the tank after one week of growth in the Flourite with Osmocote added under the substrate and misting with very dilute Flourish.









I really look forward to following your progress, Mannye.

Salty (doing freshwater)


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## rnaodm (Jun 9, 2012)

Nice im starting a 6.6g tomorrow, Using Dirt with a gravel cap.

Great footprint for a small tank.


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## stevenjohn21 (May 23, 2012)

The "dirt" that your all rinsing out is what costs the money so why waste all the good stuff ? Just place it in a plastic bottle (size will depend of the height of your tank) place the bottle in the tank until the water pushes out the air inside the bottle and turn it upside down. The substrate will fall out and the tiny particles (dust) will float to the top of the bottle, once all the substrate is out you will be left with cloudy water in the bottle and not your tank. Use that to water indoor/outdoor plants and repeat the process.


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## rnaodm (Jun 9, 2012)

stevenjohn21 said:


> The "dirt" that your all rinsing out is what costs the money so why waste all the good stuff ? Just place it in a plastic bottle (size will depend of the height of your tank) place the bottle in the tank until the water pushes out the air inside the bottle and turn it upside down. The substrate will fall out and the tiny particles (dust) will float to the top of the bottle, once all the substrate is out you will be left with cloudy water in the bottle and not your tank. Use that to water indoor/outdoor plants and repeat the process.


I ment dirt as in potting soil


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Mannye and Rnaodm, I think we need a Petco 6.6 club like the 12G rimless club.  It's great we're all starting about the same time.

Salty


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## MichaelMcG (Mar 16, 2012)

weird, i just got this tank yesterday to use as a shrimp tank. im using turface though. dont have much for it yet but i have some mosses and dwarf sag already shipping to me.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Hey! Had a bad cold and it didn't stop raining here in Miami until Thursday! My kids (10 year old twin girls) decided to "help" daddy who was upsatirs coughing a lung out. 

So guess what they did? Piled up half a bag of unwashed Flourite into the tank! (they are lucky they are cute) Now I'm concerned about taking it out and scratching the heck out of it soooooo...

Looks like we will see first hand who's right about washing or not needing to wash it... the bag says no rinsing needed...so it must be true! :icon_neut

It's 9:00am...pics to come right after I go to the store to get a bunch of filter wool and clarifying drops (just in case).


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Pics are coming. Filled the tank with water just to see what would happen and it's absolutely opaque. I'm going to give it about half a day to settle before I turn on the filter and then a few more days to see how it looks. 

I filled it all the way just out of curiosity and for practical reasons as well such as making sure I don't have a leak and that I don't hate the way the Flourite looks (so far from the little I can see it looks great). My curiosity stems from reading the directions that say very enthusiastically NO RINSING REQUIRED! But then, as a marketing person...I can usually spot another marketing person's fingerprints.

So we shall see. Headed out to the stores.. when I return I will post the pics of the filling process and what happened after a few hours of settling WITHOUT any filtration.


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Fluorite really benefits from a rinse, but I've seen it done "dustless" by filling slowly. REALLY slowly. Like airline tubing slowly.


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Mannye,

I hope this finds you well. How is your new aquarium going? Did the Flourite dust finally settle?


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## sype2470 (Jul 15, 2012)

Used exact substrate for my 20 gal. I didn't rinse it. After messing with Organic potting soil for 2 days rinsing and filling, I used the flourite-about 1inch up front and 2 inches for the back, and topped it. Filled it up, waited for 4 hours or so then drained. Cap'd it off with silica sand with about 5 waters changes until I left it alone for 2 days filtering. Cleaned the filters, water change to a little over 1/4 full and planted. Filled it up and been running since with water changes every 5th day. Running DIY CO2, 2 filters, and two bublers on low. Too much air would render my CO2 useless. Would it be fine to stuff clay in my dirt for iron?


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## rnaodm (Jun 9, 2012)

SaltyNC said:


> Mannye and Rnaodm, I think we need a Petco 6.6 club like the 12G rimless club.  It's great we're all starting about the same time.
> 
> Salty



6.6 Club wouldn't be a bad Idea  Ill look into it.

I just rescaped my tank, im getting a slight brown water problem. Im thinking I got spots where the sand cap isnt thick enough and dirt is browning the water? Id like to just start over from the beginning as imo my substrate is too thick with both dirt and sand.

Plants are doing great though, replaced the stock bulb as it seems it was defective, it was super dim.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Hey guys! Sorry about being MIA. I didn't get a chance to post before leaving on vacation but I'm back now and will be putting all the pics up. 

Teaser... don't think there's a need to rinse Flourite.. but adding plants will tell...


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## MichaelMcG (Mar 16, 2012)

rnaodm said:


> replaced the stock bulb as it seems it was defective, it was super dim.


what kinda bulb did you get? 6700k T8?


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

OK! Here we go. About two weeks ago, I got the Flourite and decided to just go for it without rinsing....

Here's what it looked like when I initially filled it about two inches or so...


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

That initial few inches made me want to remove and rinse, but I figured I would just soldier on...mostly because I was concerned about scratching the tank if I pulled it all out. If I ever remove this substrate it will most likely be by submerging the entire tank in another bigger tub or tank to protect the plastic. Here's what it looked like after completely filling it. This was a little after 11:30 AM










A closeup of right before filling it all the way...eek!


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

So I left the filter running and went to work. I got back at around 8pm to find this:










Not too bad. What you see on the glass is a layer of very fine dust that easily came off when I rubbed my hand along the inside and even though this tank feels like the polycarbonite turntable covers of yesteryear (scratch magnets for you kids) it didn't get scratched by the rubbing off of this fine dust. 

A week later I got some plants and driftwood.




























I did an initial placement into the tank and once again sent up billowing clouds of dust. The filter quickly cleared everything up... in about an hour it looked like the picture below. What isn't apparent because I had the stupid flash on is the slight cloudiness that remains. But keep in mind that I'm still on the original filter cartrige that came with the tank kit. It's been cleaned out twice already after getting clogged by the dust kicked up during the initial filling and looks like it's about to get clogged again.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

After about two days or so (I work like a million hours a week...I have very little time to attend to "fun stuff"...so I'm sure this was apparent after a few hours) I noticed the leaves had collected some dust as well but do note how clear the water is...you can also see the filter pickup tube in the back looking like suede from the dust. I haven't cleaned it yet..










So I proceeded to take a clean chinese caligraphy brush I had laying around (I'm cool like that) to brush off the dust. 










The cool tiny leaves plant (can someone please ID this for me?) is NOT a happy camper...it's already looking sad.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

Very nice start.. I'm excited to see where you take this..
The 6.6 petco tank is one of my favorite tanks ever.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Here is a picture I just took of the tank (around 2:40am on Sat night/Sun morn). It's still on the original filter cart. Tomorrow I will be getting replacements. I never used the generic filter media I bought, so it will probably get returned. The dickhead that wrote the manual for the filter never mentions it uses BioBag cartriges, so I never got them. Now that I know (thanks, Amazon description dude) I will get them and replace with a new cart and finally use clarifying liquid to polish the water. I think I like the black background..it's sprayed on there, so I hope I really like it once the plants get established...










What I've learned:

RINSE the FREAKING FLOURITE.

While it does clear quickly (a few hours) any significant disturbance of the substrate sends up huge clouds of dust that settles on EVERY SINGLE SURFACE and requires cleaning. Tomorrow I will be relocating the betta into his new home and in a week or so I will be adding tangerine and ghost shrimp in hopes of adding a little variety to the tank (or the betta's diet...time will tell).


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## Wannaberooted (Jun 24, 2012)

I'm a month into using Flourite, it will settle, don't worry. I only rinsed mine once before adding it to the tank. It was very cloudy for a day after adding water. I lightly brushed the leaves off, but the catfish did most of the work once the tank was cycled and they were added. I'm still using the same filter cartridge, you don't need to change it unless it is so clogged it isn't running well. It is full of helpful bacteria.


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## kclone (Nov 11, 2011)

I used flourite in one of my tanks and rinsed and rinsed. After a while I just gave up and said, "Probably good enough!" It wasn't. Still, it does settle. You just have to be prepared to rinse your filter media a lot!

The substrate does look great though, and it does a great job growing plants. Get come cories to more slowly stir up the gravel for you. Have the fish do the work to earn their keep in their new fantastic home.


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Mannye, it looks like you are off to a great start. Wow, the Flourite really did kick up a cloud, didn't it. For the replacement filters, I use the Tetra Whisper Bio-Bags in size Medium. I also picked up the smallest mesh bag of Fluval BioMax they had, and I place that in front of the Bio-Bag filter (post filtration INFLOW -> FILTER -> BIOMAX -> OUTFLOW). There is plenty of space in the filter for it.

The plant on the rock looks like either hemianthus callitrichoides (dwarf baby tears) or hemianthus micranthemoides (regular baby tears). If it is HC, it likes high light and high CO2.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

Yeah... I was kind of afraid that was the famous HC. It's probably exactly what i need to form a lush green carpet but this is the LOW TECH forum and I don't want to get into any CO2 stuff with this tank. Que sera sera with that little clump. Time will tell. Transferring the betta today... let's see what he thinks of his new home. The Ph in both tanks is a little high, so I'm going to do the transfer now before I start correcting water chemistry. My tap water even after filtering turns the test solution a deep blue. So a little acid is always needed.


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## mannye (Jun 11, 2012)

It's been a year! Doing great. Same betta In there. He's loving it. Rescued his blue ass from a carnival. Well, my daughter rescued him by getting a ping pong ball in his bowl. Making a better home for the betta was the whole inspiration for this tank.
















The substrate is second to none. Looks natural and plants love it. Yes, it does kick up a cloud when I add water and yes, I occasionally have to throw in a new filter cart, but overall I would use it again.


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