# Best way to wash fluorite



## cbachmann (Aug 6, 2013)

Title says it all. How do you guys wash your fluorite gravel? Particularly, how do you do it without a hose?

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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

I put some into a bucket, use a large stick to stir while filling with water, dump the water, and repeat. Make sure you put some kind of filter over the sink drain so that it catches the fine dust so that it doesn't clog (if you decide to dump the dirty water down the drain).


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## MarkM (Sep 16, 2012)

I read someone's post to a similar question I had about six months ago. They suggested a strainer and that is how I rinsed mine, 11 bags of it for my 120G. I used a hose but I guess you could fill buckets of water and pour it over the strainer. Worked well for me in any case.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I an about to do this process again myself. For smaller volumes, a strainer under the faucet and over a pan/bucket worked well for me up to 75g. After that it's garden hose in a 5g bucket, unless you like the pain 

v3


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## beginragnarok (Dec 19, 2011)

I dump it in a paint seive/strainer available at hardware stores and rinse in the sink or tub. Same for sand and black diamond slag. 

-Zach


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## Texan78 (Nov 17, 2013)

Hire a neighborhood kid for $5....


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## cbachmann (Aug 6, 2013)

Haha well I am the neighborhood kid. But I guess the sink and strainer method it is. Impressed by the number of responses though!

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## islanddave1 (Jul 5, 2013)

Horror stories regarding Flourite I think are greatly over exaggerated. I have used Flourite for that past 4 years and no longer stress about it. Rinse it in your kitchen sink in what ever pot you have in smallish quantities say 1/4 bag at a time. Swish it around with your hand and rinse until reasonably clear, then place in tank. Any particulate matter that suspends in the water column will within hours settle. After weeks it will either settle to the bottom of the substrate and will rarely get disturbed, or will dissolve or get filtered out through mechanical filtration. At least this has been my experience.


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

The easiest method I've found to do it (sink side or in the yard with a hose) is to use a kitty litter pan. Cheap, easy to find, useful afterwards for sorting plants or hauling stuff around--the flat pan is deep enough to hold a good amount of water for each rinse, but the wide flat form means the fluorite isn't piled up too deep to easily agitate and you're able to pour the majority of the water out on each rinse without having to tip the pan too far. Also unlike buckets, it's easy to see how clear the water is (or isn't) as you're not staring down into a dark hole. 

Pour in an inch or two of fluorite, fill about half way with water, agitate it well, pour off the excess water--repeat until it's reasonably clear and/or the suspended particles are ones that quickly settle back down. 

Strainers, at least the ones I've had available or could find at a reasonable cost, either let too much of the smaller particles fall thru, or were too small to do a significant amount of the fluorite at a time.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

eh, I can't be bothered to wash substrate.

Go buy a cheap misting bottle (unused), and rinse it out well. Then fill it with treated water, and set the nozzle a little bit up from the really fine mist setting.

Put your substrate in your tank, do you planting or whatever, and mist the substrate really heavily - use a good portion of the bottle, spray all over the place, get all the substrate, etc. Just make sure the water level stays below the substrate.

Then throw in an extra filter sponge or something, and gradually add the water in/through that.

I've set up a few tanks this way, and had no issues with clouding, even turned on the filters right away.

I think the misting washes the fines down into the lower levels of the substrate, so that when water is (gently) added, it doesn't stir anything up.


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## flight50 (Apr 17, 2012)

I have read several most of some not rinsing at all. Its more about how careful you are when filling the tank. Plate, saucer, plastic wrap....etc over the substrate to fill. For me I just place the substrate in an appropriate container an just turn the hose loose. Once it runs clear, I turn it off. Some have argued that by rinsing flourite, it stripes the substrate of goodies. On Seachem's website it does list everything that is in the substrate but outside of iron and a few others, there really isn't much benefit to the plants so I see not issue with rinsing.


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## mach_six (Sep 12, 2005)

Flourite isn't dirty, a couple of rinses and the water is clear enough to see the substrate. I rinsed 2 of their large bags just pouring enough to cover the entire bottom of the bucket then repeated the rinsing and swirling it until the water was clear enough then on to the next batch.

If you think Flourite is dirty then I'd strongly suggest you don't pick up Saf-T-Sorb. I rinsed it over 10 times and it never really became clear enough for my liking.


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