# Flourite problem!!!



## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

hi to every1 i just joined this sight yesterday.... and have been learning alot so far...

im a newb to planted tanks and have had fish tanks on and off here and there...

now im setting up a 10g planted tank for shrimp. so i go and get a 15lb bag of dark brown flourite for $22 at my local pet shop that has a really good fish department... i take the flourite home and put it in the tank then add water... then the problem happens... the water goes dark brown i can barly see inside... now when i say dark brown i mean DARK BROWN even darker than this color... well anyways the dust settled after a while then that night i moved the flourite around and it came up again... so i moved all the flourite around to get all the dust up so hopefully my filter can get it out... well when i awoke it was less but i moved the flourite to get an even bed and again it got all murkey... i did a 100% waterchange and washed it out as much as i could and refilled the tank... there is still some dust... the water is more grayish white and cloudy not the dark brown.. so what i did with the water changed i hope helped.... but im afreaid if i start moving it again to put plants in it will get disturbed....

the tank info....

its an old 10g 
i have a 15watt bulb in it so its 1.5 wpg... it will be a low light tank
im probably going to put some java moss and maybe java fern... i have an oldish hang on filter nothing special... but im going to get some freshwater clams to help filter the tank... hopefully... all the tank is going to house is shrimp some snails and some clams... maybe some guppies... nothing much tho... im going to go back to the pet shop and get some small plants today hopefully the dust will settle.... the pet store near me has a special buy 3 plants get 1 free... and they have a good variety... im still gonna see if i can find shrimp locall... becuase im afraid of having them shipped and loosing some...

well thats it for now... 
fish newb...


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## Bert H (Dec 15, 2003)

Flourite is incrdibly dirty! You need to rinse it multiple times prior to putting it in the tank. I take several scoops full and put it on a window screen (mesh), then run a hose through it. Look at the water coming out, it will be brown, when it clears up, put it in the tank. Do this until it is all done, then fill the tank with it. Your tank will still be very cloudy. Run your filter overnight, it should be much improved by the next morning. Oh, yeah, don't forget to clean your filter the next AM. 

Since you've already put it in tank, just be patient, and keep cleaning filter and do water changes. It will eventually clear. HTH.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

thats what ive been doing waterchanges and filter cleaning.... im going to get some plants tommarrow..... since i cant make it to the lfs today....


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## gnome (Mar 9, 2004)

There's really nothing you can do about it now (unless you decide you can take it out and start over again). But next time, dry out the Flourite in the sun *completely* (and I mean *bone* dry), lay it down in the tank, then carefully add water. You'll still get a mild haze, but you really don't have to rinse the stuff at all. Here's photographic proof when I started my 4-gallon 'long':
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mizmo.../pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mizmo_naomi/my_photos

And just recently, I did the same for a 20-gallon tank I set up with Flourite. Same result - slight haze which cleared up quickly, and didn't rinse it at all.

If you do it correctly, you'll hear "sizzling" when you begin adding water. 

Make sure you wear some sort of mask over your nose/mouth when you pour the dry Flourite into your tank. The fine dust particles are not good to breathe. 

-Naomi


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

well since i had nothing in the tank but the water and flourite... no animals... i took it all out.. then put it into a smaller 5g (maybe) plastic terrarium... then got a stocking from my mom and put it over the top of the tank...then ran the hose trough it for a half hour rinsing all the gravel myself.... it got most of the dust out... then i cleaned out the 10gal and brought it back into my room and then brought the flourite back put the flourite in and added water... then turned the filter on... hopefully the tiny bit of white hazy that happened when i put the water in has gone away im going to check now.... :icon_bigg


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

it is clearing up by tommarrow it should be fine.. 

since it will be cleared im going to get some plants for the tank i need low light plants ne suggestions.?


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

it has completely gone and is a great substraight for my tank! im glad i bought it! the plants love it you should see ALL the roots coming off my cabomba!


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## dissident (Oct 15, 2003)

Good to hear its all cleared up. Live and learn I guess, at least it was only 15lbs, I took 5hrs rinsing 135lbs of Flourite... Now thats fun!
You have any pics of your new tank yet?


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## eds (Feb 12, 2003)

Just washed 4 bags of it yesterday.
Sat in my backyard with a hose, dumped a pile of flourite into a strainer that I held over a 5 gallon bucket, swished it around until the bucket filled, dumped the flourite into another bucket, dumped the brown water (without losing the gold nuggets at the bottom) and repeating for about an hour. 
Glad I have a backyard and was doing it over the summer. Would stink in an apartment, or during winter.
Its times like that that I regret giving up drinking!


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

I feel your pain. Contrary to what other people do (wash it once and let it dry completely...or just dump it in and let the dust settle) I actually washed and washed and washed mine and it still was a $hitty mess. I did actually try to just "dump and wait till the dust settles" but it literally was a layer of "dust" all over my plants, etc. When it came time to pruning, uprooting, etc the dust created another storm which I had to python back out. 

Good thing I have a diatom filter...it took about 3 recharges, but clears up fluorite crap pretty easily.


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## Momotaro (Feb 21, 2003)

eds said:


> Would stink in an apartment, or during winter.


I washed eight bags in my sink during a very cold, rainy April! I had to do it one small plastic shoebox at a time. That was all that could fit in the sink, and I wasn't going to do it in the bathtub. It took a full day and a half, but I did it! :hihi: 

Mike


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I will try Gnome's suggestion next time... next tank. Although I doubt it makes a difference whether it is dry or moist to start with. 

I wonder if all the washing removes actually some good stuff, fine particles that roots want to cling onto, suck little iron molecules out of them... maybe not


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## BlueRam (Sep 21, 2004)

I like Gnome's method (dump in dry) or a hybrid where dry flourite is "capped" with well washed/old material. I like to think some of the dust/dirt is important so I don't want to dump it down the drain. I don't want to wash it out of the filter either...



gnome said:


> You'll still get a mild haze, but you really don't have to rinse the stuff at all.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

In talking to a dematologist who kept plants, I suggested: "Flourite makes an excellent exfoliator".

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## gnome (Mar 9, 2004)

Wasserpest said:


> I will try Gnome's suggestion next time... next tank. Although I doubt it makes a difference whether it is dry or moist to start with.


It does. The first bag of Flourite I ever bought, I used like only half of the bag for a 5.5-gallon tank. Indeed it was moist (as typically packaged) and I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed - gawdawful mess! I thought, "I paid MORE to get such a dirty product???!!!" I later used more of it to fill a 2.5-gallon tank, and then a few years later, I decided to use the last 2 or so lbs for a bowl. This last bit was completely dry. I went to rinse the hell out of it, but when I began to run the water over it, it was filling up clear. I stopped to think, "What the...? Did I already rinse this stuff?" and I could have sworn that I never did. That's how I initially discovered this "trick." A few months later, I think somebody posted on the APD this same trick. 



> I wonder if all the washing removes actually some good stuff, fine particles that roots want to cling onto, suck little iron molecules out of them... maybe not


Some say yes. I tend to think so. But more to the point, I think rinsing is a waste of water. 

-Naomi


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## mshaeffer (Nov 29, 2002)

all I do is dump one bag into an old pillow case, tie off the top and start the hose.........works like a charm


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## aquabillpers (Nov 28, 2003)

I've been told that the main advantage of Flourite is that is is porous, which enables it to trap water column nutrients and slowly release them to the plants. It has few if any nutrients itself.

If that is true, is it possible that if it is not rinsed vigorously, that the fines will clog up the pores in the larger Flourite particles?

Bill


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## aanderson09 (Aug 7, 2005)

that's a good point aquabills, I was about to try the dry technique, but if that's true... then I'm thinking I should do rinsing, someone comment please


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

I have used it for the past 4 years. Usually it comes wet in the bag and in the beginning I used to rinse and rinse and rinse...until I realized what others have - letting it dry is the absolute BEST method of preparation. Now i typically use the pillowcase and rinse method just until it is relatively clear...then I let it get completely DRY. I fill up the tank (without even a bowl albeit slowly) and then it fills almost comletely clear!! I didn't even let it sit out in the sun. I simply let it sit in the tank for about two weeks and then...BAM! It worked like a charm, it was VERY dry and I guess that is the key.


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## aanderson09 (Aug 7, 2005)

styx, I think I'll try that method, and when you say that you let it sit in the tank for 2 weeks, is that with or without the filter?


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## Carpet-Pond (Aug 9, 2003)

Wow... I wish I had known about the drying method. I spent the better part of yesterday rinsing and dirtying my tub in the process. Next time I use flourite I am just drying and letting the filter do the rest of the work!


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

aanderson09, 
neither. I let it sit in the tank w/o any water in the tank for two weeks @ room temperature and it just dryed out completely...so that when I finally did add some water slowly, there wasn't any cloudiness at all...sorry for the lateness of this post, Louisiana is crazy right now...


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## istellas (Aug 25, 2005)

Gnome, 
I tried your way of adding flourite and it was far better than the first time I had added it without drying or washing it. It was a bit moody, but after 2 days of filtration and daily cleaning of the filter it was 90% acceptable.
Thanks for the advice :icon_wink


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## JCSharp (Sep 29, 2004)

Wasserpest said:


> I will try Gnome's suggestion next time... next tank. Although I doubt it makes a difference whether it is dry or moist to start with.



Here is a theory I came up with after you got me thinking. Perhaps during the processing / packaging / shipping the flourite creates the dust particles as it's rubbed together in the bag. So when you first open the bag you have a ton of loose particles which you can either put in your tank or rinse. Now if you decide to just wet it and let it dry, yeah, a majority of it will dry to the rock kinda like road grime will stick to your car once you let it bake in the hot sun. Now getting it wet again won't necessarily make it come off unless you scrub it. So I can see how letting the dust particles reattach themselves might help limit the cloudiness of the water from the get go, but just because you don't see it doesn't mean you still don't have a mess in your tank.  I prefer to wash as much of it out as possible before I introduce it into my tank... But that is just me.


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

JCSharp said:


> Here is a theory I came up with after you got me thinking. Perhaps during the processing / packaging / shipping the flourite creates the dust particles as it's rubbed together in the bag. So when you first open the bag you have a ton of loose particles which you can either put in your tank or rinse. Now if you decide to just wet it and let it dry, yeah, a majority of it will dry to the rock kinda like road grime will stick to your car once you let it bake in the hot sun. Now getting it wet again won't necessarily make it come off unless you scrub it. So I can see how letting the dust particles reattach themselves might help limit the cloudiness of the water from the get go, but just because you don't see it doesn't mean you still don't have a mess in your tank.  I prefer to wash as much of it out as possible before I introduce it into my tank... But that is just me.


That's what I was thinking...not to mention I don't think I would have the patience to wait a week or two for 4-6 bags of fluorite to dry out before getting the tank planted!!


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## JCSharp (Sep 29, 2004)

Georgiadawgger said:


> That's what I was thinking...not to mention I don't think I would have the patience to wait a week or two for 4-6 bags of fluorite to dry out before getting the tank planted!!


Exactly... Right on bro! roud:


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## julesann (Sep 28, 2005)

So, I have added this awful stuff to my first planted tank (10 gal). I put it in, added water, and presto, had bright orange sludge that hid all the plants! 

So I removed it all, washed it better, albeit, 15 minutes max, and put it back in the tank. That resulted in a lighter form of sledge where you could almost see the plants.

This is day 2. It now has a white milky look but has cleared substantially. If I wait a few more days will it die down? 

More importantly, if I don't tear the stinking thing apart and re-rinse again, will I forever have these clouds when I vacuum gravel and do water changes?

Your advice please.


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## Carpet-Pond (Aug 9, 2003)

julesann said:


> More importantly, if I don't tear the stinking thing apart and re-rinse again, will I forever have these clouds when I vacuum gravel and do water changes?


It'll disappear with time/water changes. What I did when I started was to purposely mix it up with siphon to get as much of the fine particles as possible into the water column and then empty and refill the tank until it's gone. I won't go through that again but it'll all go away eventually if you continue to siphon it out. If you do this you should take everything out of the tank that you don't want to have to clean off.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

No two bags of Flourite are the same... I have had bags with virtually no dust and I have had bags that were terrible ! 

Its not hard to rinse... use a garden hose and a bucket. Put the nozzle on jet, tip the bucket halfway over and pound it with the garden hose till the water runs clear and dump it in the tank... repeat :wink:


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