# New Flourite Black Sand Substrate review



## msawdey

First off, I want to say that I LOVE the sand in my tank... My blue angels and Bolivian Rams pop like no other.. And the new plants love the sand with root tabs


That little caveat being said.... This is a review for those who want to purchase in the future.

I came from having eco complete mixed with pea gravel in my 50 tank. 
That also being said.....

Be prepared when ordering the sand that it may take dayssssss to prepare for tank use. For my 50 i used 6 bags of flourite black sand. I FIRST used a pillow case and loaded 1 bag of the sand at a time into the case. In the bathtub (i have an apt with no outside water source, if you have a hose, definitely use it and dont do this inside), I ran water into the pillow case to flush out the "dust". This was done to each pillow case for more than 10 minutes. I finished and put it into the tank. Partly filled, and turned on my 2 canister filters....

HOLY DUSTY WATER!!!!!!!!!!.. so after 60 mins of rinsing each individual bag... it was clearly not enough...

I RECOMMEND THIS WAY FROM THE BEGINNING:
So after the trial and error. I got a big Tupperware container and put 3 bags into it. I then placed it into the bath tub (again if you can do this outside... doooo it) and lifted the end with the faucet at an angle.. For the next 2 hours, i ran water over, through, around, and stir it with my hands. In the end, there was about 1/4 of an inch of black soot in the bottom of my tub (gf was not too happy about this)(the reason why you should do this outside). I was able to clean it all up. But the process took me 3 days of trial and error to get it going again.


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## tbarabash

Oh man I can imagine, my wife shat bricks when she saw me making a mess in the tub cleaning regular flourite I can't even think of how gross the sand must be haha


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## Bandit1200

Here's my secret for doing this...

Open the bag, pour it in your tank, 'scape how you want.
The next thing you do is get yourself some airline tubing and a bucket of water that will sit on top of your tank. Fill the bucket, start the siphon into the tank and then continue to fill the upper bucket as it siphons out until the tank is full. You may still have some slight clouding, but it will settle out fairly quickly. In between filling the bucket you're still free to do whatever. It will still take a while to fill the whole thing up this way, but it beats the hell out of breaking your back and losing your mind trying to rinse it all out. This is how I do all mine now.


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## Bree

I agree with the rinsing, i bought 4 bags of this for my new 45 gallon and started rinsing 1/2 bag at a time in a 5 gallon bucket in my tub....After at least 1 hour at each bag the water was still clouded in the bucket but i put it in my tank anyways as i had enough of cleaning it. Well the water was insanely cloudy for the first 24 hours and so i unfilled the tank took all the sand out again and re rinsed like before! Again still cloudy! So i added a few extra filters packed with polywool. This time the water was clearing up much better. So i planted the tank and put my fancy goldfish in there. In a matter of hours the plants were covered in black dust....Ugh.

Long story short (er) its been a month or more and the tank is cycled with some more fish in there and the water is still not totally cleared up, but its only me who can tell as i am a bit of a perfectest.

The upside is this sand looks amazing, perfect grain size, and super easy to plant in! Not to mention bottom eaters like corys and loaches love it as well as the plants, my vals are going crazy, where as before i was not able to grow them very well in my flourite dark.

I would recommend this substrate to anyone with patience...LOTS of patience and that doesn't mind getting there tub filled with a good inch of mud. haha


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## msawdey

problem and my point with the sand.. you HAVE TO RINSE in some manner... there is just tooooooo much dust


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## DaTrueDave

Bandit1200 said:


> Here's my secret for doing this...
> 
> Open the bag, pour it in your tank, 'scape how you want.
> The next thing you do is get yourself some airline tubing and a bucket of water that will sit on top of your tank. Fill the bucket, start the siphon into the tank and then continue to fill the upper bucket as it siphons out until the tank is full. You may still have some slight clouding, but it will settle out fairly quickly. In between filling the bucket you're still free to do whatever. It will still take a while to fill the whole thing up this way, but it beats the hell out of breaking your back and losing your mind trying to rinse it all out. This is how I do all mine now.


This.

Rinsing any of the flavors of Flourite is just throwing money away by getting rid of the most valuable part of the substrate. Plant roots love those fine particles.

The "secret" is to add the Flourite to an empty tank and then to fill the tank without disturbing the substrate. I don't care how dusty your bag of Flourite is, you're not going to have cloudy water the next day after letting your filter run and letting things settle...


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## msawdey

DaTrueDave said:


> This.
> 
> Rinsing any of the flavors of Flourite is just throwing money away by getting rid of the most valuable part of the substrate. Plant roots love those fine particles.
> 
> The "secret" is to add the Flourite to an empty tank and then to fill the tank without disturbing the substrate. I don't care how dusty your bag of Flourite is, you're not going to have cloudy water the next day after letting your filter run and letting things settle...


I fully disagree you with you Dave,

After the first round of rinsing and putting the sand into the tank, filling it halfway up and running TWO eheims with extra floss for 2 days... it wasnt clearing up. My tank looked like Abu Dahbi in a sandstorm. I dont know if your referring to regular flourite, but my post is only about the sand. "Fine particles" as you call them are kind of pointless when your talking about sand being that all the particles are fine. The layer of dust, which is almost like soot, that was in my tank was grey and about 1/2 inch thick. With flourite sand, that is the stuff that most people dont want


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## DaTrueDave

I'm talking about Flourite black sand and their other flavors. I've simply never had any cloudiness that wasn't gone the next morning. 

And everyone that I've seen demonstrate Flourite's supposed "horrible dust problem" has dumped the substrate into water, or dumped/sprayed water onto the dry Flourite, which is obviously going to result in suspended dust. 

But maybe there is just a big difference in different bags of Flourite? I've never had a problem, and now that I've put a mixture of "red" and "dark" in my tank, I think I've used every type of Flourite out there. Maybe I'm just lucky?


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## diwu13

msawdey, how did you fill your tank up after you put the flourite sand on the bottom?


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## Monster Fish

For those dealing with the initial cloudiness, what I did was rinse the sand thoroughly in small batches until it rinsed clear. It takes a bit more work but it's a lot more manageable than rinsing a whole bag or two at once. Also when I filled the tank, I dispersed the flow over a piece of wood or hardscape and with a watering can. Of course this is not realistic in a larger tank so diffusing the flow with a plastic bag or saucer helps. Be sure to fill it up slowly. Any remaining soot should be gone after a few hours with either a polishing pad or some filter floss. Hopefully that helps.


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## Silock

DaTrueDave said:


> This.
> 
> Rinsing any of the flavors of Flourite is just throwing money away by getting rid of the most valuable part of the substrate. Plant roots love those fine particles.
> 
> The "secret" is to add the Flourite to an empty tank and then to fill the tank without disturbing the substrate. I don't care how dusty your bag of Flourite is, you're not going to have cloudy water the next day after letting your filter run and letting things settle...


What happens when you vacuum the substrate? Do you get a lot of those particles kicking up?


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## DaTrueDave

I never vacuum my tanks.


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## Silock

So what do you do to keep them clean?


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## DaTrueDave

Silock said:


> So what do you do to keep them clean?


 Nothing. I let the debris break down on its own to enrich my substrate!


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## msawdey

diwu13 said:


> msawdey, how did you fill your tank up after you put the flourite sand on the bottom?


The sand was put into the tank with the tank empty, water was then put in using a gravel vac and hose on top of a bucket cover....

Basically, I used all precautions when putting the water in. I was extremely patient with letting the filters do their work, but after 3 days and seeing almost 1/2 inch of "dust" on top of the sand. Letting it "settle" back in definitely would not have not happened


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## msawdey

Monster Fish said:


> For those dealing with the initial cloudiness, what I did was rinse the sand thoroughly in small batches until it rinsed clear. It takes a bit more work but it's a lot more manageable than rinsing a whole bag or two at once. Also when I filled the tank, I dispersed the flow over a piece of wood or hardscape and with a watering can. Of course this is not realistic in a larger tank so diffusing the flow with a plastic bag or saucer helps. Be sure to fill it up slowly. Any remaining soot should be gone after a few hours with either a polishing pad or some filter floss. Hopefully that helps.


exactly what i did


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## kevmo911

DaTrueDave said:


> This.
> 
> Rinsing any of the flavors of Flourite is just throwing money away by getting rid of the most valuable part of the substrate. Plant roots love those fine particles.
> 
> The "secret" is to add the Flourite to an empty tank and then to fill the tank without disturbing the substrate. I don't care how dusty your bag of Flourite is, you're not going to have cloudy water the next day after letting your filter run and letting things settle...


I have yet to read a review - previous to this one - that recommends anything other than a thorough rinse of Flourite substrate before using it in a tank, including recommendations from those who did not do so.

I'm not sure how the fine particles of Flourite are any more functional than the larger ones (the CEC rating applies to any sized particles) when it comes to utilization by plant roots.

While Dave's experience is certainly respectable, I suggest you do some searches on others' experiences with Flourite as well.

As for me, I've used original Flourite in one tank, which I didn't rinse, and had to clean my filter daily for two weeks to clear, to another tank with original Flourite, which i did rinse, and had a clear tank in 3 days without cleaning media, to two tanks with Black Sand Flourite, both of which I rinsed thoroughly, and had clear tanks within days without cleaning media. In any case, good luck!


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## DaTrueDave

kevmo911 said:


> As for me, I've used original Flourite in one tank, which I didn't rinse, and had to clean my filter daily for two weeks to clear, to another tank with original Flourite, which i did rinse, and had a clear tank in 3 days without cleaning media, to two tanks with Black Sand Flourite, both of which I rinsed thoroughly, and had clear tanks within days without cleaning media. In any case, good luck!


This makes me think that Flourite is less consistent than we might hope...


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## Schneeball

Kind of strange, I mixed black sand and regular black rinsing one bag at a time in a five gallon bucket outside with a hose. Three rinses and there was not too much dust left but I poured out the bucket each rinse while the particles were still suspended. The black seemed to me to be the easiest to rinse. I've used two other colors, the regular and one other. I would never subject my drains to that dust though! All of my tanks cleared to near perfect within about 12 hours running canister filters and sponges.


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## DrakenZ

datruedave, i stumbled upon this forum thread looking for reviews on the fluorite sand, i had to register just so i could reply to you. You're a smart guy and you know exactly whats good. the "dust" as you all like to call it, is extremely fine sand particles, which the natural seperation of large and small particles would result in the extremely fine "dust" at the bottom of the tank, the medium particles in the middle and largest at the top (takes a while to settle of course). this natural seperation is beneficial to the break down of food and waste from ammonia > nitrites > nitrates. combined with a heating cable in the sand, the constant cycling of water around the breaking down waste and nutrients would result in amazing fertilizer and potential frequent water changes. i can't wait to get this sand set up with the heating cable in my 90 gallon.


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## gene4christ

OK let me say that I have not used this yet. Now that being said it is my understanding that what we are looking for is the stuff that will be best for the plants and still look good . With that is mind it seems to me that washing it down the drain defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place . So my thoughts is get it as wet as you can, put it in the tank, cover it with something to keep it from getting stirred up and fill slow! Remember why you bought your substrate and try to keep it as beneficial as you can . >Disclaimer just my thoughts < :biggrin:


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## Edub

I mixed a bag of the black sand with Eco complete and did not rinse. It made a HUGE mess, but eventually settled out. I still hate messing with the gravel because every time I do it stirs up the cloudy crap. If I ever buy the sand again, I will definitely rinse it first.


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## jonathan

I've done it both ways. Rinse and no rinse. Both settled without any problems, but I still prefer to rinse because the cloud you can kick up without rinse is notable. Everything settles faster with a rinse. 

I was more perplexed by strathums directions to rinse. I'll NEVER do that again.


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## dana

looked up this oldie because I'm going crazy waiting for my sand to settle. I did a rinse, but not as much as some of you have, and desert storm hit my tank after a careful slow fill. I can't even plant, I can't see enough to plant. Way harder to deal with the the regular black. :eek5:


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## roadmaster

DaTrueDave said:


> This.
> 
> Rinsing any of the flavors of Flourite is just throwing money away by getting rid of the most valuable part of the substrate. Plant roots love those fine particles.
> 
> The "secret" is to add the Flourite to an empty tank and then to fill the tank without disturbing the substrate. I don't care how dusty your bag of Flourite is, you're not going to have cloudy water the next day after letting your filter run and letting things settle...


+one.
Fill the tank slowly, and place shallow dish or bowl for the water to run into = way less clouding.
Wait one hour after filling ,and then turn on filtration.= no clouding.


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## lochaber

+2

I'm usually too lazy to bother with repeatedly washing substrate.

I've used this method a few times, and it's always resulted in crystal clear water within a couple hours, if not right away.

I build my substrate with whatever hardscape, terraces, slopes, dirt, etc.

Then I get a spray bottle, and mist/spray the entire substrate for a bit, but not so much that the water level rises above the substrate.

Do my planting, repeatedly misting in between to keep plants moist.

then I'll put down a large filter sponge, and fill the tank (this last time around, I just added water behind a mattenfilter). 

I believe the misting/spraying carries the fines down into the lower parts of the substrate, and the sponge breaks up the flow enough that they don't end up suspended in the water column.


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## Option

Flourite black is the best. I don't care what anyone says! After that dust settles (and it might take awhile in a new tank) it's the most beautiful substrate ever. 

The only one drawback of it (with any flourite) is that it's so fine that it's difficult to keep new plants anchored.


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## kevreh

Pics! :icon_conf


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