phin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
So I'm switching out my substrate in my 20g extra high from gravel to flourite. I put a 15.4 lb bag of flourite in a 5 gallon bucket and rinsed. Man! that is some dirty, dusty stuff. 
After 5 or so rinses I could almost get an inch of clairty in the water. After 20 minuites of rinsing I decided to go ahead and fill the bucket up a couple inches over the top of the flourite and put a lid on it. Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to work on the tank. I think the more I rinse the stuff the more dust is released since it is basically clay. If I keep it submerged and not dry it out I'm hoping to keep the dust and cloudiness to a minimum.
I have a bale of organic sphagum peat that I'm going to take a few handfulls of and dirty the bottom of the tank with <1" of it, then lay the flourite over it.
I filled a tray in my canister up with peat packed into a stocking and it dropped the pH of my tank from 7.6 to 7.2. Thats with a Kh of 10, which is my tap water. I'm going to try a phosphate free acid buffer, which should parcipitate some of the calcium into CO2, and aim for a Kh of 1-3. Together with the Peat, I'm aiming for a pH of 6.2-6.6 and softer water. I'd like to see if I can get my plants to really take off with the new substrate and some ideal water parameters for them. Since its only a 20g, I dose with Excel instead of setting up CO2 injection.
Incedentally my 15.4 lbs of flourite weighed in at 17lbs! - it was cut open and resealed in the store, so they must have combined two bags that had been accidentally opened and added an extra pound and a half to my bag!
After 5 or so rinses I could almost get an inch of clairty in the water. After 20 minuites of rinsing I decided to go ahead and fill the bucket up a couple inches over the top of the flourite and put a lid on it. Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to work on the tank. I think the more I rinse the stuff the more dust is released since it is basically clay. If I keep it submerged and not dry it out I'm hoping to keep the dust and cloudiness to a minimum.I have a bale of organic sphagum peat that I'm going to take a few handfulls of and dirty the bottom of the tank with <1" of it, then lay the flourite over it.
I filled a tray in my canister up with peat packed into a stocking and it dropped the pH of my tank from 7.6 to 7.2. Thats with a Kh of 10, which is my tap water. I'm going to try a phosphate free acid buffer, which should parcipitate some of the calcium into CO2, and aim for a Kh of 1-3. Together with the Peat, I'm aiming for a pH of 6.2-6.6 and softer water. I'd like to see if I can get my plants to really take off with the new substrate and some ideal water parameters for them. Since its only a 20g, I dose with Excel instead of setting up CO2 injection.
Incedentally my 15.4 lbs of flourite weighed in at 17lbs! - it was cut open and resealed in the store, so they must have combined two bags that had been accidentally opened and added an extra pound and a half to my bag!
