Flourite and fish gills -Silly question(?)

[AquaJoe]

Hello all;

Long time no post I know

Just a quick question regarding flourite. I recently changed substrate in one of my 20 gallon tanks from your typical Wal-Mart rock stuff to flourite. Everything went well with the change out because I was able to house the fish in a different aquarium while it was done. Now that the fish are in the tank with the flourite I seem to have encountered a problem... Errrr, maybe not.. Hence the question. Anyway, I allowed all of the suspended solids to settle out in the aquarium prior to introducing filtration/fish. Now that the fish have been in there for a few hours the tank is very, very cloudy. It seems to be settling out slowly and I have an idea about what caused the disturbance but that is not exactly the problem. I am worried about the fish and their gills. I know it might sound stupid but I am worried about the particles clogging, or otherwise damaging, the fish gills. Currently there are only three Bala sharks in the tank with a pleco which will be added early next week. From what I understand Balas like murky water anyway so I am GUESSING that this is not going to be an issue but I am concerned none the less.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Joe

 

[odessadude]

Not to worry.

My Australians are 9 years old and when I do a water change I take a water hose and flush all of the rocks and plants. In the meantime I turn on my ikawa 960 gallon per hour pump and things get really messy looking. All the while my magnum 350 is running and my overflow filters are collecting all of the particles, food and other stuff. It takes about 6 hours, but when it's through the cycle it is crystal clear. The fish seem to like the circulation.


I don't use and don't believe in under gravel filters so that's why I do it.