Can you over rinse your gravel?

[Chino1130]

I started my first live tank yesterday. The lady at the pet store recommended me a good substrate. I guess it had a bunch of stuff in it that promotes good plant growth, I think it was called Super Naturals Premium Substrate.

This was the stuff:

On my artificial tanks, I would take the gravel and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I'd run a cold hose to it and swirl it around. You could see all the crap come off as the water turned dirty. I'd let it over flow and occasionally dump it and refill it until the water was relatively clear. I did this process with this new substrate yesterday, and it was way dirtier, and took much longer to get clean than any of the other gravel I used in the past. It didn't occur to me until after I got the tank set up that I may have over done it. Was all that cloudy stuff the stuff that helps the plants grow? Did I clean it too much?

 

[Vircomore]

That is definitely a possibility. Doing a lot of rinsing is usually only important when you are using inert gravel, to get rid of the excess silicates. Substrates that are designed for plants really should not be rinsed thoroughly - you can fill the bucket and drain, but any stirring will lose you nutrients.

I did almost the same thing with my Fluval plant substrate in my Flora tank. I rinsed it once and realized that all the goodness was going down the drain and quickly stopped. The tank stays cloudier for longer, but once it settles it's just as clear as anything.

 

[o.jonathan.o]

That is definitely a possibility. Doing a lot of rinsing is usually only important when you are using inert gravel, to get rid of the excess silicates. Substrates that are designed for plants really should not be rinsed thoroughly - you can fill the bucket and drain, but any stirring will lose you nutrients.

I did almost the same thing with my Fluval plant substrate in my Flora tank. I rinsed it once and realized that all the goodness was going down the drain and quickly stopped. The tank stays cloudier for longer, but once it settles it's just as clear as anything.

Not necessarily. Those need to be rinsed also buy stirring doesn't affect it. The stuff that helps plants is in the.substrate and releases over time